According to article 36 of national constitution of the kingdom of Cambodia, which stated that, “Khmer people, both sexes, have the right to form and join union,” we, workers, working for factories all over Cambodia, decided to form a trade union called “ Free Trade Union of Khmer Workers.”
On December 10, 1996, human right's day, 158 workers in Phnom Penh signed a motion to assign and acknowledge three female workers to be their representatives to negotiate with the management of the company they worked for in order to protect right and collective interest of the workers in their factories. That was an interesting event in the history of Khmer workers and was the first step toward the first establishment of free trade union of workers in Cambodia.
On December 15, 1996, there was an official establishment ceremony of Free Trade Union of Khmer Workers and statute was signed with the support and participation of hundreds of workers. This was one of the historical days because free trade union of Khmer workers fully appeared and was tremendously declared the first free trade union in Cambodia.
On February 02, 1997, Free Trade Union of Khmer Workers, had an abnormal congress in Phnom Penh, declared to change its name to Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and approved some amendments included in this statute.
On March 07, 1999, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia had a second congress in Phnom Penh to elect a president to continue its second mandate and approved some amendments included in this statute.
On May 20, 2001, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia had a third congress in Phnom Penh to elect a president to continue its third mandate and approved some amendments included in this statute.
On May 01, 2003, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia had a forth congress at PHAKA CHHOUK TEP restaurant in Phnom Penh to elect a trade union president to continue its forth mandate and approved some amendments included in this statute.
On June 27, 2004, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia had an abnormal congress at New World restaurant in Phnom Penh to elect a new president to continue the forth mandate to replace the position of the former president who was dead.
Since the date of establishment, our free trade union has initiated and arranged the demonstrations and strikes many times at factories in Phnom Penh and provinces in order to claim the law respect and worker's right respect, and to claim to change the working condition and better living for workers. The effort of Khmer workers under our free trade union's leadership was known by the public, not only in Cambodia but also all over the world. As a proof for our free trade union's effort, a lot of national and international news published about the extent and courage of workers' strikes and demonstrations, which happened in the history of Cambodia.
The establishment of free trade union of workers of the kingdom of Cambodia, which has the meaning and objective absolutely different from what it was called “Public Organization” during the period of pre-national election prepared by United Nation in 1993, is in accord with democracy practiced by the kingdom of Cambodia today. Free trade union is not established by guidance or under control of authority. It is established by initiatives and in accord with the actual workers' aspiration. Free trade union does not work for authority's interest or is not a political tool for the authority. It works for the interest of worker only and does not involve in political affairs.
The only goal of free trade union is to protect the worker's right, to raise the standard of living and the value of all workers without discrimination of race, color, ethnic, sex, religions and political tendency.
According to the experience of developed countries in the world, workers have a strong ability to protect their rights and raise the standard of living when they join and form a free trade union in order to negotiate with the bosses, owners, or managers of the enterprises and companies.
It is only through the free trade union that workers can show their collective strength and influence on salary claim, time and working duration set; and other right claim relating to living. If individual worker stays alone and does not dare to form a trade union, most of the times capitalist and boss oppress, mistreat, persecute, look down, and force the worker to work hard for a long duration of times both day and night with the lowest salary and fire them whenever it is according to his/her will. Trade union plays a vital role in protecting worker's rights from being violated by capitalist or boss and push the capitalist and boss to respect the law and letter of standard, and also prevent from being exploited the gain of the enterprise and company by those capitalist or boss for their personal interests without thinking of the sweat, blood, and tear of the worker. If there is no worker, there is no enterprise and company either. Therefore, gain sharing must be fair which means that the worker must have salary that allows them living in an appropriate and valuable condition. Meanwhile, the worker must have other rights relating to their jobs that capitalist and boss need to respect such as the right to enjoy the same position if there is no serious mistake, the right to take leaves in appropriate duration by the law and get the full amount of salary, and the right to get appropriate monetary support when getting sick or accident...etc. If not so, the trade union has the right to invoke the worker to demonstrate and strike and use other non-violence means in accord with the law to force capitalist and boss to respect the law and worker's rights.
Workers are like chopsticks: one worker can be broken by capitalist and boss but if workers form a trade union, they are like a bunch of chopsticks which capitalist and boss cannot break. |
