Phnom Penh Trash Collectors Dance for Demands
Piles of garbage festered on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday as hundreds of workers employed by the city’s refuse collection company, Cintri, continued to strike for higher wages and better working conditions. At the company’s truck depot in Dangkao district Tuesday morning, more than 100 of the striking workers gathered in front of a speaker system blaring out songs, vowing to dance on until their demands, which include a pay increase, a health bonus, overtime for working Sundays and free time on national holidays, are met. ... “We will keep protesting until we get a resolution,” said 41-year-old Leang Pisey, a garbage truck driver who has worked for Cintri for seven years and has been demonstrating at the truck depot since the strike began on Sunday. Workers at the dancing protest, all dressed in company uniforms and some sipping cold beer, said that they didn’t want their demonstration to turn violent. ... Despite the peaceful nature of the strike action, Tuesday evening, following another round of failed negotiations, Cintri’s Deputy Director Seng Chamroeun warned that if the dissenting waste disposal workers continue to protest they will soon face the weight of the law. ... “The workers are demanding that their salaries be raised to $150. It is over the company’s capabilities,” Mr. Chamroeun added. “We already increased their salaries from $20 in 2002—nowadays, some workers have salaries of around $100 per month,” he said. Mr. Chamroeun said that some staff want to continue working but are being prevented from doing so by those picketing the depot. Prak Sokha, a representative of the strikers, estimated that more than 400 of the company’s almost 1,000 staff in Phnom Penh are taking part in the strike. ... Mom Sarorn, president of the Trade Union Federation for Increasing Khmer Employees Lifestyles, said, however, “Workers will keep on striking until their demands are met.” With piles of pungent trash rotting in the streets of the capital, Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Chan Som An said City Hall would continue to negotiate with the striking workers until they reach an agreement. If talks fail, however, it will be up to each district in the city to sort out its own trash disposal, Mr. Som An said. ... In 2002, Cintri, a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Cintec, sealed a deal with City Hall that gave it a monopoly on the collection and disposal of Phnom Penh’s waste. But in those years the firm, and its exclusive contract, have received stiff criticism for often doing a less than adequate job in a city of more than 2 million inhabitants. ...
Ben Sokhean and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-trash-collectors-dance-for-demands-51432/
