A Change of Guard

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Wednesday 17 September 2014

Cambodia deploys troops as garment workers renew wage campaign


PHNOM PENH, Sept 17 Wed Sep 17, 2014

(Reuters) - Cambodia deployed armed troops in its capital on Wednesday as garment workers held rallies to revive a campaign for higher wages that had helped to stoke a year-long political crisis.
About 500 textile workers rallied in an industrial suburb of Phnom Penh, demanding a sharp hike in the monthly minimum wage to $177 from $100, as dozens of soldiers armed with assault rifles watched. Witnesses said army helicopters flew over the factories earlier.
About 100 police were also deployed at economic zones in Svay Rieng province, bordering Vietnam, where garment workers also gathered, Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union Movement of Workers, told Reuters.
"Why is our government so afraid of its own people, especially people who are only protesting to earn a basic salary?" said Naly Pilorge, director of rights group Licadho.
Licardo said two union leaders were arrested by police.
But no incidents of violence were reported.
The growth of the garment sector has become a vital but troublesome issue for the government of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen.
 
It has been a boon for the fledgling economy, providing as many as half a million jobs and generating $5 billion annually, but frequent protests by increasingly assertive unions have tested the government's patience.
At stake if the campaign leads to prolonged strikes is the possibility of reduced orders from firms that outsource to Cambodian factories, such as Gap, Nike, H & M Hennes & Mauritz and Zara, owned by Inditex.
"We want to send a message to all buyers that they must provide a basic wage," Ath Thon, president of the biggest independent union, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, told reporters at the rally.
VIOLENT CRACKDOWN
Cambodia's garment sector is dwarfed by those in China and Vietnam, but lower wages have lured brands to the country. However, complaints about "sweat shop" working conditions and a crackdown by security forces in January, which killed at least five people, could damage the reputations of the brands.
Instability in Cambodia comes as Myanmar offers generous tax breaks to manufacturers and Vietnam, which exported $18 billion worth of textiles last year, negotiates a raft of global trade deals to slash tariffs.
Ath Thon said an alliance of union activists was also lending support for Wednesday's campaign in numerous capital cities by delivering petitions to Cambodian embassies and high street stores selling garments made in Cambodia.
IndustriALL, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries, said campaign activities had taken place in Australia, Belgium and Switzerland.

"They understand that Cambodia's garment sector has victimized many workers and when they couldn't receive the basic wage, they protested and got killed," Ath Thon said, adding that 400,000 Cambodian textile workers participated in the campaign.
The long-running dispute over pay looked to have been settled prior to last year's election, when the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia agreed to gradually raise the minimum wage to $160 by 2018.
But things changed when the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) made an election campaign pledge to raise the figure further. CNRP won support from textile unions during its months of street protests to demand a re-run of a July 2013 poll it said was rigged by the ruling party.

CNRP struck a deal with the Cambodian People's Party two months ago to end its year-long parliamentary boycott and a fragile truce remains, although it is unclear whether CNRP is backing the latest wage campaign. (Editing by Martin Petty and Clarence Fernandez)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why cannot you, factory owners, give these workers $177/month ? I want to raise the price that i charge these factory workers for food and housing !!! I want to make huge profits on those lands that i bought in 2007

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Why cannot you, factory owners, give these workers $177/month ? I want to raise the price that i charge these factory workers for food and housing !!! I want to make huge profits on those lands that i bought in 2007

18 September 2014 3:19 am
----------------
Ahahaha, that's funny.

In Vietnam, the workers can survive on 90 - 125 US dollar minimum wage. How can they do it?

As it turns out the Vietnamese help each others. The poor workers can buy left over corn for 10 cents an ear (normally sold or 30 cents each). They can eat dinner with only 3 corns, 30 cents an evening or 9 dollars a month.

At night, some workers rent a chair to sleep at the front yard of house for 25 cents a night. That's 7.5 bucks a month. There are places which sold lunch for 50 cents a meal.

So, a month a worker can spent 15 bucks for lunch, 9 bucks for dinner and 7.5 bucks for dinner. That's only 31.5 bucks a month. Thus the workers could actually save and send home some money even with minimum pay.

When I was a kid, I once was punished severely over a dispute of food worth less than 10 cents. So, I do know what it meant to be poor with little food. As an adult now in USA, I did an experiment on myself: Can I eat for 3 dollars a day.

I succeeded. I ate for 3 dollars a day for a full year with enough nutrient to continue to practice Yoga, Taichi and Karate. Then I tried 1.5 dollars a day for a few weeks, but failed. But I do know there are some group experimenting with 1.5 dollars a day for daily food.

So, the question here is: Why the Cambodians in Cambodia cannot live with the current minimum wage at $100. Why do they keep demanding at $160 and now $177? I wish they get paid at $300 bucks a month actually, but only after the Vietnamese workers receive $400 a month.

Clearly, if Cambodia's minimum wage is higher than Vietnam's minimum wage then jobs will flow to Vietnam or better yet, Burma, Bangladesh, ...

There is a great mystery in Cambodia: Are the Cambodian workers truly need the much higher minimum wage even the threat of losing job is obvious?

My speculation is:

1. Perhaps they do need the higher minimum wages because other Khmer are greedy and jack up the higher rents, food costs.

2. Or they don't really need the higher minimum wage, but they were being pumped up by some elements who want to drive jobs away from Cambodia.

One thing for sure those, Khmer folks are dumb. They don't figure out how to survive with meager means, nor they help each other. Vietnamese are superior and they do help each other. Thus they have receiving a lot of investments. Vietnam is rapidly pulling ahead of Cambodia. I scanned the pictures of Vietnam and they are building up many cities, many are bigger and superior than even Phnom Penh!

-Drgunzet-

Anonymous said...

The only and only reason the youns can afford to live off less money is they eat dog shits, instead of normal foods that other humans eat.

The stupid shitnames learn from their ancestors of long ago how to make dog shits taste good. The the youns are able to support their largely uneducated and stupid population by learning to eat animal wast.

Soon they will be eating human wast and when that happened; Khmer will dominate and control the youns' economy.

Sincerely,
STUPID youn...

Anonymous said...

Read this:
"Nguyen Thanh Hai spent long days picking water spinach in northeast Vietnam for $3 a day. That was before the 28-year-old joined a Samsung Electronics Co. smartphone assembly line in March.

As one of the 16,000 newly hired workers at Samsung’s factory in Vietnam, Hai makes as much as $470 a month and stays in a company dormitory that she says is like living in a hotel. The former farmhand has even begun saving $200 a month to help build an indoor bathroom at her parents’ rural home."

http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/samsung-vietnam-phone-leap-has-farmhand-living-a-dream-31001.html

Oooooh, Vietnamese are doing quite well while the Cambodians are just suffering and lagging behind. I told you, Vietnamese are superior. Khmers, you really need to improve. I have been teaching you many valuable lessons, why do you stubbornly oppose me?

-Drgunzet-

Anonymous said...

Wow, I read a bit more into the link I provided above:

"About 60 of the company [Samsung]’s suppliers are also setting up operations in Thai Nguyen".

Wow, Vietnam will have a lot of high-paying, clean high-tech jobs! Cambodia still have nothing.

-Drgunzet-

Anonymous said...

Ok, I could not google for the article about the Vietnamese selling corns 10 cents each to the poors. But I found even a better article. Now the Vietnamese have charity meals, selling for only 9 cents (in US dollars) each.

http://www.dtinews.vn/en/news/022/35463/vietnam-s-first-lady-attends-charity-lunch.html

If the Vietnamese can eat for 9 cents for lunch, 30 cents for dinner, and sleep for 25 cents per night, they can survive easily at minimum wage and even send home some money to their family in rural area.

Cambodia needs to copy Vietnam to rise up. When I was a child, at age 11 I went to the library to read and figured out way to pull myself out of poverty, I have learned:

1. To chew carefully and drink a lot of water to get the most out of my little food.

2. A person can lose 20 percent blood with no problem. I used this knowledge to terrorize the dark-skinned kids. Everyone thought I was a blood thirsty kid when I fought fist fight.

3. I studied house electricity, electronics.

4. I studied Sun Tzu's Art of War to conduct warfare to defeat the evil and violent dark-skinned kids.

-Drgunzet-

Kmenhwatt said...

Scanning your senseless contradiction posts in here is telling me who you really were,victimized by your mother and siblings due to they didn't want you around them,abused started eve since you were just a flop of flesh [fetus] in your mother's womb;Am I right!? Of course,I am.You told the world this matter yourself in purpose to get sympathy from the viewers in here,but too bad no one gives you any of that.....!

Therefore,to compensate your lost/ miserable/abused childhood,all you can do is braggin' nonsense!...You're sick my friend,seeks help ASAP!