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.