MORNING MARKET
ANUCHA CHAROENPO
Hundreds of job seekers, mostly from the Northeast, gather on Surao Klong Nung road in Bangkok's Klong Sam Wa district each morning waiting for interested employers looking for casual workers. They include construction workers, baby-sitters and gardeners. |
Surao Klong Nung road in Bangkok's Klong Sam Wa district has become a haven for casual workers, mainly from the northeastern provinces.
The two-kilometre stretch of asphalt road, locally known as the ''Kib Moo'' community, linked to Rarm Intra road, is known among employers as a labour market where they can find and negotiate with job-seekers directly.
It has received a boost over the past two years because of the country's economic slump.
Unemployed workers from the provinces leave their children and parents at home and migrate here in search of work.
The market provides skilled and unskilled labourers ranging from maids, construction workers, baby-sitters, to gardeners.
Every morning at 6-9 am, thousands of job-seekers leave their rental rooms and houses to stand on both sides of the road, waiting for potential employers to pick them up for daily-wage work. They take any kind of job and get paid about 300-350 baht a day.
Thongsuk Namprasri, who travelled from Sega district of Nong Khai province two months ago, said the economic slowdown in the provinces had forced him to travel to Bangkok to look for work.
''I have nothing to do at home after the rice-growing season.
''Had I not come here, my two children would have starved to death,'' said Mr Thongsuk, who knows the place from friends, who had come here before.
The 33-year-old construction worker said he would work here for another three months, then go home to harvest rice.
Chart Matitopano, 29, a native of Na Chuak district in Maha Sarakham province, said this was his second visit, and he would stay as long as possible to save as much as he could.
Mr Chart said being a daily wage worker gave him freedom to choose jobs and employers.
''I have found work to do every day since I arrived,'' he said.
Rienthong Srimaya, 36, also from Na Chuak district, said: ''I have no income when I am at home. I just feed the cattle and work in the rice fields.''
Lower-paid foreign labourers from Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam were also flooding into Kib Moo, which made life harder for Thais.
Illegal immigrants get paid 200-250 baht a day.
Amid an influx of both legal and illegal labourers, residents have expressed concerns about their safety, and traffic snarl-ups.
Ekkapong Thavara, 32, an engineer at Suvarnabhumi Airport, who lives in a housing project in the area, said he and his neighbours had difficulty travelling to work in the mornings. Pick-up trucks parked in front of his village and along both sides of the road to pick up workers, which upset the flow of traffic.
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