Submitted by Anon on 12 January, 2005 - 5:59
Cambodian police broke up a protest by 100, mostly female, garment workers on Christmas Eve. The workers were protesting over the closure of their factory.
Riot police kicked some of the women after they refused to end their sit-down protest, but there were no arrests.
Some 600 workers lost their jobs when the Ho Hing garment factory closed in November after new orders dried up.
Cambodia’s garment sector employs 300,000 workers, most of them young women who earn about $45 a month and face an uncertain future after export quotas known as the Multi-Fibre Arrangement guaranteeing access to North America and Europe expired at the end of the year.
