2,500 workers in Bavet SEZ go on strike
More than 2,000 workers at three factories in Svay Rieng’s Bavet City went on strike Saturday, claiming their bosses owed them money. About 500 workers at the You Li factory, which makes baby clothes, went on strike Saturday because management refused to pay them for Thursday after the workers decided to take the day off without permission, said Heng Davy, one of the strikers. “We asked them to let us go back to work on April 18 after the Khmer New Year, but they denied our request…and they demanded that we come back to work on April 17,” she said. “We will continue to strike until they do not cut our salary.” Some 2,000 workers at two bicycle factories also in Bavet City went on strike Saturday because their bosses refused to offer them the same deal as another factory nearby, which paid their workers $50 each as a reward for not going on strike over the past few months. … The Bavet strikes come in the midst of a separate stay-at-home strike being organized by a group of eight unions in the garment industry. The unions urged the country’s approximately 600,000 garment workers not to show up for work between April 17 and 22 to pressure the government and factories into raising the sector’s monthly minimum wage from $100 to $160. They are also calling for the release of 21 unionists and workers arrested at the end of the last round of strikes in January and now facing trial for inciting violence and property damage. Many factories did negotiate to give their workers an extra one or two days off after the official end of the Khmer New Year holidays on Wednesday. But garment factories have insisted that they will be back online today, and one of the largest unions behind the strike said most garment workers will probably return to work early. …
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/2500-workers-in-bavet-sez-go-on-strike-56762/
