Ath Thun talking to workers on 13 Sept 2010 (Photo: Reuters)16 Sept 2010
By Sopheak
Cambodia Express News
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the article in Khmer
On 15 September, Ith Sam Heng, the minister of Welfare and Veteran Affairs, sent a report to Hun Xen asking for his decision on Ath Thun, the president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, who is accused of inciting workers to hold a strike and to demonstrate on 13-15 September to demand for a minimum salary for the workers ranging between $75 and $93 per month.
Hun Xen wrote on 15 September: “Agreed as requested”, thereby authorizing the lawsuit against Ath Thun and his union group. The case will be sent to the court and the Phnom Penh city authority will put down the strike and demonstration.
Hun Xen wrote on 15 September: “Agreed as requested”, thereby authorizing the lawsuit against Ath Thun and his union group. The case will be sent to the court and the Phnom Penh city authority will put down the strike and demonstration.
45 comments:
huh? What???
Here I thought it was the job of Union leader to lead his union workers in negotiations and strike when the group deemed necessary.
So who is suing? Is the government suing a union on behalf of a private sector?!
FUCK, Hun Sen is one stupid dumbfuck!
Ath Thum is SRP active member who hides himself under named of President of Cambodian Labor Confederation. The government should teach him a lesson otherwise, he will cause more problems.
This is outrageous that AH HUN SEN chose to intervene in favor of the factories owner in such a manner as if dirt poor Cambodian people make too much money to live on! Does AH HUN SEN even understand what is called a "living wage"? I like to see AH HUN SEN live on between $75-$93 per months! Does these wage even support the basic living condition of dirt poor Cambodian people? It is about time that AH HUN SEN needs to come down from heaven and experience the living condition of dirt poor Cambodian people!
AH HUN SEN needs to stop using his stupid law to oppress and to silent dirt poor Cambodian people! A real Cambodian law only serve to protect Cambodian people!
You are dump and should go to hell a 4:04PM
The role of AH HUN SEN government is not to create wealth for the nation and it is the role of dirt poor Cambodian people who create wealth for the nation with their blood and sweat!
The role of AH HUN SEN government is to spend dirt poor Cambodian people money on T-55 tanks and use it to oppress to put fear on the very people who bring wealth to the country!
AH HUN SEN needs to wake up and smell the coffee and smoke his cigarette 555 because without dirt poor Cambodian people and Cambodian economy is going nowhere!
It doesn't cost much for dirt poor Cambodian workers to ask the living wage between $75-$93 per month! And AH HUN SEN needs to stop using his stupid law and lawsuit to silent dirt poor Cambodian people! A real Cambodian law is serve to protect Cambodian people not to silent and oppress Cambodian people!
som reas khmer tang os krork leonh osh kbal ah hun sen chenh pi amnach
You guy just know from A to C but from D to Z, you know nothing. I ask you do not listen only one side, to come to good conclusion, you should listen to all side. As I know his demonstration may be legal because during meeting with all union leader, they vote for or against for raising salary to $61. The majority of vote support and agree with this increasing. So what Mr. Ath thun do is against the spirit of that meeting because from the majority, all unions agreeed already that is why they sue him. They just ask green light from PM.
You see: when monkeys become PhDs, the country is heading deeper in the pond of excriment. I fail to believes the Cambodia laws concerning the Khmer people's rights as its citizens. The communist monkeys have so far enforced laws of absolutism, but why Khmer people still vote for the CPP?
Because only minority see negative sign but majority tired of disputes with each other. Because we believed to much the west espicially America and solcialism China and Soviet in the past, we created our own civil war. People now do not believe those theories but they beleive their own eyes and the majority see positive sign that is why they vote for CCP. Like this demonstration, it is stupid act. How come they did the demonstration at this time? Another way they agree to increase to $61 is suitable for Cambodia to compete market with Vietnam or China. If $91, the company better to move to Vietnam with higher quality of staffs, better infrastructure. Do you understand?
So ah hun Sen decides he wants to sue the cambodian union leader on behalf of the private sector that are mainly operated by foreigners. Because these Cambodian workers were denied the rights to head to the bargaining table and negotiate a new wage increase based on the welfare of the people, they had to resorting to strikes to have their needs taken into consideration. Hun Sen shouldn't even be part of this. This is something between the employees and the company. And what rights does hun Sen have to even consider filing a lawsuit? I've never seen such a retarded dipshit ever in the world of politics . The guy is really fucked up in his head. Him and the CPP are a bunch of jungle monkeys who don't know civilization, allowed to live in Phnom Penh and have power. Savages and Viet whores they are and will be.
When it comes to labor wages, Vietnam's government sternly negotiates with foreign companies and demands from them that there will be an adjustable payscale before these companies set foot into Vietnam. Vietnam works it out for its citizens. On the other hand, Cambodia's government doesn't do that. Cambodia allows foreign companies to have free reign over every decision making regarding labor issues. Cambodia also doesn't support its unions. Cambodia's government, mainly the cpp only sees these labor issues as an annoyance.
The Govt is already acting generously by suing the unions. The strikes are illegal as someone pointed earlier. If the strikes are illegal, the Govt can arrest the union leaders for causing chaos and public disorder. By suing the unions, the Govt is already considered reasonable and kind in this case.
8:32PM,
All the demonstrators are not stupid. The one who is completely stupis is you. In a democartic country, people exercise their rights against what they feel it's not right for them. You said Khmer people believed too much in the West, China, or Soviet in the past, that's why they created war among themselves (?). Tha's your dumb point of views.
Wars in Cambodia happned when the intellectuals wanted to free Khmer people and their country from the French protectorate, from the mornachy which consisted of many classes. But some intellectuals failed to stick to their main objective they had driven by their own motive to get revenged with classes which lead to the massacre of about two million people. And who are resposible for that? None, even the King, who was the figurehead of KR regime. In short, from my poor point of view, I see that some Khmer leaders are not patriotic enough towards their people and country. They are the manipulators or exploiters who have made the best of those changing situations to fullfil their own endless greed.
who say Cambodia has democracy? That is the duty of leader workers but those dictator don't opressed them. Fasade democracy!!!!!!
More or less democracy exists in Cambodia. It has existed since after the 1993 election took place. Many of those who claimed to be patriots have tried to plant democracy trees, but those trees refuse to grow due to the Cambodia soil has been barren, and due to the fact that most of those self-claimed patriots become Hun Xen's asskissers.
Huynh Xen ordered that the Union Leader be charged with a crime?
I am so speechless. So Huynh Xen doesn't want Khmer people to eat?
Khmer people all over Cambodia need
to wake up and take this guy, Huynh Xen down. He doesn't want Khmer people to live a better and eat good food like his family.
Wake up Khmer.
Of course Hun Xen wants Khmers to eat junk food just to make themselves survive, so they can vote for him in the next election. Khmer people are the victims and slaves of this puppetic regime until they understand well enough that they have been exploited by the monkey-Phds.
To 5:38PM
Tell me that you know something here! You are just another pro-AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave government supporter who like to see Ath Thun, the president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation to be killed, to be jailed, and to shut the fuck up! It is so sad that your government haven't found the real killer of Chea Vichea who was also the labor union leader!
I may not know from A to C but from D to Z but this is what I know and I see the same fucken pattern by your fucken government in trying to do away with the labor union leader of dirt poor Cambodian people for demanding a living wage!
It's a delicate balance, folks. Of course the union has the right to strike for the well being of the employees - fair pay, good working conditions... and so on. But the government has to make sure that the union don't over do it. Remember at the end, if it costs the companies more to do businesses in Cambodia than in Vietnam, Srilanka, India, ...etc, those companies will relocate and Cambodian workers will have no jobs!
Do dirt poor Cambodian people need prison labor wage or slave worker wage? Do dirt poor Cambodian people even have a choice? What dirt poor Cambodian people are asking is a living wage. The living wage may have different meaning to different countries but nobody know more or understand more about the living condition in Cambodia than dirt poor Cambodian people.
Yes...I do agree that dirt poor Cambodian people need a job but not all job!
Yeah, if the workers trying to kill the goose for its golden eggs, they may end up having no egg at all.
It is all about business competition. If salary for workers in Cambodia is higher than other country, the garment companies may just packup and move out. So it must be balance here.
To 12:07AM
If you said that dirt poor Cambodian wage is so high and I like you to show proof! Show some proofs that dirt poor Cambodian people make more in wage than other countries in the region! After all the garment sector is just one of the job creation among other sectors...
Let say that the garment sector is too competitive and dirt poor Cambodian can't compete when factoring all the cost then the garment sector need to be eliminated and start moving dirt poor Cambodian worker to other job sectors even if it would require some retraining!
Does AH HUN SEN government have a vision of the future beside holding on to the garment sector job creation for dirt poor Cambodian people? The way things go right now and soon dirt poor Cambodian workers will work for food!
You should not refer to our workers as “dirt poor”, that’s very disrespectful. By the way I’m 11:10AM, not 12:07AM.
I think the important point to look at is that the union has to be careful with their demands, and make sure that those demands are not forcing the companies to move out of Cambodia. As much as we hate it, the only reason a company can exist is its ability to make profit. If it can not make profit in Cambodia, it will move elsewhere, and who will suffer? The employees themselves.
As for retraining, yes you’re quite correct - the government needs to have some strategy. That being said, take an advise from me - don’t for someone to give you a training, because you will wait for a looooooooooooong time and it may never come. You got to plan and prepare for your own career.
How come the cost of living in Cambodia is so high?
Teachers and civil servants to name a few are asking for bribes just to supplement their regular salaries. It's a normal daily occurance.
Indian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Chinese,
Srilanka people will not work for $61 per month, even $91/month and their government will not let that happen to their people. Their government will not let the private Companies to treat their people like that.
Can someone tell me if you have seen or heard of people being charged with a crime because they are demanding for a better wage in any other part of the world?
How come the cost of living in Cambodia is so high? Good question…
One of the reason is that people are demanding higher standard of living, i.e. they eat more delicious food; they have better dresses; they spend more on their look/appearance, they’re more outgoing, …, they travel more …and so on.
1:15AM,
You have not been to that part of the world my friend. In many poor places around the world, people work for less than one dollar a day. and if they don't take the job, many others are waiting online to take their jobs.
To: All Khmer in Cambodia,
When Khmer people appeal to the government for a living wages so you can have food and buy some medicines for your children, Hun Sen denied.
Khmer need to wake up. When the next election comes and Hun Sen appeal to you for your votes, Khmer people must deny his appeal.
That is a very smart approach, and thank you for saying it 1:32AM. One should be careful though if we don't vote for Hun Sen next election, we must vote for someone that we can count on, not for someone who run away and hide in France. We saw two of them already!
The main problem is the curruption of the cpp government that takes too much money from those employers. That is why those employers cannot afford to increase their employees' salaries. This is very simple logical why the government rather helps those employers instead the poor employees. That is why the government stays on the employers side. No wonder why those employers can use military or police forces to intimidate the poor employees.
Higher standard of living is a normal aspiration for most people but to have the gap this wide...
I mean how can a teacher teach knowing his/her wage is insufficient to cover the basic needs?
Does anyone want to grow up to be a teacher in this condition?
Narrowing the affordability gap so that people can improve their living standards should be the goal of the government rather than suing the union to suppress the problem.
11:10 AM or 12:43AM,
To make workers having a reasonable salary and not the companies move out of Cambodia, the government have to know how to run the country.
The situation in Cambodia right now is the government does not know how to run the country; they only run by Yourn orders, and they do not care about the poor. The corruption is from the top to the bottom. Therefore, all the profit that the companies make, that should be able to pay the workers, is gone; the companies have to move out if the workers ask too much money.
This is because we let the monkeys run the country.
You got the point 1:48AM, and thank you for not using the f~&! words.
I would like to ask you a question. How do you define an insufficient wage and use it to justify the corruption? I think if a person has no honesty or integrity, it does not matter how poor or rich he is, he will always be a corrupted person.
If our country is to succeed, we must not accept and tolerate the excuse that it is ok for a person (teacher, government worker …etc) to be corrupted because he is poor.
The Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime and the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime are responsible for killing almost two million innocent Khmer peoples and counting.
Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kaing Guek Eav aka Samak Mith Duch
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong aka Samak Mith Yaem
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka aka Samak Mith Muth
Hun Sen...
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong aka Samak Mith Yaem
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka aka Samak Mith Muth...
Note:
Hun Sen,
Chea Sim,
Heng Samrin,
Hor Namhong aka Samak Mith Yaem,
Keat Chhon,
Ouk Bunchhoeun and
Sim Ka aka Samak Mith Muth... are also leaders and member of the Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime.
The current Cambodian government are run by Khmer Rouges.
Democratic Kampuchea Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Pol Pot
Nuon Chea
Ieng Sary
Ta Mok
Khieu Samphan
Son Sen
Ieng Thearith
Kaing Guek Eav aka Samak Mith Duch
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong aka Samak Mith Yaem
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka aka Samak Mith Muth
Hun Sen...
Committed:
Tortures
Brutality
Executions
Massacres
Mass Murder
Genocide
Atrocities
Crimes Against Humanity
Starvations
Slavery
Force Labour
Overwork to Death
Human Abuses
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime's leaders and members:
Hun Sen
Chea Sim
Heng Samrin
Hor Namhong aka Samak Mith Yaem
Keat Chhon
Ouk Bunchhoeun
Sim Ka aka Samak Mith Muth...
Committed:
Attempted Murders
Attempted Murder on Chea Vichea
Attempted Assassinations
Attempted Assassination on Sam Rainsy
Assassinations
Assassinated Journalists
Assassinated Political Opponents
Assassinated Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Assassinated over 80 members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Sam Rainsy LIC 31 October 2009 - Cairo, Egypt
"As of today, over eighty members of my party have been assassinated. Countless others have been injured, arrested, jailed, or forced to go into hiding or into exile."
Executions
Executed over 100 members of FUNCINPEC Party
Murders
Murdered 3 Leaders of the Free Trade Union
Murdered Chea Vichea
Murdered Ros Sovannareth
Murdered Hy Vuthy
Murdered 10 Journalists
Murdered Khim Sambo
Murdered Khim Sambo's son
Murdered members of Sam Rainsy Party.
Murdered activists of Sam Rainsy Party
Murdered Innocent Men
Murdered Innocent Women
Murdered Innocent Children
Killed Innocent Khmer Peoples.
Extrajudicial Execution
Grenade Attack
Terrorism
Drive by Shooting
Brutalities
Police Brutality Against Monks
Police Brutality Against Evictees
Tortures
Intimidations
Death Threats
Threatening
Human Abductions
Human Abuses
Human Rights Abuses
Human Trafficking
Drugs Trafficking
Under Age Child Sex
Corruptions
Bribery
Embezzlement
Treason
Border Encroachment, allow Vietnam to encroaching into Cambodia.
Signed away our territories to Vietnam; Koh Tral, almost half of our ocean territory oil field and others.
Illegal Arrest
Illegal Mass Evictions
Illegal Land Grabbing
Illegal Firearms
Illegal Logging
Illegal Deforestation
Illegally use of remote detonate bomb on Sokha Helicopter, while Hok Lundy and other military officials were on board.
Lightning strike many airplanes, but did not fall from the sky. Lightning strike out side of airplane and discharge electricity to ground.
Source: Lightning, Discovery Channel
Illegally Sold State Properties
Illegally Removed Parliamentary Immunity of Parliament Members
Plunder National Resources
Acid Attacks
Turn Cambodia into a Lawless Country.
Oppression
Injustice
Steal Votes
Bring Foreigners from Vietnam to vote in Cambodia for Cambodian People's Party.
Use Dead people's names to vote for Cambodian People's Party.
Disqualified potential Sam Rainsy Party's voters.
Abuse the Court as a tools for CPP to send political opponents and journalists to jail.
Abuse of Power
Abuse the Laws
Abuse the National Election Committee
Abuse the National Assembly
Violate the Laws
Violate the Constitution
Violate the Paris Accords
Impunity
Persecution
Unlawful Detention
Death in custody.
Under the Cambodian People's Party Hun Sen Khmer Rouge Regime, no criminals that has been committed crimes against journalists, political opponents, leaders of the Free Trade Union, innocent men, women and children have ever been brought to justice.
I am 100% agree with 4:46 AM.
I am 100% agree with 9:02 PM.
In Cambodia under the control of Hun Sen , the government or the government official can sue anyone they like to regardless of wrong or right because the Court is the tool of CPP . Whatever Hun Sen says the Court will have to follow or those judges will be out of job.
why don't we use a peaceful solution such as a win/win strategy instead of killing each other. Using forces such as Pol Pot was a disaster.
Is this democratic when you want higher salary, you demontrate? what standard? it is a joke. If you have other job with higher pay, please go ahead. $91? I will move my factory to Vietnam with better staff, low cost of transportation and other infrastructure. Don't try to rob.
The union can call a strike when negociation for better wages fails..and yes it's democratic
3:45am, maybe you want to hold off the relocation of your factory to Vietnam for now...
"Even after a pay rise, the monthly wage for a textile worker starts at $84, says Nguyen Tung Van, head of the Communist Party-run textile workers’ union, from his office in the abandoned compound. The industry employs around 1.7m people. Makers of footwear, furniture and more also gain from supplies of cheap labour."....
http://www.economist.com/node/16953208?story_id=16953208&fsrc=rss
Ah Hun Sen doesn't want the Khmer peoples to make more than $61 dollar per month.
Ah Hun Sen think that the Khmer peoples make too much money already with $61 dollar a month.
The Khmer peoples must not vote for ah juoy marai Hun Sen and his Khmer Rouge party (Cambodian People's Party).
ah doggy hun xen, chea xim, heng xamrin, if your bastard want to move your bloody factory to yuon, go, go right now, don't stay to suck more blood from Khmer people, ah doggy yuon slave.
justice lover at Phnom Penh Capital
OMG! I can not believe this,,HUn SEn hates his own people and try to kiss ass a foreinger owned factories..if hun sen keeps doing like this how can the country be stable in peace..khmers are crying for peace..HUN SEN WILL DIE LIKE POL POT NO PROPER BURIAL GROUND....
KHMER PRIDE
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