Pro-US politician Ted Ngoy has challenged government critic and sometime labor leader Sam Rainsy to a televised debate on the value of strikes.
Ted Ngoy, president of the Free Development Republican Party and a founder of the Free Union Federation, has said that strikes are detrimental to development and are unnecessary because most factory owners obey the labor law.
Sam Rainsy was instrumental in starting the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, which has staged numerous strikes over the past 18 months. A general strike is called for Friday unless garment factories promise to provide paid vacation or the cash equivalent, as called for in the labor law, Sam Rainsy said.
A spokesman for Sam Rainsy said he did not know whether he would accept the debate challenge.
