In the official PRK discourse, KAFTU was referred to as "the training school of the working class for economic and administrative management".
[1] It was one of the major mass organizations during the PRK period, and it was a key constituent of the Kampuchean United Front for National Construction and Defence.
[2] During the PRK period, workers paid one percent of their income to the trade union movement.
[5] In a later response to the struggles of garment industries' workers in the new capitalist economy, the organization began to reorganize itself (as the 'Cambodian Federation of Trade Unions').
As of the mid-1990s, Men Sam An (the highest-ranking woman within the ruling Cambodian People's Party at the time, later the Deputy Prime Minister of the country) was still the head of the organization.