Garment Protest Turns Violent After Accord Fails

29 May 2012
The Cambodia Daily
Clothing / factory / Gap / H&M / international brands / Levi Stauss / Meanchey District / Military Police / Phnom Penh / Protest / protesters / rocks / security guards / SL Garment Processing Company / violence / workers

Violence erupted yesterday morning during a long-running protest at a Phnom Penh factory that produces clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss when about 1,000 workers broke the factory’s gate and started hurling rocks to break its windows, protesters and military police officers said. About 300 police and military police arrived to block the factory’s entrance of SL Garment Processing Company in Meanchey district and dispersed the protesters. “We all broke the two gates and pushed the motorbikes down. Then we ran away after the factory’s security guards held steel bars to fight back at us,” said Neang Met, 38, one of the protesters. …