The Roles of Thai Labor Solidarity Committee and Alliances on the Movement for the Protection of Migrant Workers in Thailand

Abstract

This qualitative research was aimed to study the movement of Thai Labor Solidarity Committee (TLSC) and its alliances on the protection of migrant workers in Thailand. In this research, TLSC's structure was examined as well as its strategies on the protection of migrant workers. There was the evaluation of those strategies in order to understand the impacts in different level. Data was collected from the in-dept interviews with 21 key representatives from the leading actors of TLSC, Thai worker's union, labor related and migrant related NGOs, migrant workers and Thai workers during October 2008 – April 2009. The research found that TLSC had used "Human Rights" as the leading concept for their movement. TLSC had the clear structure in the administrative level. The main strategies of TLSC on labor movement in Thailand included petition, campaign and education, capacity building, information dissemination in national and local level and networking. All of these strategies had been used for the movement on the protection of migrant workers as well. The migrant related NGOs who were members of TLSC had played important roles and had influence towards TLSC's activities regarding the protection of migrant workers. The strong capacity of migrant related NGOs who participated in TLSC and the sufficient database about migrant workers situation provided to TLSC leaders and members by NGOs were the main factors motivating TLSC movement on the protection of migrant workers. The impacts of TLSC's strategies on the protection of migrant workers were in three different levels; policy level, local level, and organization level.