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.

Random Cambo Links

AlisoninCambodia has released another fantastic archaeology in Cambodia post to her blog, which talks about subjects dear to my heart: complexity, land use, and Southeast Asia. Read it, read it, read it!.

Also, the Prime Minister has joined in: apparently unions are the reason the economy has collapsed. Right.

Random Cambodian News Links

According to the Political and Economic Risk Survey group, out of a collection of 16 Asian states, Cambodia is only the third most corrupt! Compared to last year’s Transparency International rating, this marks a small improvement.  This is a devastating blow to Thailand and Indonesia, which come in as actually more corrupt than Cambodia.

Kidnapped, defrocked, and disappeared, former monk and Kampuchean Krom dissident Tim Sakhorn has reappeared in Cambodia, traveling on a Vietnamese passport, and quoted worrying about his return to Vietnam.

Via DAS, Milton Osborne’s written opinion on the Preah Vihear debacle.

Five garment factories burn down. I want to know how much insurance was awarded to Suntex and whether they plan on reopening or moving jobs elsewhere. Seems convenient.

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.

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.

Thach Saveth Still “Guilty”

Yesterday, I posted about this, indicating that the new trial of Thach Saveth, the patsy accused of the murder of unionist Ros Sovannareth in 2004, might be a sign of improvement. I was premature.

For the second time, the Court of Appeal of Cambodia decided on Wednesday February 18th to uphold the sentenced issued by the Municipal Court in 2005 against Thach Saveth for the premeditated murder of trade unionist Ros Sovannareth. He had been condemned to 15 years in prison following a very criticised trial. A leading member of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC), Ros Sovannareth was shot by two unidentified men on a motorbike on May 7th 2004 in Phnom Penh.

Ka-set – Information website about Cambodia – Murder of trade unionist Ros Sovannareth: Cambodian justice backtracking?.

Cambodia Link Dump

Busy writing dissertation stuff lately, and have been neglecting my blog. Here are a few things that have happened of note in the last few weeks. At any rate, it’s the Cambodia-centered stuff that I’m interested in…

Andy Brouwer is one of Cambodia’s most famous non-Khmer bloggers (some graciously give us foreign bloggers the honorary title of cloggers, but I prefer ‘floggers,’ since it takes the air out of our unearned pretention). Andy’s posts are most commonly on temples, and are extremely fun and worthwhile. But here’s a post which deals with the mummified, displayed body, of murdered monk Sam Bunthoeurn, who figures briefly in my dissertation. Warning – the pictures can be disturbing for those squeamish about bodies and decomposition….

Mandevu is back, with a couple of fantastic posts on current fieldwork in the agricultural sector. Great photos of field inventories, and on the production of roof thatch. Can’t wait to see how this work turns out!

You must read the second part of Ka-Set’s interview with Richard Rechtman, French psychiatrist and anthropologist dealing with trauma, death, and memory. Fascinating stuff. (see also part one).

Economic stuff is looking bleak for 2009. The ILO reports that 500,000 Cambodians have been significantly affected already, with another million to be affected during 2009. More precise numerical predictions can be found in the article itself over at the Phnom Penh Post, along with a nice little factoid sidebar. Yikes.

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC), about which I have often written in these pages and elsewhere, has been nominated for the Martin Ennals award in Human Rights. Ennals was the founder and first president of Amnesty International. Mony deserves the recognition, and I hope it accompanies a resurgence in local support and labor activism and solidarity.

Ros Sovannareth was a union official and activist within the FTUWKC, when he was assassinated on May 7, 2004. He worked at the Trinunggal Komara Garment Factory, and was gunned down by two men riding a motorcycle. Just as in the murder of FTUWKC president Chea Vichea months previously (brother of Chea Mony), a patsy was found to take the legal fall. Now, with the accused killers of Chea Mony beginning to possibly receive a new trial, the accused killer of Ros Sovannareth will also receive an appeal. This isn’t justice, but it’s a necessary step forward.

Good news, Dougald O’Reilly, archaeologist, founder of Heritage Watch, and acclaimed scholar (I’m slowly working my way through his engaging book “Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia” in the five minute breaks between getting into bed and falling asleep these days, and am grateful for his work), has received a major award for Heritage Watch’s work. The Archaeological Institute of America’s Conservation and Heritage Management Award, was given to Dougald just a few days ago. Congratulations Dougald!