Police Halt Hour-Long Garment Worker Strike

Workers from the You Cheng Garment Com­p­any went on strike Friday after a dispute between the factory’s security guard and a union representative, workers and union officials said. 

Strikers took to the street for one hour in the early morning Friday and were then dispersed by district police.

According to workers, the security guard at the factory rings a bell each day to tell them when to stop working.

He is supposed to ring the bell at 4 pm, but has been ringing it at 6 pm instead, said Kim Phally, 25, the factory’s representative of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and who also works at the factory.

“I said [to the guard], ‘You can ring at six o’clock, but I will ask the workers to stop at four,’ because the workers did not volunteer to work overtime,” Kim Phally said Friday.

This incident aggravated already rocky relations between the union and this factory, according to Chea Vichea, president of the Free Trade Union. The factory has recently been trying to negotiate a food allow­ance for overtime work.

Chea Vichea said he advised workers not to strike on Friday because they had not informed the factory owner beforehand, which is a union procedure.

One police official said the strike was stopped after an hour to prevent traffic jams.

Factory owners could not be reached for comment on Friday.

 

 

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