A top member of Chea Vichea’s former union said the country’s most outspoken and liberal labor group would not die with its founder.
“We will have hundreds of people with the same mindset as Chea Vichea,” said Sum Samneang, the union’s secretary-general, on Tuesday. “Only more people will come.”
Labor leaders are closely watching what happens to the Free Trade Union of Workers in the wake of the killing of its president on Jan 22. Chea Vichea, the union’s president and a Sam Rainsy Party member, was a dogged critic of the government and regularly presided over wild-cat strikes in his bid to secure workers’ rights.
In his absence, many say the union could be vulnerable to other workers’ groups seeking members, money and power.
Phoung Montry, a former follower of Chea Vichea who broke away to found his own union this year, said the killing will soon lead to a break-up within the Free Trade Union. “After Chea Vichea, they will not be as strong as before,” he said. “The internal disputes within the FTU may cause it to split into two or three.”
Others said the killing and outpouring of grief and indignation that followed will only fuel the union’s growth. The president of the Cambodian Labor Union Federation, Sam Aun, said Chea Vichea’s death had stopped a steady flow of defectors joining her union.
“Since his death, no FTU workers have defected,” Sam Aun said.
The union is at a critical juncture, as labor leader Chuon Momthol courts it to join a new confederation of workers’ unions under his presidency—a move that Chea Vichea opposed. Chuon Momthol has close ties to the CPP, though he says the confederation will be apolitical.
The Free Trade Union is unlikely to join that confederation but may form a separate body, said Nuon Rithy, an education officer at the International Labor Organization. That group would include the opposition-aligned Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association and other unions.
“I have urged [the Free Trade Union of Workers] to get stronger and stronger,” said Nuon Rithy.
“I don’t think anyone will leave” the union, he said. “They have more unity because they have lost a very important member.”
