“200 Myanmar workers fired from garment jobs in China’s Yunnan province”

Some 200 Myanmar migrant workers were fired from their garment factory jobs in China’s Yunnan province and forced to leave the country after they protested for better pay and working conditions…

More than 1,000 workers from two garment factories in Yunnan’s Yingjiang city demonstrated on March 17…

“We were threatened through interpreters with police arrest if we didn’t stop the protest,” said a worker…

The next day, factory officials demanded that some of the protesters undergo a medical exam, Tin Tin Wai said. The 200 workers who were fired from the Shangcheng and Xinjiahao factories were told they had failed the exam, she said…

They were then immediately driven out of the factory gates to a police station, where they were told to sign a document that said they weren’t fired for protesting, according to one of the workers, Ma Jue…

Protesters had demanded that their usual 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. working schedule be scaled back, that they be paid extra for overtime and that they receive a monthly salary of 1,500 yuan (US$208) with an attendance bonus, she said.

They also asked for reasonable output goals and to have Sundays off, she said…