Workers face off with police

Disgruntled workers look on as tyres burn outside the Tack Fat Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district yesterday. Police and protesters clashed during the day after about 1,000 former employees of the factory briefly blocked National Road 2. The workers are demanding compensation following the closing of the factory earlier this month. (Photo by: Sreng Meng Srun)

Garment factory workers scuffle with police during a protest outside Tack Fat Garment Factory in Meanchey district yesterday. About 1,000 former employees participated in the protest. (Photo by: Sreng Meng Srun)

Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Tep Nimol
The Phnom Penh Post

Hundreds of police wielding electric batons cracked down on a demonstration of close to 1,000 former employees of the now defunct Tack Fat garment factory yesterday, leaving about 50 people “slightly injured”, a union official said.

The demonstration was the latest flare up of a dispute between Tack Fat and more than 1,000 employees it laid off earlier this month when the company declared bankruptcy – offering only limited severance pay to those affected.

Man Sen Hak, a consultant for the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said yesterday workers had blocked National Road Number 2 to demand government intervention in the dispute.

Strike at Tack Fat garment factory

29 March 2011
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soy

About 500 workers at the Tack Fat factory held a strike on 28 March 2011. The workers burnt tires and closed National Road No. 2 in Chak Angre Leu commune, Meanchey district, Phnom Penh city. The workers refused to accept the resolution imposed by the factory owners who claimed that they went bankrupt and they refused to pay the remaining of their salary as stipulated by law.

The following photos are by Leng Maly and Kher Sonorng:

The workers burnt tires in front of the Tack Fat factory

Banners held by the workers

National Road No. 2 jammed by the workers blocking the road

A worker giving an interview to reporters

Cops preventing workers from closing down the road

Cops preventing workers from closing down the road

Cops preventing workers from closing down the road

Tack Fat garment factory workers strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCPLnIO2IBk&feature=player_embedded#at=76

Khmer Intelligence News - 13 October 2008

13 October 2008

Garment manufacturer Tack Fat has gone bankrupt (1)

The Hong Kong-based daily newspaper South China Morning Post, October 8, 2008, confirmed that Tack Fat Group International, a well-known firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the mother company of Tack Fat Garment (Cambodia) Ltd, a major garment manufacturer in this country, has gone bankrupt. The news reads as follows, "Last month [September 2008], banks applied to wind up (…) swimwear maker Tack Fat International Group after [it] defaulted on loans." Tack Fat becomes the second "collapse of a Hong Kong-listed retailer amid the financial meltdown."

According to a business analysis, "Tack Fat Group's principal activities are designing and manufacturing of jeans, pants, shorts, swimming apparel and sportswear for men, women and children. Other activity includes investment holding. The Group has three production facilities, one of which is located in Luoding City, Guandong Province, the People's Republic of China and the other two of which are located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The majority of the Group's products are exported to the North American, European markets and other regions." http://tinyurl.com/3mpvvl

A September 16, 2008 statement by the Group's "Provisional Liquidators Appointed" specifies, "The place of incorporation of the Company is in Cayman Islands and the shares [were] suspended for trading since 9:30am, 30 July 2008." http://tinyurl.com/3lgb8a

Information about Tack Fat Garment (Cambodia) Ltd can be obtained at http://tinyurl.com/437q8l

Property prices start to fall in Cambodia (2)

Land prices, which have increased about ten-fold over the last five years, have started to fall markedly as a result of the world financial crisis and speculators being caught in a sudden property glut. An increasing number of projects are now stalled. In particular, Korean and Chinese investors, who have been most active in land development projects - which help launder corruption and other illicit money along with the gambling industry - start to repatriate a portion of their funds. Many Cambodian people who mortgaged their houses to engage in land speculation are starting to feel the pinch, being unable to pay hefty interests on loans from their banks. After a sharp decline in the number of transactions, land prices are expected to fall between 30 and 50 percent in the next twelve months.

Retail gasoline price to fall from 5,000 riels to 4,000 riels per liter (3)

Crude oil price on the international market is now at about US$80 per barrel (1 barrel = 159 liters), down from a peak of US$147 a barrel on July 11, 2008 (- 46 percent). A year ago, in October 2007, the price of crude oil on the international market was also at US$80 a barrel and the retail price of gasoline in Cambodia was at 4,000 riels per liter. Therefore, the retail price of gasoline should drop from 5,000 riels per liter now to 4,000 riels per liter in the coming days if Cambodian gasoline distribution companies were to pass on to consumers the recent decrease in their supply cost as reflected in the drop in international crude oil price.

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