THAI TOY FIRE DEATH TOLL RISES AS CLAMOUR GROWS AGAINST 'FACTORY FODDER'

Eric Ellis

06/03/1993

IT'S easier to understand popular workers' revolutions when confronted by people like Julin Unaphum, executive vice-president in charge of the deadliest factory fire in history. Inside the air-conditioned offices of Kader Industrial Thailand, Gucci-clad Mr Unaphum is fielding calls on his mobile phone and complaining it's unlikely he'll ever invest in Thailand again.

"This is a crazy f...ing country, crazy. I don't know why we decided to come here in the first place," he says, adding that he is "an American". Outside, in the 45-degree heat of the industrial plains surrounding Bangkok, Thai rescue workers have dug another body, burnt beyond recognition, from the ruins of the Kader factory, which three weeks ago was making stuffed Muppet dolls.

That discovery brought to 189 the confirmed number who died in the May 10 inferno that engulfed a sweatshop where 4,000 Thais, most of them women, laboured for $US30 a week.

It took just 15 minutes for the intense heat to collapse the four buildings, each of four storeys. There were no fire escapes or alarms.

It is in factories like this across the region where the "Asian economic miracle" has been made. Contracting for Western customers and markets, factory floor safety is often the least of a manager's concerns. An oft-voiced refrain is that "rising costs (meaning salaries) are killing us". Kader's experience gives it a chilling actuality.

Of the major exporting and manufacturing Asian nations, experts say Thailand, China and the Philippines are the greatest offenders when it comes to flouting satisfactory labour and factory standards.

But such problems are exacerbated in Thailand because of the corruption many Thais say is endemic in industry, leading to calls for an Italian-style anti-corruption revolution here.

In an editorial this week, The Nation newspaper called for the Kader workers and families to be fully compensated and for the Thai Government to make public the findings of an inquiry into the blaze "even if influential people are involved".

"Too often the lives of Thai workers have been taken for granted ... they are not treated as human beings but as factory fodder to make the largest amount of profit possible," it said.

The fire is a sensitive subject in Thailand. Indeed, the sensitivity seems to have affected the Austrade office at the Australian Embassy, where the senior trade representative, Mr Greg Carmody, advised the AFR against writing about factory safety standards in Thailand.

"I don't think the Thais would like a leading Australian newspaper to write about it. It might affect our relationships here," he said.

Mr Carmody added he didn't think any Australian company with operations in Thailand had safety problems. He said he'd been in Bangkok for 10 weeks.

Slack standards all round give men like Julin Unaphum an easy out.

"I am not an architect, an engineer, a construction guy. When the government official comes around here, signs the documents, approves the plant, that's all I'm happy with," he says.

"We have the official papers. Now they (the Thai authorities) are accusing us of bad safety standards. It was started by a worker smoking a cigarette."

Such were the standards at the Kader plant that the company cannot conclusively say just how many workers perished in the blaze.

Up to 30 people whose families say they worked at the plant have yet to come home. Charity groups believe they are still buried under the tonnes of rubble.

Mr Unaphum says Kader "has done all we can to help".

"We are prepared to go to the extent to pay for the education of some of the kids (of the victims). A lot of their fathers are drunks and they need help. While the injured are in hospital, we will still pay their wages."

Mr Unaphum told the AFR the company is "prepared to pay 27,500 baht($A1,600) to families of the deceased," over six months.

"We have also paid the full month salary for May even through the fire was on May 10. Already we have paid out about 12 million baht (about $A700,000)and we reckon it will cost probably about 30 million to wrap it up," Mr Unaphum says.

Such generosity compares starkly with the most recent financial details from Kader and Charoen Pokphand, the two companies associated with the factory's backers.

Charoen Pokphand is controlled by the Thai-Chinese businessman Dhanin Chearavanont, one of Asia's richest and most influential businessmen.

In a country where big business clout also means big political muscle, Charoen Pokphand has denied direct involvement in the toy plant.

But its imprint, or those of its connections, are everywhere. Kader Industrial (Thailand) is 40 per cent owned by Kader Holdings of Hong Kong, controlled by the Ting family, one of the colony's richest. Kader is the company which gave the world the Cabbage Patch Kid stuffed doll.

The toy group (the Tings also have property) posted sales of $HK527 million($A101 million) in calendar 1991, the most recent figures available. The HK arm of Charoen Pokphand, posted pre-tax profits of $US52.6 million ($A77 million) in calendar 1992.

Twenty per cent is owned by three Taiwanese, all believed to have close links with Taipei's ruling Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party.

The remaining 40 per cent is controlled by a Hong Kong company called KCP Toys. Curiously, no-one at Kader Thailand can shed light on the background of this company, but it is believed the K stands for Kader and the CP for Charoen Pokphand, suggesting a closer involvement for both groups that neither would care to admit.

At the moment, it seems all parties are keeping their hands in their pockets, despite the phenomenal private wealth, running into the billions, of Kader's backers.

The shares of Kader rose on the day after the Bangkok blaze, after press advertisements from the company assured investors the disaster would not harm its finances "because the contribution of the associated Thai company has been insignificant in the past few years".

The announcement failed to mention compensation.

Mr Unaphum says: "We have a clear conscience."

But the last word may be with Thai authorities. Mr Unaphum has been placed under arrest, along with four of his colleagues. He called the charges"stupid".