The Militant - Vol.64/No.30 - July 31, 2000 -20,000 garment workers in Cambodia wage strike
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A socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people
Vol. 64/No. 30July 31, 2000

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20,000 garment workers in Cambodia wage strike
 
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS  
Some 20,000 workers in Cambodia walked off the job in June to protest low wages and unsafe working conditions. The nationwide strikes, an article in Time Asia reported, "were the largest in the country's recent history."

Workers in Cambodia's 200 garment factories were demanding an increase in their $40 monthly wage. Hundreds of them marched on the capital, Phnom Penh, to protest abysmal working conditions. They demanded a shortening of the workweek and an increase in wages. Garments account for 90 percent of the country's exports.

At one garment factory in the Takhmau district north of Phnom Penh, workers complained to the employers that they were receiving electric shocks from the sewing machines. The bosses ordered them to keep working. In response, workers forced their way out of the factory despite the fact that the managers had locked the gates in an effort to keep them inside.

The strikers nationwide returned to work after six days after the government Labor Advisory Board promised to discuss the workers' demands.

 
 
 
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