Garment Worker Demonstrations Pay Dividends
At the M&V International Manufacturing Factory in Kompong Chhnang province last week, 5,000 workers filed through the gates, sat behind their neat rows of sewing machines and refused to work. A year earlier, hundreds of female workers had fainted at the factory after complaining of unbearable heat and headaches. In the aftermath, the workers embarked on a series of sit-in strikes and, after the one they held last week, they finally recieved their reward: more money. … The success of the strikers at M&V is just a small part of an increasingly strident and, at times, more violent labor movement, whose demands for better conditions and pay are increasingly being met by factory managers. In all 36,053 workers, or 10 percent of the entire garment industry work force participated in 27 strikes between November to April, twice as many as during the same period the previous year, according to figures from the International Labor Organization. (ILO) …
