CAMBODIA: Police used violence to break up a strike at Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Company in Kandal province

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from an official of the Cambodian Government Garment Workers Democratic Union (CGWDU), a human rights activist and other reliable sources, that on the morning of 29 November 2007 some 200 police officers armed with assault rifles, electric batons, tear gas and anti-riot shields used violence to break up a peaceful strike by over 2000 workers at the Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Company. This company is located in Prek Khsev village, Rokar Khpuos commune, Saang district in the southern province of Kandal. The police assaulted workers and arrested CGWDU officials. Two female workers were injured in this violent crackdown.

CASE DETAILS:

According to Yan Sarann, CGWDU vice-president at the Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Company in Prek Khsev village, Rokar Khpuos commune, Saang district in the southern province of Kandal, on 28 November over 2000 workers of that factory began to stage a peaceful strike. That factory is located along Highway 21, which leads to the Vietnamese border. The workers were requesting the company to accede to the remaining five points of their twelve-point demand.

The strike had proceeded peacefully, with workers gathering in front of the factory. On the morning of 29 November, the Saang district police, the Kandal provincial police and the military police dispatched a combined force of some 200 men armed with assault rifles, electric batons, tear gas and anti-riot shields to the factory. According to Yan Sarann there were two groups of police: one of some 100 men, which approached the front of the factory while the rest went to the back and inside the yard.

According to the same union official, at around 9am the former group of 100 officers went to tell the strikers that their action was disturbing public order. Then they started to grab the sound equipment which union officials were using to amplify their demands. The workers resisted this confiscation of their equipment. A commotion broke out in which the police went to arrest not the speakers, but four apparently pre-targeted union officials in front of the gate of the factory. They handcuffed them tightly, dragged them into the yard of the factory, beat them and kicked them about.

The other workers could not just look on at the brutal treatment of their representatives, and started to pelt the police with stones and pieces of soil. The police fired tear gas and then fired gun shots in the air to disperse the workers, causing further commotion among them. The police then charged against the workers, beating and electrocuting whoever got in their way.

The crackdown lasted altogether about 15 minutes. Many workers were beaten or electrocuted, and suffered the effects of the tear gas. Two female workers suffered serious injuries, one of whom, named Vong Kina, 20, had to be hospitalized for injuries sustained in her left leg. Four union officials, all male — named Pich Pin, 24, Yim Sarun, 24, Non Pheara, 25, and Eth Chey, 27 — were arrested and taken to the headquarters of the provincial police in Takhmau, the capital of Kandal province.

Many workers followed the four union officials taken away by the police, and went to the provincial court, then to the provincial police headquarters to demand their release. Later in the day all the four men were released. Yim Sarun who sustained serious injuries during the police assault, had to undergo medical treatment at a clinic after his release.

Saang District Governor Lim Chankiri has been reported as saying that the police had gone to open the traffic on Highway 21, which the workers were blocking, but when they arrived there, the workers thought the police were coming to break them up and started to resist police intervention by pelting them with stones and pieces of soil.

However this allegation was an attempt to cover up the police crackdown on a peaceful strike. There are traffic police that can and should do the aforementioned job. This traffic police force is not armed as heavily as the police force that broke up that strike. It is hardly likely that the latter police force – armed and equipped with anti-riot equipment – had originally been dispatched to open the traffic.

According to the sources cited above, the police did not go there to open the traffic. They set out to break up the strike.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Company is a Taiwanese-owned company which employs nearly 2900 workers, 1600 whom are members of Cambodian Garment Workers Democratic Union (CGWDU). It is located some 10 kilometers away from the private residence of the current prime minister, who is also a member of parliament for Kandal province.

Cambodia’s garment industry employs the largest workforce in the country and has created over 300,000 jobs for local people. It exported over 2.5 billion USD worth of garments in 2006.

The cause of the strike was a dispute over a twelve-point demand by the workers. With the help of the Labour Arbitration Council, the owner and CGWDU had reached an agreement on seven of the 12 points of the dispute. CGDWU accepted the decision of the Labour Arbitration Council on those 12 points. But the company rejected five points: on bonuses for work attendance, an annual 18 day-paid holiday (in compliance with the Labour Law), employment contracts, salary based on number of package instead of monthly payment for those packaging workers and a request for the dismissal of the company’s arbitration officer. CGWDU considers all these points are important to its overall demand.

Before the strike, CGWDU had complied with all the procedures as determined by the Labour Law of 1997, including negotiations with the company, arbitration by the Labour Inspector, arbitration by the Labour Arbitration Council, and notification of the strike to the company.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) holds that the police crackdown on the strike of the workers of the Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Company was a blatant violation of the right to strike, guaranteed and protected by the Constitution and the Labour Law of Cambodia. The Cambodian government should take action against the police who used violence to break up the strike. It should also take effective measures to prevent any further crackdown on labour strikes, and ensure that the police are a force that serves and protects the people.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send your letters to the authorities listed below to call for action to be taken against the police force that used violence to break up a lawful and initially peaceful strike, and also for measures to prevent further crackdowns on labour strikes. The AHRC is writing separate letters to UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia, calling for intervention in this matter.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER