Traditional work - Loading bricks in Centeral Thailand

[Mark mark]

Correction.  I made a mistake, my info that I put in the Voluntary, Guest work blog, my info on the brick loaders wages was about 15 years out of date I think.

 

I just made some enquiries about how much the local brick truck loaders get, and they might have got as much as policemen, government nurses or teachers, 15 years ago, but the general wages have gone up, one thing that I think that we can thank Kun Taksin for.

 

The brick loaders still only get 100 to 200 B for an hour or two’s work, helping load one truck.  They usually get 2 trucks a day, like it takes the trucks about 5 hrs.  Round trip, to deliver the bricks, so it takes them 3 to 5 hrs.  In a split shift to get the basic wage.

 

The trucks do not come every day, these quieter for bricks days, ... so they are out of work a lot.  It is mostly older woman and some older men that do it, and some uneducated younger married woman.

 

They always carry the same load every trip up the plank, on to the back of the truck, the taller ones being able to carry more, as they are les limited by the heights of the stacks, that they can fit on the twin cradles.  I think smaller people can only carry 150 bricks, which is considered a small load, while the bigger ones can take 200.

 

Ever trip up the plank, they throw a painted bamboo stick, out of a bucket, with many in it, in to their own pile, and they are paid on how many sticks / runs they have when the truck is fully loaded, with it's 11 tones still I think.

 

I tell all the children to keep going to school, and talk of the bigger schools in Ayutthaya (High Schools) and later Bangkok.  But we shall see, I hope that I live long enough to see some of them do something good with it.

 

The thing is that brick loading is convenient for them ... as it is unskiled from a professional point of view, local, and they do not have to travel to do it whereas working in the IT factories, like most young woman between the ages of 18 and 35, with good eyes do, they have to go on a bus for half to one hour, to and from their factories, so an 8 Hr. day can become 10 hrs.  !  ... Whereas Brick loading, just a short walk from you home, and the same money in 4 hrs. ...

 

... So, Local Human Geography in the Central Thai flood plain reported, and On On, ... Time to look at the Stock Market !  …  More International Human Geography.

 

Mark mark