Working life: for a bus conductor in Thailand

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محتوى الصفحة: Home > مجلة النقل الدولي "Transport International" > Issue 28 - July 2007 > Working life

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Sangam Tripathy TALKS TO Thanaporn Cumsri, Bus Conductor, BMTA, Thailand

Thanaporn Cumsri walks into the room, combing her short crop of hair and wiping her face with a scented tissue. “You can call me ‘Ning’,” she says, sitting down for our interview, and confirms she has been a bus conductor working with the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) since 2000.

The BMTA runs the city passenger bus service. With a fleet of 3,579 buses, the authority employs 18,607 staff members. These include some 7,000 conductors, nearly half of whom are women.

I ask what it is like being a female bus conductor in the BMTA. “There are often problems,” Ning replies. “Rude behaviour, harsh words, scolding by passengers. Sometimes drunk passengers sexually abuse other passengers, and I have to give them a warning.”

"By the time Sunday comes, I am too tired and besides I don’t want to waste money on luxuries."

She has heard many female colleagues complain of passengers giving them name cards and asking for sexual favours, or touching them inappropriately on crowded buses.

And male co-workers?

“Oh yes, there are male drivers and conductors who don’t miss a chance to touch us, hug us, or brush their hands past our breasts, you know, making it all look very innocent.”

It’s no use bringing the issue to the management, Ning believes, as they would just ignore it. The union may take up individual grievances, but in her view it will never make a big issue out of this kind of harassment.

Two jobs

Ning lives with her partner in a small rented house near the bus depot. While she works on the buses, he runs their food stall, located just outside the Bangkhen bus depot.

A typical day for Ning starts at 03:00, when she is up and starts cooking for the stall. By 04:00 she is at the bus depot to be allocated a bus route for the day. “I prefer this shift, because by midday I am free and can help my partner at the food stall for the rest of the day,” she says.

But there are days when she has to work continuously for two shifts, due to staff absenteeism. “Although this is like working overtime, we are paid at single rate only. The 16-hour duty is back-breaking, believe me, but there is no choice.”
Ning’s food stall is open for business from 06:00 to 19:00. Before returning home each evening, she and her partner have dinner, which is the left-over food at the stall.

“Once back home I hop into my bed and watch the television from 20:00 until 22:00. It’s the same every day. These are the best hours of the day, and most often it’s my partner who puts out the light, as I have already dozed off by then.”

And what does she do on Sundays? Go out with friends or to see a movie?
“No, no, I just sleep the whole day,” says Ning. “It’s been ages since I have seen a movie in a theatre, or even been to the riverside in Bangkok. By the time Sunday comes, I am too tired and besides I don’t want to waste money on these luxuries.”

Security

She has purchased a small house of her own far away from Bangkok and is paying nearly 70 per cent of her monthly salary into the mortgage, as an investment for her old age.

Ning is a political science graduate from the university. After graduation she spent about 11 years doing various jobs, trying her hand at business, before finally being selected in the BMTA after clearing a written test and interview.

“It was a friend who told me about the opening in BMTA and the stability this job would give to my life,” she says.

She joined the union immediately after her appointment and says that over the years her colleagues have come to look upon her as a leader. I am not surprised to hear this, having just spent four days conducting an ITF-sponsored leadership training seminar in which Ning participated.

“I think I have it in me,” she says matter-of-factly. “I have learned a lot being in the union, the exposure you get to important issues.”

Ning has attended various other union education programmes and participated in International Women’s Day activities and ITF Road Transport Action Day campaigns. “The global solidarity of workers amazes me,” she says.

“I am a bus conductor in Bangkok but I know I am part of a global family of transport workers.”

Sangam Tripathy is education coordinator in the ITF Delhi office and currently on secondment to the London office.

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Issue 28 - July 2007

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