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BANGKOK, THAILAND - THAI state utility workers could strike if the government uses force to break up a long-running street protest, a top union leader said on Tuesday, piling more pressure on the already weakened Bangkok administration.
Sawit Kaewvan, head of an umbrella group of unions at 43 state firms, said union leaders would meet on Tuesday to map out a formal response should the government break up the rally, which has been blocking Bangkok traffic for two weeks.
'If the government opts to use violence against the peaceful rally we will react by calling a strike,' Sawit, head of the State Enterprise Labour Relations Confederation, told Reuters. Unions under its banner command 200,000 members. He added that the level of retaliation would depend on the level of violence used against the protest, which is being led by the same group that targeted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005 and eventually triggered his removal in a 2006 coup.
Possible measures included cutting electricity and water supplies to Government House, the seat of administration, or a nationwide bus and train strike, Sawit said.
The confederation urged its members last week to join the People Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rally against the government, which won a December election on an avowedly pro-Thaksin ticket.
The PAD accuses the six-party coalition of failing to tackle corruption or fight inflation, and of trying to amend the army-designed constitution to benefit Thaksin and his allies.
The rally has blocked traffic near Government House for two weeks, and angered nearby residents by keeping them awake at night with the noise from its loud speakers and making it hard for hundreds of children to get to school.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej threatened 10 days ago to send in soldiers and police to smash the protest stage, but backed off when the size of the crowd swelled and the security forces made it clear they were not up for a fight. With Thailand still divided between pro- and anti-Thaksin camps, the tense stand-off between protesters and riot police rekindled fears of protracted political turmoil, or even another military coup.
Even if it does not trigger a military incursion into politics, investors fear the government will be distracted at a decidedly dicey time for the economy, with sputtering growth and inflation at a near-10-year high.
In the two weeks since the protest started the stock market has fallen nearly 10 percent, with foreign investors leading the rush for the exit. In the first five months of the year, foreigners dumped a net $425 million of Thai shares. -- REUTERS
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