Garment workers in Cambodia, making apparel for the US shoe and sportswear company Nike, were attacked by police armed with electrified batons on Monday, marking a violent escalation in their battle to receive better ages at a factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the nation’s capital city.<\/p>\n
Approximately 3,000 workers, almost all women, had staged a sit-in on the road leading to the factory in order to demand an increase in health and living expenses from Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing, the local contractor hired by Nike.<\/p>\n
Reuters reports that 23 of the women were injured as police moved in, dressed in riot gear and armed with “stun batons,” which are similar to cattle prods.<\/p>\n
Along with Bangladesh\u2014which recently experienced the most deadly sweatshop disaster in the history of the garment industry when over 1,100 workers were killed in a factory collapse near Dhaka\u2014Cambodia is one of the Asian countries where western retail companies have established manufacturing bases, taking advantage of cheap labor and relaxed safety laws.<\/p>\n