Voice TV Report : Try Arm UNDERWEAR FOR FLOOD VICTIMS

Former employees of Triumph’s garment factory are producing and selling men’s and women’s underwear at discount prices.

The underwear items may be given away to flood victims in varied parts of the country, though no purchase has been placed on such purposes as yet.

The prices of the ‘Try Arm’ underwear items are 30% cheaper, especially for those who may buy and give them to the flood victims. The selling prices do not include the ex-Triumph employees’ labor costs. They are only the costs of the fabrics and other materials.

‘People in many provinces have been affected by flooding and they are in need of some underwear. So, we can help by making underwear items for somebody to buy and hand them out to the flood victims. We ourselves are not financially capable of giving them away for free.’

‘We decided yesterday to make them for sale at discount prices. We thought about the time when we were laid off from Triumph’s factory. We’ll do it to prove Triumph’s was not operating at loss when the factory stopped hiring us, then. In fact, the factory maintained a huge profit despite the lay-offs.

‘We believed we could make it as our permanent occupation, given the fact we’re getting too old to find jobs anywhere else.’’

The ‘Try Arm’ underwear industry was born on the first of March, 2010 after 1,959 employees of Triumph’s factory had been laid off on 26th August, 2009. They had protested at the Ministry of Labor for about eight months, asking for severance pays earlier promised by the management in addition to those provided by the law. Some of the jobless returned to their home provinces to find new jobs.

Finally, a group of 25 ex-Triumph employees pooled up a fund to open a small garment factory of their own. A ‘fighting fist’ is the logo for their ‘Try Arm’ products. They had an average of 20 years’experience working in the garment factory.

Designs and materials are almost similar to those used by manufacturers of famous brand names. But ‘Try Arm’ items sell for less than 100 baht each. Each of the self-employed manufacturers has made an average of 6,500 baht in monthly income, and it was nearly half the amount of their pays from the big factory.

Tongpool Sasang said her current occupation was such a physically and mentally tiring venture. Given the drop in her income, the 36-year-old woman had to make ends meet by working night shifts at another factory. She’s the only breadwinner for her two children and parents in the provinces.

‘I wish more people came to buy our products. We were laid off from a factory. We do not have a shop of our own. We have to sell at temporary outlets.’

Those who wish to support these self-employed garment manufacturers or donate underwear items to the flood victims may visit their website at www.tryarm.blogspot.com or telephone 087 020 6672 or 087 926 5231 or visit their factory at Soi Sukumvit 115 off Sukumvit Road.

Produced by VoiceTV 11/11/2011 source : http://archive.voicetv.co.th/content/24632/UNDERWEARFORFLOODVICTIMS