Vol. 79/No. 2      January 26, 2015

Garment workers in Cambodia, up to 90 percent of whom are women, waged a campaign of strikes and protest actions this year to raise the monthly minimum wage from $100 to $177.

The government announced an increase in mid-November, setting the new rate at $128, to be implemented by January 2015.

“Members of the garment workers union were disappointed by the decision, but they will continue the fight,” said Panha. CATU, one of the union federations campaigning for $177, was formed at the end of 2011, but only gained government recognition in early 2014. Yaing Sophorn, president of CATU, is one of the six union leaders accused of criminal activity during a series of nationwide strikes and demonstrations for an increased minimum wage that began at the end of 2013. Five people were killed and dozens injured when military police opened fire on the protests Jan. 3, 2014.

Sophorn and four others are now under “judicial supervision,” banned from meeting with other union leaders or joining public gatherings until they are put on trial.

Unions have turned to a pressure campaign on the international apparel capitalists who contract Cambodian bosses to produce their name-brand clothing lines, urging them to tell their suppliers to pay workers more than the mandated $128. CATU is planning actions outside some of the factories that produce for companies such as Abercrombie and Fitch, the Gap, American Eagle and Walmart. “The bigger the brand — the harder the job,” Panha said.

Some 2,000 workers from the Ghim Li garment factory demonstrated in Phnom Penh Nov. 24, blocking traffic for more than an hour. They were demanding that the Singaporean-owned factory reinstate a worker who had been sacked and raise their bonuses.
 
 
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On the Picket Line
Migrant workers fight unsafe, abusive conditions in Malaysia
 
 
 
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