Meas Sotha—The Man at the Center of the SL Factory Strike
Meas Sotha is not leaving the SL Garment Factory. As tensions between management and workers have intensified over the past five months, Mr. Sotha and his role at the strike-plagued factory have moved center stage. Workers claim that since Mr. Sotha took over from a previous SL factory administrator in June, he has taken an increasingly active role in managing staff and, they claim, stifling union activities. They accuse him of having a hand in the removal of 19 of their union leaders. Now, Mr. Sotha has to go. The Coalition for Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) has made Mr. Sotha’s removal from his position a key demand in negotiations to end their monthslong strike, which has twice turned violent. But Mr. Sotha, a factory shareholder who holds the honorary title of “Okhna,” and is referred to as “His Excellency” by his colleagues and underlings, is not going anywhere. … Although much of his time these days is spent at the SL factory, speaking to staff in his office and keeping his eye on operations, he [Meas Sotha] insists that he is not a manager, but rather a trouble-shooting shareholder. … Including the SL factory, Mr. Sotha said he is a shareholder in a total of three garment factories and two garment laundry facilities. He also said that he exports sand from Koh Kong to Singapore. Along with Chinese partners, he also owns cassava plantations in Battambang, Kompong Speu, Kampot and Pursat provinces that yield some 100,000 tons of the root each year. … At his office just a few minutes down the road from the SL factory, CCAWDU President Ath Thorn railed against Mr. Sotha, and his presence at the factory that, since July, has paralleled an increasing intolerance for union activity among the firm’s employees, he claimed. “We see he is the one who is weakening our union and blocking unions from organizing,” Mr. Thorn said. …
Colin Meyn and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meas-sotha-the-man-at-the-center-of-the-sl-factory-strike-47684/
