BREAKING: Cambodia police use water cannon to break up textiles strike

geovalin · December 21, 2015

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Police in Cambodia made dozens of arrests and used water cannon to break up a strike on Monday by garment workers protesting over low pay, in the latest flare-up in a manufacturing sector vital to its fledgling economy.

Thousands of workers at two factories have halted work since Dec. 16 at several industrial zones to demand $8 on top of a new minimum wage of $140 a month. The strike spread at the weekend after four people were arrested for throwing stones.

"Workers were water hosed as they walked to factories," said Nouth Bopinnaroath, a human rights worker at the group Licadho, who witnessed the break-up.

read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20151221084738-dlr03

geovalin · December 22, 2015

Cops, protesters clash in Bavet

Tue, 22 December 2015

Mech Dara

The border town of Bavet in Svay Rieng province was again roiled by unrest and alleged violence yesterday after police used fire hoses to disperse a crowd of striking garment workers, arresting 58 of them in the morning only to release them in the afternoon.

About 8,000 workers protested in front of the Tai Seng Special Economic Zone yesterday, throwing water bottles and chunks of ice at police, who responded with concentrated jets from four fire hoses, said Chea Oddom, provincial representative of the Cambodian Union for the Movement of Workers. “The police tried to push them and they got angry with the police, so the workers threw water bottles and ice at them, and police used fire hoses to disperse them,” he said.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national