Striking workers at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, are demanding that law enforcement release eight union leaders jailed earlier this month. The protestors began picketing at Cambodia’s National Assembly building on December 18, asking that 365 laid-off workers be reinstated.
The strike is now in its fourth week. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), in a petition submitted to Cambodia’s Labor Ministry last Monday, workers said that they would not participate in talks to resolve the dispute until the union representatives were freed from jail.
Among those in custody is union head Chhim Sithar, who was arrested on January 4th near the when she arrived at the protest site.
Striking worker Men Sothy Wathanak told RFA, “We have now lost the union leaders who could speak for us in those talks. We call on the authorities to first release our eight representatives so that we can return to negotiations.”
Labor minister Ou Ratana came out of the ministry building to invite workers to talk, the news agency reported. “We need to sit face to face to resolve this dispute, not by staging strikes like this,” he said. The workers refused to sit at the table without their union reps.
“I see that the Labor Ministry still wants to trick these workers, dividing them by considering their cases individually rather than as a collective dispute,” said labor rights activist Khun Thao. “The ministry has yet to respond to the union’s demand for the reinstatement of its leaders, and is just focusing on the issue of the proper calculation of compensation. I think that this will only cause a deadlock, and the dispute won’t be resolved.”
A report on the Al-Jazeera news site reported that Sithar cut her hair short on January 3, in anticipation of her arrest the following day.
Naly Pilorge, executive director of rights group Licadho, told Al Jazeera the case demonstrates “the government’s lack of tolerance for any peaceful assembly. Charges of incitement filed against unionists are now used by the government to target anyone who dares to speak out against injustice in Cambodia—whether they are labor, environmental, political or human rights activists.”
