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Artículo

2 Jul 2020

Autor:
Joe Buckley, EqualTimes

Vietnam: Garment workers protest over unpaid wages & safety protections during COVID-19

"The role of labour activism in Vietnam's coronavirus success", 2 July 2020

In February, garment workers at Praegear Vietnam launched a strike to demand the factory implement measures to protect workers against the coronavirus. In response, local union officials organised training and talks by medical experts, and the company introduced such things as free masks, temperature checks, and spraying disinfectant. Other factories in the same region followed suit... 

In February, strikes were demanding such things as personal protective equipment (PPE) and other measures to prevent the virus in factories... Workers at the Domex garment factory... went on strike suspecting that a recently returned Chinese employee had coronavirus. In response, health authorities tested the Chinese national and put them in quarantine for 14 days.

At the end of March, two workers at Pinetree garment factory fainted due to lack of oxygen, triggering a strike in which workers demanded to be allowed to stay at home as a precaution against COVID-19. The factory owner refused, but many workers left anyway. In the end, management agreed to implement preventative measures, such as providing masks and hand wash, to create an airy environment, and to pay salaries for any worker who needed to be quarantined.

One of the biggest disputes has been at the Seethings shoe factory... On 22 and 23 May, around 1,000 workers went on strike to demand unpaid bonuses, overtime payments, and social insurance contributions (which give workers access to healthcare, unemployment benefits, and pensions), owed from before the COVID-19 outbreak... Seethings then released a statement saying that, because they were experiencing difficulties, they would pay overtime payments by the end of May, some bonuses by the end of June, and the rest in July... [and] because of coronavirus difficulties, they would arrange for a number of workers to come to work as normal, but the rest would have to take leave without pay. Workers protested this announcement, gathering outside the factory on 25 May...