Strike impact

AS thousands of garment workers took to the streets yesterday in a bid to raise minimum wages, manufacturers considered the potential fallout from mass strikes this week.

Ken Loo, secretary-general of Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said employees from 19 GMAC factories went on strike, and that 10 had seen production stop.

Though it was too early to estimate the costs of the strikes on owners, he said that all those involved in the manufacturing process – from factory owners, to buyers and workers – could be affected.

“It affects buyers. Sometimes, good clients help us and allow us to delay goods consignments - but the delay is not free.The factories have to discount [the cost] for them, so we can send goods to them late,” he said.

He said that if Cambodia does provide favourable conditions for investors they may look abroad for business, for workers that could mean unemployment.

An anonymous official at Yung Wah Industrial (Cambodia), which makes knitted and woven T-shirts in Kandal’s Takhmao district, said that around 30 percent of its workers went on strike.

The workers are asking for the minimum wage to be raised to US$93 a month.