Opposition Party Threatens Nationwide Labor Strikes
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Wednesday announced that his party could stage nationwide labor strikes in protest of disputed election results, and said the CNRP would begin an international campaign to make the CPP government a pariah state. … “In the air is an idea of general strikes, so the whole country for one day we will call for strikes. All factories, all civil servants, all shopkeepers will stop working that day, this is one possible idea,” he said at a press conference held at the CNRP’s headquarters in Phnom Penh. “We will conduct a worldwide campaign to delegitimize this government,” Mr. Rainsy continued. “We appeal to international signatories of the Paris Peace Agreements to…condemn this newly formed government. Do what you can to make this government know it is not legitimate,” he said. … Mr. Hun Sen said in a speech at the Peace Palace on Wednesday that if the CNRP attempts to stage further mass demonstrations against his government, he will release a recording of the negotiations showing that Mr. Rainsy and his deputy, Kem Sokha, had backed down from their demands for an election investigation. … Cheam Yeap, who on Tuesday was reappointed as the CPP’s chairman of the National Assembly’s powerful finance and budget committee, dared Mr. Rainsy to try to rally the international community to cut off ties with Cambodia. Thida Khus, chairwoman of the Committee to Promote Women in Politics, said that it could be possible to exert pressure on the government by disrupting the economy, particularly in the garment sector, which accounts for more than 80 percent of exports from Cambodia and employs about 500,000 workers. … Chea Mony, the head of the opposition-aligned Free Trade Union, said that he would rally his nearly 100,000 members for such a strike. Ath Thorn, the head of the country’s largest coalition of independent trade unions, said he would need to consider the impact of the strike on his members and know exactly what the strikes were for. …
Phorn Bopha and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/opposition-party-threatens-nationwide-labor-strikes-43403/
