Cambodian Garment Workers, Bloodied in Crackdown, Continue Wage Struggle
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Just over a month after a brutal police crackdown on striking Cambodian garment workers left at least five people dead, the country’s unions are calling for another strike in March, increasing the likelihood of further violence.
At issue is the still-unresolved question of the workers’ minimum monthly wage. Roughly 700,000 workers, a majority of them young women from Cambodia’s countryside, stitch clothes and shoes in Cambodia’s fast-growing garment sector. The $100 minimum monthly wage proposed by the Ministry of Labor represents an increase of $20 above the wage level in 2013 but falls short of the $160 sought by the unions.