Cambodian garment workers strike at big brand supplier

Striking garment workers.

Published on Nov 28, 2011

PHNOM PENH (REUTERS) - About 1,000 Cambodian garment workers went on strike on Monday at a factory producing clothing for global brands Gap, J.C. Penny and Old Navy, demanding that the plant reinstates suspended trade union representatives.

Garment-making has been Cambodia's main manufacturing industry as it recovers from decades of conflict. Last year, the sector grew 28 per cent and contributed more than US$3 billion (S$3.9 billion) towards the country's US$11 billion economy.

It employs 300,000 people, many of them women, at scores of factories, owned mostly by Chinese and Taiwanese companies but it has seen its share of industrial action over pay and conditions.

The president of the Workers Friendship Union Federation said the strike would go on until the South Korean-owned factory, Cambo Handsome, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, took back three union representatives suspended after being accused of stealing two T-shirts.