Second union warns of strike (Date: 10 Jun 10)
Wednesday, 09 June 2010 15:03 Tep Nimol and Mom Kunthear Phnom Penh Post
NOTHER major union is threatening to strike if its wage demands are not met, a labour leader said Tuesday, joining a garment sector union that has already warned it is considering a three-day walkout.
Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA) and head of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), said he has yet to receive a response to demands made more than a month ago during a Labour Day rally.
At the rally, he asked for reduced work hours for the members of both bodies, a boost to monthly teacher salaries and the creation of a labour court for workers.
“We have not received a response from government officials until now.... If there is no solution for us, then a strike will happen in the very near future,” Rong Chhun said Tuesday, though he declined to give a date for any potential action.
The labour leader said he sent a letter yesterday morning to Prime Minister Hun Sen, reiterating his demands.
“We have not received a response from the authorities more than one month after we raised the issue,” he said. “So I have to send a letter to remind them.”
Rong Chhun’s warning comes as the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTU) continues to threaten a strike in an effort to advance its own minimum-wage demands. Both the FTU and CITA fall under the umbrella of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions.
The FTU is demanding a 40 percent increase in the monthly minimum wage for its roughly 86,000 members, who work predominantly in the garment sector.
Union president Chea Mony said Tuesday that he is waiting for an official response from employers before asking the Interior Ministry to approve a strike.
Oum Mean, a Labour Ministry secretary of state, said both unions should engage in negotiations before resorting to strikes.
He also cautioned the workers to temper their expectations.
“We want them to get higher wages, but we don’t know how much they will get,” he said.
Garment sector workers and employers have previously agreed to renegotiate minimum monthly wages by the end of the year. Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the FTU should wait to see what the negotiations produce before
threatening labour action.
“The mechanisms are in place for proper negotiations,” Loo said, adding that a strike at this point “would go beyond the framework that was set for minimum wage negotiations.”
At this stage, none of the parties in the garment sector have set a specific date to begin negotiations. Go to Top GMAC Seeks Intervention for FTU's Plan to Strike on New Minimum Wage (Date: 28 May 10)
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 Go to Top Garment Union May Strike if Minimum Wage not Upped by June (Date: 23 May 10)
By Yun Samen
The Cambodia Daily
May 24, 2010
The Free Trade Union voted yesterday to strike if a joint policy-making body on labor fails to approve a 26 percent raise over the current minimum wage for garment factory workers by the end of the month, the union's president said.
FTU President Chea Mony said 200 FTU chiefs representing 80,000 FTU members are demanding that the Labor Advisory Committee, comprising representatives from the Labor Ministry, a local trade body and a CPP-affiliated labor union, bring the minimum wage from $55 to $75.
Mr Mony said that according to a 2006 committee decision, the minimum wage must be increased by the end of this year.
"We will go on strike if the government doesn't raise the minimum wage,"he said, claiming that this union comprises 80,000 members or nearly a third of the garment industry work force.
Mr Mony said the FTU decided to press the issue now instead of waiting until the end of the year due to a lack of confidence in the Labor Advisory Committee.
"We don't have any hope that there will be a solution, Mr Mony said.
Labor Ministry Secretary of State Oum Man confirmed that a new minimum wage must be set by the end of the year. He added that the committee met in February to discuss raising the minimum wage for garment workers but had failed to reach an agreement.
So far, the Labor Ministry has not been notified of further meetings on the issue.
"The union and [Garment Manufactures Association in Cambodia] representatives in the Labor Advisory Committee have not submitted any requests. So the committee can not call for a meeting," he said.
GMAC Secretary-General Ken Loo declined to comment on the FTU vote to strike, saying he had not been informed of the decision. Mr Loo said he believed that negotiations over the minimum wage would be completed by the end of the year.
"This is May. We will have time to negotiate," he said.
Chuon Mom Thol, president of the CPP-aligned Cambodia Union Federation and vice presidents of the Labor Advisory Committee, said he was also confident that a deal would be worked out by the end of the year. Go to Top |
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