I got the call at around 1.20pm. My contact informed me a mob was gathering at the Victory Monument intersection, just a 5-minute walk from my apartment. Assuming the Pro Thaksin/ anti-government ‘Red Shirts’ were back out in force, I scurried down to get among the crowd. I climbed the steps to the Skytrain footbridge and bustled my way through hoards of intrigued people to get the best view, but, to my surprise, there was not a Red Shirt in sight. In fact, the anti-government protesters were two hours away in Pattaya attacking the Prime Minister’s car convoy as he left a conference.

Approximately 500 workers from three companies; Michelin (Tyres), Goodyear (Tyres) and Canadoil (Piping Solutions) had rallied together for a protest that would conclude outside the Labour Ministry. The workers had vowed to remain there until National Labour Day on 1 May, unless they were happy with the outcome of talks with Labour Minister Paitoon Kaewthong.

I immediately knew this was a protest aimed at foreign corporations because the placards read ‘Stop treat Thais like shit’ and ‘we love Michelin but don’t Love us’.  With a few uncomfortable stares from Thai onlookers, I continued to photograph the action.

This was a very well organised demonstration. 4x4 trucks were strategically used to block off each lane of the round-about one by one until the traffic was restricted to taking the nearest left turning available. Peacefully, the protesters then rolled tyres into the road to symbolically represent their cause, they then gathered together vocalising their message via megaphones. To the credit of the police, they allowed the demonstrators their right to demonstrate and concentrated on traffic diversion and public safety.

The workers may have gathered from separate organisations but all shared very similar experiences. Michelin had announced that production staff would receive a pay cut of 13% and 5% for administrative workers. Goodyear workers were outraged at the sacking of 160 staff without any prior warning. Similarly, Canadoil Asia workers were requesting the reinstatement of 583 staff and the payment of wages outstanding since 16 March 2009.

It comes as no surprise that these two tyre giants are in financial difficulty, with news of hundreds of thousands of unsold motor vehicles sitting in forecourts across the world, the demand for tyres has shrunk considerably. The economic downturn is gathering a vicious pace in the West and the inevitable knock on effect is a decrease in Asia’s production output. There is no positive way to implement redundancies or pay cuts, there are perhaps gentler ways, but these two by-products of revenue loss are necessary for survival during financially challenging times. However, this is of no comfort to the Victory Monument demonstrators and I will happily leave this economic fact for Mr Kaewthong to explain.

In the midst of anger, disbelief and a feeling of sheer insecurity as to how they will feed their families in the coming year, I doubt the workers have stopped to analyse why these drastic measures have been taken so quickly. I doubt the majority of workers are aware of the global financial situation and probably see these company cut-backs as nothing more than greed. When such measures are taken so quickly, it is usually a sign that a company has held out on making cut-backs for as long as possible, hoping that business will turn around and workers will be none the wiser to the company’s vulnerability. Believe it or not, companies do try to protect their workforce from such happenings. A company will deliberately not give advanced warning of cut-backs to protect morale and productivity, this can be viewed as selfish or just plain good business sense. It is seldom considered that the ‘fat cats’ at the top give a hoot about those manning the deck of the ship, but I maintain belief that not all company directors are capitalist robots without emotion. No individual wants to try to sleep at night with the thought that 583 Thai families may be forced to go without food or shelter because of their decisions.

The simple fact of the matter is this. The three aforementioned companies do not have sufficient funds to support their workforce through this period of intense global economic downturn, and subsequently they have had to take drastic action. The same situation is currently occurring within many British based production firms. However, the big difference is that in Thailand, the majority of these workers will have no savings to rely on through a period of unemployment and no JobSeeker’s allowance to support them in their search for new work. Their education levels and skill sets are more than likely very limited, making the possibility of quick re-employment very low.

For me, the finger points towards the government and their short sighted, lacklustre approach to the global economic crisis. There has been no monetary protection plan put in place to pre-empt mass redundancy, only a recent one off payout of 2,000 Baht (£39) to low paid full time workers, which many have branded as tokenistic vote-buying and an attempt to restore confidence in the new administration.

It astonishes me that in a country where so many people live so very close to the poverty line that foreign companies can be allowed to operate such mass redundancy and pay cuts without legislation requiring them to give prior warning or provide support packages.

Thailand is notorious for its bureaucracy and red tape when it comes to law and legislation, ‘simple’, ‘quick’ and ‘efficient’ are way down the list of words one would use to describe the Civil Service. Just ask any expat who has tried to obtain a visa for his girlfriend to travel outside Asia or even simply transfer the ownership of a vehicle into a new name. Yet, for something so integral to the lives of so many Thai workers, it would appear there is no legislation in place to protect low paid workers from sudden job losses or large pay cuts by foreign multinationals.

The Labour Ministry needs to ensure foreign and Thai companies contribute to a support fund in prosperous times that will help soften the blow of redundancies and enable individuals to live adequately and seek new employment within a given time period. This kind of money would equate to an absolute pittance for the multinational companies that operate here. Equally, the government should do more to supplement pay cuts in times of recession for those already on a very low salary and do more to support any subsequent period of unemployment.

I am not going to radically suggest that we all boycott Michelin, Goodyear and Canadoil in light of their poor business ethics, for that will only make the situation worse and more workers would find themselves without a job. The issue here is not one of poor working conditions or illegal business practice. The issue is the lack of protection and concern for the interests of hard working people. These workers have been directly affected by the actions of poorly managed Western economies which created the current global crisis and ultimately this localised situation.

What I propose is that the Thai government stop wasting its time and money on implementing antiquated visa restrictions and other bureaucratic nonsense and start introducing legislation that requires companies to take better care of workers in times of economic downturn. However, I fear the horse has already bolted and in the coming months it is inevitable that more companies will be announcing similar negative news for their workers.