43 state enterprise labour unions to stop work Wednesday

BANGKOK, Sept 1 (TNA) -- In an attempt to pressure Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet to quit their posts, employees of 43 state enterprise labour unions will stop work from early Wednesday, union leaders said Monday.

Sawit Kaewwan, secretary-general of the State Enterprise Labour Relations
Confederation, and Sirichai Mai-ngam, chief of the Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand (EGAT) labour union, jointly told a press conference
that more than 200,000 members of the 43 state enterprise labour unions
nationwide had jointly agreed to stop work which involves public utilities
such as tap water, electricity supplies and transportation systems
starting from 9 am Wednesday.

The joint agreement by the state enterprise workers was made with the
intention to "end the political problems" created by the government of Mr.
Samak, according to Mr. Sawit.

He said the more than 200,000 state enterprise workers would stay away
from their works and suspend utility supplies to government agencies which
had used force against protesters loyal to the anti-government People's
Alliance for Democracy (PAD) last Friday.

Police stations in Bangkok and the private residence of Mr. Samak are
expected to be hit by the work stoppage.

However, Mr. Sawit said the planned strike would not impact majority of
the people.

The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority may offer more free buses to commuters
in the capital while staff at the state-run Thai Airways International
(THAI) were discussing ways which would least affect to majority of the
passengers, said Mr. Sawit.

Mr. Sirichai said there was no alternative but to stop work in order to
maintain the ideology and preserve people's fundamental rights under the
democratic system.

If these principles were discarded, people, no matter the media or any
other groups, whose thinking is different from the government would be
harmed by the government, Mr. Sirichai added.