Non-Governmental Organisations and the Labour Movement in Thailand

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the labor movement in Thailand between the 1980s and the present. This study is a qualitative research. The results of the study concluded that between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, labor-working NGOs played an important role in the Thai labor movement. They played a prominent role in making the labor movement with trade unions as leaders had a direction towards becoming a social movement, not just an interest group that moved for the immediate benefit of the workers. Nowadays, since the late 1990s, there have been some changes in the variety of employment styles, more complicated elements of labor in Thailand with a large proportion of migrant workers, political polarization under a political regime that is not yet fully democratic. Meanwhile, labor unions are still unable to represent the interests of all groups of workers. These problems are major obstacles for labor NGOs in supporting the labor movement in Thailand.