Weekly Eleven: Myanmar workers demand 8 working hours and $100 monthly salary

Weekly Eleven reports on a workers' strike:

Myanmar's local workers from a Chinese-named factory in Yangon Region staged a peaceful protest on May 11 against its owner demanding an increase of their salary to 85000 kyats (about $100) a month and 8 working hours a day.

They also demanded timely payment of overtime pay and no salary cut on working days except Sundays.

"We went to the township's negotiation office to ask for dealing with our demands. They told us they will not do it, and asked us to meet the factory owner to deal with. But when we went, the factory owner said "no salary increment". So we almost all workers went outside of the factory to make our demands," said Cho Thet Mon, a worker from the factory.

The factory was named "Hote Sein" in Chinese which is a laminated woven bag factory located in Hlaingtharyar Township, Yangon.

It employs about 110 local workers and 80 out of them had taken part in the protest.