Workers Claim Police Beat Them During Factory Protest
About 10 workers were beaten by police and military police during a protest over severance payments yesterday in Kandal province, workers and union representatives said. Protests at Tai Yang Enterprises—which supplies clothing to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy—in Ang Snuol district have been ongoing since May, when workers learned that the factory had changed its name to Tai Nan and became worried that their severance payments would be lost. A peaceful march to appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet in Phnom Penh for help on July 11 turned violent when police officers started beating the protesters and badly injured a union representative. …
