As
investment in Cambodia's textile industry surges, so is labour unrest,
putting pressure on suppliers to the world's big garment brands to raise
wages and improve sometimes grim conditions in one of the last bastions
of low-cost factories.Hundreds of angry workers rampaged this week
through a textile plant in Cambodia that supplies U.S. sportswear
company Nike Inc, clashing with police over their demands for a pay
hike.The violence came just weeks after over 1,100 workers were killed
in the collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh,
another impoverished Asian nation where mass-produced textiles are the
biggest export earner.Cambodia is considered one of the better locations
in the world for low-cost garment manufacturing with the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) monitoring pay and working conditions at many
factories.But strikes and sometimes violent protests have been on the
rise as unions emboldened by a shortage of skilled workers press
complaints that companies have failed to raise wages enough or improve
safety.Strikes by the country's more than 300,000 garment workers nearly
quadrupled last year to 134, according to the Garment Manufacturers
Association of Cambodia, the main industry body. The 48 strikes so far
this year are already more than in the whole of 2010 or 2011."Supply of
skilled workers is a problem," said Kaing Monika, a business development
manager at the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC),
the main industry body."Most existing factories are running at full
capacity."Nike was the latest big brand to face protest action at its
Cambodia-based suppliers in recent months, joining H&M Hennes and
Mauritz AB,In managing heavy machineries it is crucial for that tyre equipments providers
of those equipment to pay attention to the protection processes and
guidelines to prevent mishaps and accidents. Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Gap
Inc , and Puma SE among others.The international brands buy garments
from local manufacturers and do not have direct control over pay or
working conditions.Selection of tub is one of the factors that can
make-or-break overall look of your Antique faucets,
if you have decided for vintage style bathroom. But the major companies
have signed to the ILO scheme aimed at ensuring suppliers meet legal
requirements on wages and work conditions.
The
garments industry has become by far the country's biggest export
earner, with shipments up 10 percent in 2012 to $4.44 billion.Until this
year, the minimum wage in the textile sector was $61 a month, compared
to $38 in Bangladesh and more than $150 in China. The government raised
it in March to $80, including a health care subsidy, but strikers at the
Nike factory and other workers complain that wage rises have not kept
up with costs."Life is hard, we have a lot of expenses with a low wage.
Sometimes, we just borrow money from other workers," said 28-year-old
Mao Pov, one of those on strike at the Sabrina Garment Manufacturing
plant that supplies Nike as well as privately held Wilson Sporting Goods
Co.Inflation in Cambodia was 3 percent in 2012, which is low for
developing nations in Asia,The gamut uses of these chemical compounds
prevail to expand and variants of carbon sheet are
consistently being developed to fit the requirements of industries and
products they are utilized in. although many workers complain the price
of basic items has risen faster.Sweden's H&M, the world's
second-largest fashion retailer,The time when Cast iron clawfoot tubs got
whole new definition. From simple rooms with showers, they become more
elaborate set-up that include modern styles and needs of family. said a
general election scheduled to be held in July had caused some
instability among workers at plants run by its Cambodian suppliers."This
being an election year, the situation in the country was generally more
disorderly than usual during early spring," said spokeswoman Andrea
Roos. After minimum wages were increased, "the situation on the labour
market in Cambodia has been more stable", she said.Workers at the
Nike-linked plant first went on strike on May 21 even though the factory
had raised their minimum wage. The union on strike says that the health
and other benefits that were previously paid separately were folded
into the new wage, and is demanding another $14 hike.A spokeswoman for
Nike told Reuters last week that compensation at the Cambodian plant was
the responsibility of the factory,The substance utilized in making the vacuum bottle or
thermal flasks could be in different variations like plastic, glass or
even a metal. but that Nike was in "close contact" with the factory and
would "continue to monitor the situation".
The
Southeast Asian nation's textile industry has often been touted as a
model for fair production because of the ILO's Better Factories Cambodia
(BFC) programme that has monitored factories there for more than a
decade.But union leaders and activists say the programme has masked a
deterioration in workers' rights as factory owners have taken advantage
of the BFC's lack of enforcement powers and responded to pressure from
buyers for ever lower prices.Factories regularly violate union rights
and exceed legal limits on overtime work, a report by Stanford Law
School's International Human Rights Clinic released in February found.
The BFC found evidence of sharply worsening fire safety standards at
factories in its most recent report this year.In May, two workers were
killed at a factory making running shoes for Asics Corp when part of a
warehouse fell in on them at a company that was not part of the ILO
programme. Thousands of workers have been taken sick in mass fainting
incidents in recent years -- including at the Sabrina factory -- a
phenomenon that has been blamed on a combination of poor nutrition, long
working hours and poor ventilation."The brands cannot hide behind the
ILO," said David Welsh, country director at Solidarity Center in Phnom
Penh, which advocates for worker rights."If the brands are not
pressuring factories to improve, they are not going to improve because
everybody is out to make as much money in the industry as they possibly
can."
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