FTU President Chea Mony, who was just released after a brief detention by the police, addressed the throngs of workers stopped near Wat Lanka pagoda to honor deceased Chea Vichea. Photo RFAWednesday, May 03, 2006
By Ky Soklim
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by KI-Media
The May Day celebrations continued yesterday on the airwave through “The Workers’ Voice,” a program launched in March by the FM 93.5 radio station. The main guests of yesterday’s program included Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union Workers of Cambodia, Thun Saray, Adhoc human rights group director. The program is broadcasted daily between 11:00 AM to noon, and it gives the airwave to the workers. Yesterday, the program obviously involved the eventful May Day in Phnom Penh. Listeners jammed the station phone lines to ask questions to the guests: “Were the workers forced to join the parade?”, “Will you sue the police because they arrested you?”, “What are you planning if your claims are not taken into account by the government?” etc…
After repeating the details of the event of the May Day, Chea Mony replied to each question asked. “No, the workers have decided to demonstrate on their own to celebrate May Day.” “No, I will not sue the police because, first of all, it is the government which violated the constitution by preventing this demonstration from happening.” Regarding the [union] demands, the union leader promised to send next week the complete list of demands to the government and the National Assembly. “We hope that the government will provide a favorable answer to our demands. If not, we will call for a general strike countrywide,” he warned. The main demand made by the union is the increase of the minimum salary to $82 for the factory workers, and $100 for the government workers. “If the government does not increase these salaries, it means that it is interested neither in the factory workers nor in the government workers, and least of all the nation,” Chea Mony claimed.
Besides offering an opportunity for the unions to voice out, “The Workers’ Voice” raises all the union problems and gives them advices, explains Dr. Ly Srey Vina, the sponsor of the program. “We are touching upon several health questions and we are making an attempt to warn the workers of the dangers that may lurk. For example, [we warned the workers] of these false pretenders who wanted to marry them when in fact, they are already married. I don’t want to see the life of these female workers destroyed because they are infected by AIDS, or because they become unknowingly pregnant, and then lose their job. At that stage, it would be a tragedy for their families who live in the countryside because they would be deprived of an important income earner.”
If the program sponsor is happy with the response obtained by the program, even though still small, she (Dr. Ly Srey Vina) can only finance the program for another 4 months, hoping that somebody else or another organization will take it over.
After repeating the details of the event of the May Day, Chea Mony replied to each question asked. “No, the workers have decided to demonstrate on their own to celebrate May Day.” “No, I will not sue the police because, first of all, it is the government which violated the constitution by preventing this demonstration from happening.” Regarding the [union] demands, the union leader promised to send next week the complete list of demands to the government and the National Assembly. “We hope that the government will provide a favorable answer to our demands. If not, we will call for a general strike countrywide,” he warned. The main demand made by the union is the increase of the minimum salary to $82 for the factory workers, and $100 for the government workers. “If the government does not increase these salaries, it means that it is interested neither in the factory workers nor in the government workers, and least of all the nation,” Chea Mony claimed.
Besides offering an opportunity for the unions to voice out, “The Workers’ Voice” raises all the union problems and gives them advices, explains Dr. Ly Srey Vina, the sponsor of the program. “We are touching upon several health questions and we are making an attempt to warn the workers of the dangers that may lurk. For example, [we warned the workers] of these false pretenders who wanted to marry them when in fact, they are already married. I don’t want to see the life of these female workers destroyed because they are infected by AIDS, or because they become unknowingly pregnant, and then lose their job. At that stage, it would be a tragedy for their families who live in the countryside because they would be deprived of an important income earner.”
If the program sponsor is happy with the response obtained by the program, even though still small, she (Dr. Ly Srey Vina) can only finance the program for another 4 months, hoping that somebody else or another organization will take it over.
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