Manufacturing
Garments and textiles
Union leader rejects video, photo evidence
During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-rejects-video-photo-evidence-59326/
Five months on, witnesses recall Muon Sokmean’s beating
Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...
Mech Dara and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/five-months-on-witnesses-recall-muon-sokmeans-beating-59115/
Trial for 23 to resume amid rally
The trial of 23 men arrested at violent demonstrations in early January continues at 8am today, and unionists are planning on rallying outside the court in a show of solidarity. About 100 union members will join staff from the Cambodian Labour Confederation and the Coalition of ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trial-23-resume-amid-rally
Victim’s kin ‘no right to cash’
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has defended its decision not to pay a survivors’ pension to the family of a teenager killed in a ceiling collapse at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province last May. On the anniversary of the collapse on ...
Sen David and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/victim%E2%80%99s-kin-%E2%80%98no-right-cash%E2%80%99
Workers fired after strike
Two factories in the Manhattan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town have fired more than 40 workers since thousands-strong strikes ended early this month, unions say. Terminations at Best Way and Fico garment factories were bosses’ way of exacting revenge for the ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-fired-after-strike
Wing Star victim’s kin not paid out
When an overloaded and illegally built storage level at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province collapsed last May 16, officials went into damage control, promising to compensate victims using a relatively new state fund. But one year after teenager Kim Dany and co-worker ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-victim%E2%80%99s-kin-not-paid-out
Veng Sreng Street Upgrade behind schedule
The head of a construction company working to upgrade Phnom Penh’s dusty, potholed Veng Sreng Street said Thursday that the project would take twice as long to complete as expected. In November, Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong announced that a 6.5 km strip of the road—which ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/veng-sreng-street-upgrade-behind-schedule-58872/
Nearly 850 protests this year: police
Almost 850 demonstrations or strikes have occurred nationwide since the year began – a seemingly anarchic average of more than six a day, the General Commissariat of National Police announced this week, blaming politicians, NGOs and trade unions for helping to incite demonstrators and “complicating ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nearly-850-protests-year-police
Labour leaders decry bail payment and nine arrests
Labour union leaders denounced the government yesterday, alleging unfair treatment in the wake of nine union worker arrests last week and a hefty bail payment by a union president yesterday. Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), yesterday paid $25,000 ...
Sean Teehan and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-leaders-decry-bail-payment-and-nine-arrests
HRW says trial of Stung Meanchey pair ‘flawed’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has labeled the trial of two teenagers arrested during the lethal suppression of a garment sector strike in November 12 as “deeply flawed” and said that the pair should be spared prison sentences. In a statement Sunday, the rights organization claims that ...
George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-says-trial-of-stung-meanchey-pair-flawed-58483/
Another three textile union reps arrested
Police arrested another three union representatives on Friday for allegedly inciting garment workers to strike and protest in front of their factory over the past few weeks, this time in Kandal province. It follows the arrest last week of six representatives of another union ahead of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-three-textile-union-reps-arrested-58456/
Union leader ready to pay bulk of bail
Independent union leader Ath Thorn said Sunday he had collected enough money from supporters to pay most of his $25,000 bail to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, and would deliver it to the court Monday. The court has charged Mr. Thorn, president of the Coalition of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-ready-to-pay-bulk-of-bail-58474/
Police presence has strikers on edge
A day after police in Kampong Speu province arrested six striking workers, the unexpected presence of about 100 military police officers at a garment factory in Takeo province had some union activists fearing the worst. Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) president Pav Sina yesterday ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-presence-has-strikers-edge
Six unionists charged with incitement after roadblock
The Kompong Speu Provincial Court on Tuesday charged six union representatives with incitement over a protest near the Wing Star Shoes factory earlier that day, in a move unions say was unjustified and meant to intimidate. Court prosecutor Keo Sothea said all six were charged with ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-unionists-charged-with-incitement-after-roadblock-58281/
Cambodia-U.S. trade up 11 pct in Q1
Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and the United States had amounted to 845 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2014. The number saw a 11-percent rise from 758 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, figures release by the U.S. Department ...
Shanghai Daily
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=216833
Union says three workers arrested over wing star protest
At least three workers were arrested Tuesday morning outside the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kompong Speu province, where the Free Trade Union (FTU) has been leading a strike calling for benefits and back pay, according to police and a union representative. An FTU representative said ...
Mech Dara and Sany Sinary
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-says-three-workers-arrested-over-wing-star-protest-58169/
Garment protest trial defendants deny charges
Defendants in a mass trial of 25 men and teenagers accused of joining a string of violent garment worker protests continued to profess their innocence during the second day of hearings at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the men were arrested in ...
Khy Sovuthy and Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-protest-trial-defendants-deny-charges-58166/
Cambodian court again delays trial of 23 jailed protesters
A court in Phnom Penh put off for the second time Tuesday the trial of 23 Cambodians arrested during a deadly worker strike crackdown, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the move was politically motivated. After a five-hour hearing, with hundreds of riot police manning ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/trial-05062014144900.html
Protest planned for 2nd day of garment protest trials
Some 500 supporters of union leader Vorn Pao and 24 others arrested during a string of garment worker protests since November will rally in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday on the second day of their trials, a union official said. All 25 ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protest-planned-for-2nd-day-of-garment-protest-trials-58141/
Trial continues: Workers to gather at court house
Observers expect the trial of 23 people arrested during early January strike demonstrations will not be completed today, due to the number of witnesses who may testify. “I think the trial would take more than the time [available today],” Ham Samrith, senior lawyer for the Community ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trial-continues-workers-gather-court-house
Employees of Wing Star strike again
Thousands of striking factory workers in Kampong Speu province blocked National Road 3 yesterday, an action they say is in response to managers not living up to their end of a deal struck in March. Workers at the Wing Star Shoe factory – which employs about ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/employees-wing-star-strike-again
Garment workers end strikes in Cambodia's Bavet City
Nearly all workers in two special economic zones in Svay Rieng province ended their strikes and returned to work on Monday after failing to demand a US$50 bonus from employers, Xinhua news agency reports. Kat Lot, vice president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1035772
Military might: soldiers put end to Veng Sreng strike
Soldiers used force on Friday to end a strike at a garment factory on Veng Sreng Boulevard, where demands included a lunch bonus of 2,000 riel and an end to forced overtime, workers and union officials said yesterday. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/military-might-soldiers-put-end-veng-sreng-strike
Police make arrest, file complaints in Bavet strike
Police in Svay Rieng province on Tuesday arrested a garment worker for allegedly breaking a car window during a strike that turned violent in Bavet City the day before, and have filed complaints to the provincial court against two union representatives accused of defamation. The arrest ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-make-arrest-file-complaints-in-bavet-strike-57856/