Go ahead and walk, city tells bus drivers #strike + Strike arrest: Union leader busted over bamboo

[geovalin]

Go ahead and walk, city tells bus drivers

Wed, 4 February 2015

Pech Sotheary

City Hall yesterday said that 11 drivers for Phnom Penh’s municipal bus lines striking for higher wages can find employment elsewhere if they find their salaries unacceptable.

Strikers yesterday gathered at the capital’s Night Market, where the newest of the city’s three bus routes begins. They are demanding between $280 and $300 per month, wages they say were previously guaranteed once three months of work passed.

Drivers for the public transit system earn $180, drivers’ representative Tieng Kimsan said.

“We cannot accept this, because our wage is only $180, and we have to pay rent and support ourselves, so we would like the government to review this again,” Kimsan said yesterday. “We work for our livelihood; if we don’t earn enough, we must protest.”

But the strike yesterday seemed to be of little concern to City Hall, whose spokesman, Long Dimanche, said drivers can find work at a different bus company.

“We will find new people to replace them if they think their wages are too little,” Dimanche said yesterday. “They can find jobs in the private sector.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/go-ahead-and-walk-city-tells-bus-drivers

++++++++++++++++++

Strike arrest: Union leader busted over bamboo

Wed, 4 February 2015

Pech Sotheary

Police arrested a labour representative yesterday in front of the capital’s Apsara garment factory and seized 51 bamboo sticks in his possession on suspicions of planned violence.

According to Choam Chao commune deputy criminal police officer Ngo Serey, the arrest was made due to authorities’ belief that the suspect, Solidarity Worker Federation president Sieng Rithy, planned to wreak havoc at the factory.

“When the workers were on strike, the authorities checked and found the sticks in the union president’s car boot and we arrested him,” Serey said.

About 900 striking Apsara workers walked off the job between January 30 and February 3 to demand pay rises and better working conditions.

Authorities sent the suspect to the police station for further legal action, Serey added.

The factory’s general manager also filed a complaint against Rithy for urging workers to strike and for previously threatening violence, said factory chief administrator Phan Chea Sovannary.

“On January 31, [he] made threats in front of the factory, and said that if anyone is brave, then come out to fight.”