Cambodian Garment Workers Plan Mass Strike

Over 60,000 garment workers have put their thumbprints on a union petition calling for a mass week-long strike on September 13. The Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) called the strike after the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and the Garment Manufacturers Association refused its demand to renegotiate the new minimum wage structure to be implemented on October 1. In July, the Free Trade Union of Workers, a union representing over 130,000 garment employees, dropped previous demands for a 53 percent minimum wage rise. It accepted a $US5 monthly increase offered by the Labour Advisory Committee, a body made up of government officials and industry representatives. The rise means the minimum monthly wage will be $61, far below the $93 workers were demanding. The CLC and other smaller unions are demanding that the minimum wage be set at $95.

Cambodian construction workers on strike Posted: 20 Aug 2010 09:55 PM PDT (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post) Up to 40 construction workers from KC Gecin Enterprises in Kandal province walked off the job on August 16 to demand reinstatement of 27 colleagues fired for trying to organise a union. Strikers are maintaining a picket at the company’s main office in Phnom Penh despite having their placards destroyed by police. KC Gecin Enterprises employs over 160 construction workers in Kandal province, whom the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union of Cambodia has been attempting to organise into a union.