Sophorn Yang Defies Threats to Aid Cambodian Garment Workers

Sophorn Yang, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), helps lead national campaigns to win a fair wage and to protect workers’ fundamental rights in the face of restrictive Cambodian trade union laws.

Despite receiving threats because of her activism, she remains committed to her mission of bringing more women workers into union leadership, and to the leading the Cambodian worker movement to achieve a nationwide living wage.

“My name is Yang Sophorn, and I am president of Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU). I would like to tell people about the living condition of workers in Cambodia. We have seen that their living situation is very difficult. Garment workers work long hours, from Monday to Saturday and Sunday, and they work between 10 and 12 and 14 hours per day.

“Their wage does not correspond to the needs of their living expenses, which means, they only get $150 a month when they work for eight hours per day. So, generally they try to ask for overtime, etc. Therefore (to sum up), these are the difficulties and hardships of garment) workers in Cambodia.”

(Read more about Yang here.)