Cambodian clothes workers fight to stitch a living

The minimum wage for garment and footwear workers is $61 a month

Unions say garment workers' wages are not enough to cover living expenses

The textile industry has been hard hit by a fall in exports during the economic crisis

via CAAI

By Michelle Fitzpatrick (AFP)

PHNOM PENH — It's mid-morning in the Cambodian capital and Pat La is one of dozens of workers breaking for lunch at the Pine Great Garments plant, which makes clothes for US retailers like Gap and Walmart.

The 30-year-old mother was among the tens of thousands of textile workers who took part in a four-day mass strike earlier this month to demand higher wages -- the latest bout of worker unrest in Asia.

She says she joined the stoppage because she cannot get by on the 50 dollars a month she earns making T-shirts.

"I am working to survive," the softly-spoken woman, who left her home province of Prey Veng east of Phnom Penh to eke out a living in the capital, tells AFP as she scans nearby stalls for a bite to eat after the early shift.

Half her wages are spent on rent, she explains, and after paying for food, bills and baby formula for her four-month-old daughter, "there is nothing left".

By putting in overtime beyond the basic eight-hour day and working six days a week, Pat La can push her monthly income up to 60 or 70 dollars.

It is more than many people earn in Cambodia, where gross national income per capita stood at 640 dollars in 2008, or roughly 53 dollars a month, according to the World Bank.

The country has a big rich-poor gap, with about 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line in 2007, according to the Bank's data.

Pat La's colleague Chhom Saroth, 22, who also took part in the walkout, says working at the plant "is a good job".

"But if we don't do overtime, we cannot survive on our basic salary," she adds.

The mass strike from September 13 to September 16 came after the government and industry set the minimum wage for garment and footwear staff at 61 dollars a month.

That is more that a textile worker would take home in Bangladesh, where thousands of garment workers also took to the streets of the capital in August to demand higher wages.

But Cambodia's unions say it is not enough to cover living expenses and want a base salary of 93 dollars.

The industrial action only ended when the government stepped in and arranged talks between the two sides that started on Monday.

Pat La has low expectations for the negotiations and says she is willing to settle for less than unions are demanding.

"Maybe from 80 dollars a month -- that would do," she says.

Union leaders say that at the height of the strike, some 200,000 garment workers across the country failed to show up for work.

But secretary general Ken Loo of the Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia (GMAC) estimates that 45,000 people missed work during the stoppages, of which about 20,000 picketed outside factories.

Ahead of Monday's talks, manufacturers warned that increasing the minimum wage was out of the question, "but there is always room for negotiation with respect to other allowances or bonuses", says Ken Loo.

Union leader Ath Thun, head of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, accepts that the employers are unlikely to budge on the wage issue, and says the unions will instead seek other concessions, such as daily food allowances.

Cambodia's garment industry -- which also produces items for brands such as Benetton, Adidas and Puma -- is a key source of foreign income for the country and employs about 345,000 workers, mainly women.

"I believe working conditions are generally good for the garment workers," says Tun Sophorn, a national coordinator at the International Labour Organisation, who has visited dozens of Cambodian factories.

"Labour inspections have intensified" and there are "strong unions" in the workplace, he explains.

The industry was hit hard last year when the global economic crisis saw exports drop to 2.7 billion dollars, from 3.1 billion dollars in 2008.

However, during the first seven months of this year, exports increased 13.4 percent to 1.6 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

GMAC says the strike cost the sector 15 million dollars and harmed its reputation abroad.

"We know that a few factories have had their orders cancelled" as buyers worry about possible damage to their brand image, Ken Loo says, declining to name the plants or customers involved.

But Pat La, who doesn't know the retailers she is sewing for, has more pressing concerns on her mind.

Taking part in the walkout cost her four days' pay so she expects to take home just 40 dollars this month -- not enough to make ends meet -- and going on strike again would be a luxury she cannot afford.

"I am broke now," she says with a shy smile.