Vol. 78/No. 13      April 7, 2014

“More than 95 percent of the workers at the factory took part in the action,” Say Sokny, general secretary of the Free Trade Union, told the Militant by email March 22. FTU is one of four unions in the plant. “Members of all unions as well as nonunion workers joined in.”

Workers had 11 demands, including an increase in the monthly food and transportation allowance from $10 to $15, an end to forced overtime, no pay cuts during strikes and removal of male security guards from outside the factory’s women’s restrooms.

Thousands of workers rallied outside the company gates on the mornings of March 17 and 18. Workers’ representatives walked out of negotiations March 18 after company officials refused to agree to the $5 allowance raise.

The following day thousands of workers set up a two-hour roadblock outside the factory, shutting down National Road 3. On March 21, a provincial court called on workers to return to their jobs. Workers responded by organizing another rally of thousands outside the factory.

On March 24, workers ended the strike after bosses agreed to increase the monthly allowance by $2 and not cut pay during the walkout.

“This is a small solution, but our workers agreed to accept this agreement, and we will continue to negotiate for the rest of the demands,” Phorn Phal, deputy secretary-general of the Free Trade Union, told Cambodia Daily March 25.

While Cambodian garment production has been expanding, wages in the industry dropped 22 percent in real terms between 2001 and 2011. Between 2010 and 2012, the number of strikes in Cambodia increased by nearly 170 percent.

Garment workers won a raise from $50 to $60 a month in 2010 and another $20 in May 2013. On Dec. 25, hundreds of thousands began a nationwide strike in response to the government’s decision to raise the monthly minimum wage to $100, far short of the workers’ demand for $160. Protests and strike actions subsided after riot cops and soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, killing five workers and injuring dozens. Twenty-one participants in the strike are still in prison.
 
 
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