Brands, international unions press Cambodian government on labor issues
Representatives from some of the world’s largest fashion brands and the leader of one of the world’s biggest union organizations met this week with Cambodian officials and local clothing manufacturers to demand better treatment and improve workplace safety for the country’s estimated 600,000 garment workers. Garment manufacturing is Cambodia’s main foreign exchange earner, with $5.5 billion in exports last year, mainly to the United States and the European Union. But while revenues have risen in a decade, real wages have declined. Last year, workers fed up with having to work ever-longer hours just to get by clocked nearly 900,000 strike days, mostly in an effort to raise the minimum wage. …
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/brands-international-unions-press-government-on-labor-issues/1923596.html
