Security Guards Fire at Protesting Chinese Workers Stranded in Cambodia

via the PPP

SECURITY police at the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh opened fire during a confrontation with more than 100 protesters Wednesday as they sought intervention over a pay dispute.

About 110 Chinese construction workers employed by the Jiangsu Province First Construction Installation Co Ltd gathered at the embassy, claiming the company owners fled the country leaving them without six months’ back pay.

A protester representative said the workers were employed by the company to work on Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac City development for almost eight months but had so far received just two months’ pay.

He also said the company had taken their passports, stranding them in Cambodia.

“We want the embassy to contact the company and force them to return our passports and pay us our salary,” said another worker.

During the protest, which began midday, the workers carried a banner reading, “We want to return home”, demanding a meeting with embassy officials. Security guards ordered protesters to cross the road to wait and fired three warning shots in the air when protesters tried to push their way inside the embassy gates.

via The Phnom Penh Post – Shots fired at worker protest.

Cambodian Factory Bosses Blame their Economic Troubles on “Thieving Workers.”

This is really too low. Faced with a massive loss of orders from abroad, pressure from unions within the country, and the very real possibility of a global economic crisis severe enough to decimate or even destroy the Cambodian garment sector, the bosses have decided that their problems are caused by workers stealing clothes by putting them under their work clothes and smuggling out.

CAMBODIA’S largest garment industry association has filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipality over what it says is rampant theft from local factories.

Van Sou Ieng, president of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, said the April 27 complaint was filed in response to reported thefts in many of the country’s more than 200 garment factories.

Though such complaints have been reported for years, he said they had become so widespread as to threaten the industry. “We’ve always received complaints from factory owners about this problem – it’s a serious issue because buyers are afraid to order from factories,” he said. “Many of the stolen orders have been partially sold in local markets or in neighbouring countries.”

Phnom Penh Deputy Police Chief Hy Prou said he had received the complaint, though he said he did not know what measures could be implemented to address it.

The manager of a major garment factory in Phnom Penh who requested anonymity said he agreed with Van Sou Ieng that theft had recently become more common.

“Most of the factories will say that this is getting worse,” he said. “We are losing a few thousand pieces of clothing per month.”

He said employees use a variety of tactics to smuggle garments, including hiding items under their clothes and placing them in rubbish bins.

“An even more alarming trend is that we are seeing garments stolen from transport containers. We complained to the police, and they are setting up a task force,” he said.

via The Phnom Penh Post – Garment factories complain of theft.

Really

Or is that line at the end – the one about how even more alarmingly, material is starting to disappear in even greater numbers from Cambodia’s ports – relevant?

Is the increasing number of missing fabric and garments a symptom of a corporate elite looting their own businesses before the collapse (and blaming it on workers)? Only time will tell.

The Phnom Penh Post – Worker solidarity

The Phnom Penh Post has a paragraph, with a nice photo, of part of the May Day march that took place last Friday. The CGT sent greetings, as did the IWW.

The Phnom Penh Post – Worker solidarity.

Rice Posts

Agricultural biodiversity weblog has a great post, with links to articles, etc., on the where and when of rice domestication. Exciting stuff.

Global Voices Online posted an article about contemproary Cambodian rice politics (especially at the borders)

And somewhat unrelated, DAS notes that Phnom Penh air quality blog rotten chunks – literally.

Union Links

Trade Unions Discuss Wages of Workers while Buying Orders Decreased to 40% – Tuesday 17.3.2009 [The Mirror]

Busting the Unions [Details Are Sketchy]

Chea Mony calls for a nationwide demonstration [KI Media]

Thousands strike over fired union leaders [VOA Khmer]

Union to march for workers rights [Phnom Penh Post]

Garment orders plunge 40 percent – Phnom Penh Post

More numbers on the garment sector impacts in Cambodia:

About 70 factories have shut their doors since the economic crisis started to hit Cambodia last August, and more than 51,000 workers have lost their jobs or seen their contracts suspended, say industry officials.

“We have received only 60 percent as many orders as last year, and that figure may continue to decrease without urgent measures,” said Van Sou Ieng.

Typically, GMAC is attempting to blame the unions:

Van Sou Ieng called Sunday for the country’s 1,000 unions to limit their activities while the sector faces problems.

“Some union activities are leading to fewer orders and are leading to thousands of job losses, so [unions] must be careful with their actions,” said Vann Sou Ieng. “I would like to publicly announce to the world that no matter what obstacles we face, Cambodia will not die. I will try to look for new markets and new buyers.”

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodia, rejected the GMAC accusation, saying that many of the factories closing down were simply avoiding taxes.

“This is just GMAC’s accusation,” he said. “GMAC cannot blame strikes – there have been no strikes in the first two months of 2009, but 70 factories closed.”

via The Phnom Penh Post – Garment orders plunge 40 percent.

Garment industry unravels

Well, we saw it coming, but the numbers are still good to have, and deeply alarming.

Garment exports – the country’s chief source of foreign exchange – contracted in January to less than a third of their value compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce announced Tuesday.
…

Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said that garment exports generated revenue of only US$70 million in January, compared with $250 million in January 2008, a situation the Ministry of Finance acknowledged was a troubling signal of tough times ahead.

Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that, after years of growth, Cambodia’s gross domestic product would shrink by 0.5 percent this year in the most negative assessment yet of the Kingdom’s economic health.

This contraction comes largely due to falling demand for Cambodian garments, the IMF said.
…

Officials with the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia [GMAC], which holds accounts with large Western brands – including Gap, Nike and Adidas – said that in previous years orders were placed in October for the 12 months  ahead.

But given the downturn, these companies are now placing orders on a monthly basis, GMAC officials said, predicting that things will get worse before they get better.
…
The Free Trade Union of Cambodia said Monday that more than 20,000 garment workers have already lost their jobs this year, with another 10,000 at risk of becoming unemployed as more garment factories face closure.

The Phnom Penh Post – Garment industry unravels.

The Phnom Penh Post – Unions warn of strikes over legal amendment

CAMBODIAN labour unions have issued a joint statement to the government opposing a proposed Labour Law amendment that would extend the use of temporary employment contracts and warned of nationwide strikes if it did not back down.

What’s got the unions pissed off?

Under the Cambodian Labour Law 1997, any employee that has worked with a company for more than two years is automatically considered a permanent – or undetermined duration – employee. The unions say the amendment would allow temporary contracts to be extended indefinitely making it easier for employers to hire and fire workers.

Yeah – that’s bad. Clear language time? All those vaunted benefits that are relatively unique to the Cambodian Garment Industry apply only to those people who are permanent employees (even then, they are rarely actually implemented). If this law passes, it will become almost impossible to actually gain permanent employee status. Workers’ rights will continue to look good on paper, and get progressively, and radically, worse in reality.

via The Phnom Penh Post – Unions warn of strikes over legal amendment.

Cambodian Economic News

A few important links from the last week:

• Cambodia will soon have an automobile assembly plant, working for Hyundai. While I question the long-term value for Cambodia of building an automobile plant at a time when automobile sales are dropping through the floorboards (undoubtedly why Hyundai is exporting more such jobs), the short-term benefits are real.
• The Vietnamese province of An Giang on the Cambodian border is suffering (well, Vietnamese producers are suffering) from the illegal smuggling in of cheaper Cambodian rice. This cross-border illegal trade persists in an enormous number of domains, and the characterization of it differs wildly according to which side of the border you are on. The Vietnamese see it as a Cambodian problem enacted by cartels which include Vietnamese smugglers; the Cambodians tend to see it as a Vietnamese problem (or even a conspiracy), run almost entirely by ethnic Vietnnamese.
• Good News? Citing the lowered prices of oil (combined with the higher costs of extracting the type of oil still extant in the borders off Cambodia) and the high level of government corruption in Cambodia, Chevron is delaying the implementation of its plan to set up drilling stations and begin extraction. Given the growing mainstream knowledge that oil would be a curse (the ‘resource curse’), perhaps this is good news…

Circular Earthwork Sites « Alison in Cambodia

Another great post at AlisoninCambodia’s archaeology in Cambodia-oriented blog. This one is one the circular earthworks, most commonly associated with Memot and very early agricultural urbanization. Fantastic stuff, and some truly stunning images:

For now I wanted to briefly discuss something I’ve been thinking about lately: circular earthwork sites in Cambodia. This is a huge topic I can only briefly cover here, but I hope this entry will provide a small introduction and help me think through some of this data. You can read more after the jump!

Above: Example of a circular earthwork. (Image from here).