More unionists charged on eve of brand meeting
The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between government officials and major brands including H&M and Puma, who say they are increasingly concerned about the deterioration of workers’ rights in the country. Takeo Provincial Court deputy prosecutor Tin Sochetra said the eight union representatives had failed to heed a recent court order instructing employees of the JSD Textile factory to head back to work. … Kuth Piseth, a JSD employee, said about 1,000 of his fellow workers have been on strike since April 29, the day after the factory fired one of their colleagues for collecting signatures in hopes of starting up a local union branch. … CCAWDU president Ath Thorn, who is also facing charges of inciting violence for his alleged role in a September protest at the SL Garment factory in Phnom Penh, said the government had no right to arrest or charge his representatives. … Police in Kompong Speu province arrested six union representatives on May 6 for helping workers stage a strike at a local shoe factory. The next week, police arrested three more union representatives who had joined strikes elsewhere. Like those arrested on Friday, they were also all charged with incitement. … David Welsh, the Cambodia country director of the Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based labor rights group, said the number of arrests in the past few weeks, while unusually high, was unlikely to seriously scare the unions out of staging more strikes. … Representatives from international union groups and some major brands that source from Cambodia including H&M, Gap and Levi’s will meet with government representatives in Phnom Penh today to follow up on the labor rights concerns they raised at a similar meeting here in February. …
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-unionists-charged-on-eve-of-brand-meeting-59538/
