Thai workers demand help

Thai workers demand help

BANGKOK (Reuter): About 2,000 workers rallied in Bangkok yesterday to demand government help, saying they have been hard hit by Thailand's economic woes.

The disgruntled workers, mostly from factories and state enterprises, threatened to bring "hundreds of thousands of laborers to the streets" if the government did not heed their demands.

They asked the government to consider cutting the value-added tax from 10 percent to 7 percent, delaying its privatization scheme for state enterprises, controlling the prices of goods, improving welfare for workers and scrapping its plan to float wages.

"This rally is a warning to the government that it has so far done nothing for the poor," Somsak Kosaisook, leader of the workers' movement committee told Reuters.