PHNOM PENH: Tens of thousands of garment workers have returned to work in Cambodia, ending a two-week pay dispute after authorities used deadly force to quell a strike and thwart a protest by their political allies seeking a re-run of a July election.
A union and the country’s garment factory association estimated that between 65 and 70 percent of workers had returned to factories as of yesterday.
About 350,000 had gone on strike, threatening to cripple the country’s main export industry, with more than $5bn in revenue a year coming in from big international brands such as Adidas, Gap and H&M Hennes & Mauritz.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia with 521 clothing and footwear factories, put the losses suffered by members at “much more than $200m.”
The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) says the general election in July was stolen by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of longtime premier Hun Sen and it wants a re-run.
Its protests and boycott of parliament in the weeks after the election achieved nothing but the CNRP started another rally on December 15, which gained fresh momentum from December 24 when the garment workers came out to join the protest.
The CNRP had promised at election time to double the minimum wage in clothing factories to $160 a month.
The government offered first $95, then increased that to $100, which would be a 25 percent rise.
The unions rejected that.
Reuters
