47 sweatshop workers in Cambodia nearly die from poor conditions

[Adi Shankara]

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010070540261/National-news/factory-closes-down-as-workers-pass-out.html



Factory closes down as workers pass out

Monday, 05 July 2010 15:01 Mom Kunthear

AUTHORITIES ordered the temporary closure of a garment factory in the capital’s Meanchey district yesterday after 47 of its employees fainted while working.

Tep Bora, the chief of Boeung Tumpun commune, said 22 workers at the Pine Great (Cambodia) Garments factory collapsed on Friday, followed by 25 more on Saturday.

“We have decided to postpone [the operations of] the Pine Great factory for a period until they find the reason those workers fainted,” he said yesterday.

He added that a further 50 workers had reported headaches after shifts at the factory.

Tep Bora said that those who suffered fainting spells recovered after being sent to the Cambodian-Russian Friendship Hospital and were resting at home.

“We do not know for sure whether they fainted because of the chemicals that preserve the clothes, because we are still investigating,” he said.

Pok Vanthat, director of the Occupational Health Department at the Ministry of Labour, said yesterday that his department had yet to investigate the incident, but denied chemicals were a likely cause.

“It could be caused by a variety of different reasons, such as the bad environment in the factory, shock from seeing other workers faint or not eating enough food with enough vitamins,” he said.

Factory managers and affected workers could not be reached for comment yesterday.

[Adi Shankara]

http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-stungmeanchey.htm

I think it's REALLY important for anyone interested in asian poverty to read this--much ado has been made since Cambodia has officially abandoned communism in favor of free markets--yet look what we have hear...and read the story of Em Phoeun...what makes it more sad is my ex-girlfriend's grandparents (who I'm still close with) still live like this and she can't do anything about it because her parents have been both deported back to cambodia, and she can't support her grandparents because she is trying her hardest to send remittance to Cambodia for her parents (who are both subsistence farmers again)...

man life is hard for others...and I feel so spoiled here:


In late 1999, Phoeun's mother, who used to haul 50-kilogram bags of cement on her back, had a mishap with one of those sacks and hasn't worked since. Having no money, she has never seen a doctor for whatever injury it is she received. Occasionally, Phoeun can scrape up enough extra money to buy a little medicine for her mother but most of her earnings have to buy food. Her younger brother, age 9, can occasionally be bothered to help at the dump and her older sister works in a nearby cement factory. On a good day Phoeun makes 2,000 riels (52 cents), but often settles for earning only a thousand.This is the shit that keeps me a communist.

[RebelDog]

In late 1999, Phoeun's mother, who used to haul 50-kilogram bags of cement on her back, had a mishap with one of those sacks and hasn't worked since. Having no money, she has never seen a doctor for whatever injury it is she received. Occasionally, Phoeun can scrape up enough extra money to buy a little medicine for her mother but most of her earnings have to buy food. Her younger brother, age 9, can occasionally be bothered to help at the dump and her older sister works in a nearby cement factory. On a good day Phoeun makes 2,000 riels (52 cents), but often settles for earning only a thousand.In western economies we still have the old Marxist idea that the workers are paid sutainance enough to feed/clothe/house him/herself and keep the family unit fed etc, in order to bring up the next generation of workers. Glaobalisation has brought a real problem whereas these corporations are basically using the workers as disposable wage-slaves. They are not ensuring or caring that the next generation of workers live to be workers and rent themselves to the process. They are going in, taking everything they can, and then moving on to the next hell-hole to brutally exploit its population and decimate its environment. To borrow something else from Marx, it is only when we unite as a class that we will be able to stop this hell that is enslaving and emiserating these workers and their families in Cambodia and elsewhere. The biggest tragedy for me is that kids, instead of learning, playing and developing free from the stress of poverty, are having to go out and work for a pittance in an attempt to keep the family unit functioning. Instead of enjoying their childhood free and safe, they only know this misery. Capitalism is a weapon of mass destruction.

[Nolan]

Wow that's literally a sweatshop. Does stuff like this happen often?

[Muzk]

Wow that's literally a sweatshop. Does stuff like this happen often?


/sarcasm

[dearest chuck]

would the american labor force start dying off faster than it could reproduce itself if we scrapped minimum wage laws, busted unions, and so on?

[Nolan]

/sarcasm

We rarely hear about things like this, at least not on such a scale. You're not funny.

[Adi Shankara]

We rarely hear about things like this, at least not on such a scale. You're not funny.

That's generally true--in the West, it's almost like they're afraid to tell us, lest we grow guilty and remorseful over buying goods made from sweatshop labor--I try to buy everything fairtrade when I can, but to be honest, I'm not a wealthy person, if I had to buy everything fairtrade, I'd be out of luck and out on the street.