Survey: More anti-union repression in Asia

8/06/2011
Achara Ashayagachat
Bangkok Post

Anti-union repression often results in the dismissal of workers who were active in the defence of their rights. In Cambodia, 817 workers from the clothing sector were fired or suspended following a national strike in September.

A global survey revealed the increasing trend of anti-union repression in Asia-Pacific, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The 2011 annual survey of violations of trade union rights in the world has shown anti-union repression increases in Asia-Pacific. Thailand was also mentioned in the survey that "Employers display an openly anti-union attitude while the government goes as far as providing training on trade union surveillance," according to the survey released this morning worldwide.

On Thailand scenario, the survey concluded that "the legal framework is not conducive to trade union activities. Union members suffered discrimination due to their union activities, and there were overt indications that the government would support employers over workers in labour disputes. Employers remained fiercely anti-union. Government attacks on migrant workers continued."

Unions lobby Subedi

Rong Chhun (left), president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, and Ath Thorn (right), president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, speak to reporters yesterday. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Thursday, 02 June 2011
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Surya Subedi, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, agreed to take concerns raised over the government’s draft union law during a one-hour meeting with union leaders Ath Thorn and Rong Chhun to a meeting of the UN in Geneva in June, the pair told reporters yesterday.

Outside the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Phnom Penh, Ath Thorn, president of Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, said he had raised concerns with Subedi that the law would give excessive arbitrary state control over trade unions.

“This law restricts the creation [of unions] and when they are already created it makes it easy to destroy them,” he said.

“And when they are destroyed, the leaders of [the unions] face imprisonment.”

CCHR Press Release - Freedom of Association Under FireClick

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Unions Struggle to Open Work-Place Branches

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
17 December 2007

Union leaders say they are meeting increasing difficulty opening branches in new workplaces, making it difficult to ensure workers are treated fairly.

"It's discriminating," said Pat Sambo, president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation.

"When we set up unions, they fire workers," he said, speaking as a guest on "Hello VOA" Monday.

The unions should be able to promote cooperation between managers and workers, but that has not been the case, he said.

Workers in recent months have violently clashed with police, in a union climate that has always been volatile.

Pat Sambo's union represents 3,600 workers in sectors undergoing tremendous growth in Cambodia's developing economy.

Unions are meant to protect the rights of workers, Pat Sambo said, encouraging workers who have not joined a union to do so.