In Cambodia, the Solidarity Center works with Cambodian unions and other partners to protect worker rights.

Cambodian garment workers at an organizing rally. More than 300 garment unions have formed in Cambodia since 1999.

Decades of war and internal strife have left Cambodia's economy in distress. An intense struggle for worker rights is taking place in an environment where violence lurks around the corner for a new generation of union leaders and activists trying to organize and represent workers in the country's first democratic unions.

In 1997, with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Solidarity Center cooperated with the International Labor Organization to help the Cambodian government draft and pass a new labor law. The Solidarity Center, the AFL-CIO, and American garment union UNITE then worked with Cambodian garment unions to win a landmark 1999 U.S.-Cambodian textile compact that gave Cambodia access to the giant U.S. clothing market, on condition that it would comply with its own labor law and submit to ILO monitoring of factories.

Thanks to this high road approach, Cambodia's fledgling garment industry became a $1.5 billion powerhouse, employing 300,000 workers — 90 percent of them young women — as the main breadwinners for families all over the country. Over the life of the agreement, garment workers formed more than 300 unions. Recognizing Cambodia's worker rights record as the sole factor that distinguishes it from global competitors, Cambodia's unions, government, and garment industry have committed to keeping the ILO monitoring project alive. Hotel and service workers, construction workers, and teachers have followed the lead of their brothers and sisters in the garment industry, forming independent unions and winning recognition from their employers.

Strong Unions Create a Stronger Cambodia. AFL-CIO Working America staffer Alison Omens reports from Siem Reap as part of a four-member U.S. labor delegation to Cambodia sponsored by the Solidarity Center. Cambodian workers identified the three biggest reasons unions must prosper in Cambodia: unions help solve problems on the job with bosses; stronger unions mean strong workers in the workplace; and unions help create better economic conditions and a better Cambodia. Read previous posts here and here

Fired Cambodian Hotel Workers Back on the Job. The Solidarity Center helped striking hotel workers in Cambodia exercise their rights on the job.

Media Coverage

"The labor unions for the textile workers are some of the best institutions this country has ever had," U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Charles Ray told the New York Times. "The exploitation of workers cannot be a path to development — on the contrary, workers have to be treated with respect for development to work." (5/12/2005).
"The AFL-CIO Organizes in Cambodia." New York Times. (7/12/2001)
Radio Interview with Solidarity Center Field Representative Alonzo Suson. "Labor Dispute Shakes Up Cambodian Tourism." NPR. (8/14/2004)

Learn More

ITUC 2009 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights in Cambodia