Thailand's public sector unions threatened a nation-wide strike this week, piling more pressure on Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign as protesters occupied his official compound for a seventh day on Monday. Union leaders representing 200,000 workers at 43 state enterprises said the strike would start at state utilities on Wednesday and spread to other companies.
"If Samak refuses to quit on September 3, we will go on strike nation-wide," Sirichai Maingam, president of the union at the state power utility, EGAT, told reporters. The strike threat came hours after a small bomb exploded in a Bangkok police booth, raising fears of further violence in a three-month campaign to unseat the elected government. The blast shattered windows but caused no injuries shortly after 1 am (1800 GMT on Sunday).
Thai shares have fallen more than 23 percent since protests began in May and fell just over one percent on Monday despite some better-than-expected inflation figures. Moody's Investors Service said the turbulence posed a threat to Thailand's long-term economic stability.
"The escalation of political disturbances has introduced new uncertainties which compound the economic challenges facing Thailand, as well as other Southeast Asian economies, from the deterioration in global economic conditions," Peter Byrne of the rating agency's Sovereign Risk Group said in a statement.
A senior government source said Monday's blast was a signal the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) was taking its campaign to another level. "The PAD has launched a guerrilla war with us," the source, who asked not to be named, said. Police echoed his comments, saying they believed it to be the work of agitators trying to depict the police as powerless.
The PAD, a group of businessmen and activists whose campaign against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra led to his overthrow in a 2006 coup, has always espoused peaceful protest. However, last week's raid on a state television station by men armed with knives and golf clubs, as well as the protracted Government House occupation behind razor wire barricades, has brought this into question.