Escalating garment factory strikes in Rangoon needle nervous regime... "Mostly young women, they work long hours to produce luxury clothing for the world?s well-heeled. And they?re fed up. Burmese workers stitch sports clothing for a taiwanese company in a garment factory in Hlaing Tharyar Township in Rangoon in 2003. (Photo: AFP) Significantly, in this politically charged election year, Rangoon?s textile factory workers are resorting to industrial action to back their increasingly clamorous demands for better pay and conditions of employment. The majority of the striking workers are women. Although the regime usually assigns a Labor Ministry official to mediate, negotiations are held in an atmosphere of menace, with armed riot-control troops deployed at the scene of the strike. Soldiers in riot gear find themselves confronted by women whose most provocative action is to bang their lunch boxes with metal spoons to reinforce their demands. It?s clear that workers are being pushed into industrial action by rising living costs and declining labor conditions, yet the regime is evidently worried that the protests could turn political..."