Cambodian opposition-aligned trade unions postpone garment strike

PHNOM PENH, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Eight opposition-aligned trade unions on Tuesday decided to delay a stay-at-home garment strike scheduled for March 12-19, said a union leader. "We met Tuesday morning and decided to postpone our strike until after the Khmer New Year,"said Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, adding that the strike was re-scheduled for April 17-22. "The postponement came after some workers feared the strike would leave them without salaries for the New Year holiday,"he said.
The unions' planned strike aims to demand a 160 U.S. dollars minimum wage for garment workers and the release of 21 detainees who were arrested in early January during violent protests.
According to Pav Sina, the eight trade unions represented over 100,000 out of the 600,000 workers in about 900 garment and shoe factories in the kingdom.
The garment industry, the kingdom's largest foreign exchange earner, generated some 5.53 billion U.S. dollars in revenues last year.
Monthly minimum wages for Cambodian garment workers currently are 100 U.S. dollars a month, up from 80 U.S. dollars last year.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said early this month that any unions that incite workers to hold strikes for higher wages must take responsibilities for any future closures of factories.
He said the current wages for Cambodian garment workers are higher than those of Laos, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Myanmar.