The Failure of the Labour Sector to Political Involvement in Thailand

Abstract

One from the ten principals of Democracy philosophy is the involvement of citizen. Labour in Thailand is one stakeholder that has minimal involvement in the political system compared with other developed countries such as the American Federation of Labour – Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO) which is a major influence on the Democrat party, Landsorganisationen i Sverige, literally "National Organisation in Sweden" (LO), The Labour Party in the U.K. etc. Research has shown there are benefits of the labour sector participating in politics such as (1) Protecting their own rights (2) Reducing poverty by improving income distribution (3) Peaceful reduction of conflict (4) Effectiveness, efficiency, and royalty (?) improvement. The major failings could be (1) Unity or conflict due to benefit of each group among labour is varying (?) (2) Laws (3) Knowledge or consciousness about political involvement by the labour force (4) Personal economic circumstances, and (5) Military coups. This research was conducted by gathering related secondary data, focusing on group interviews of experts such as government officials, NGO officials, leader of labour unions, employers, and politicians.   

Keywords: labour sector, labour union, labour leader, political involvement