Garment orders plunge 40 percent – Phnom Penh Post

More numbers on the garment sector impacts in Cambodia:

About 70 factories have shut their doors since the economic crisis started to hit Cambodia last August, and more than 51,000 workers have lost their jobs or seen their contracts suspended, say industry officials.

“We have received only 60 percent as many orders as last year, and that figure may continue to decrease without urgent measures,” said Van Sou Ieng.

Typically, GMAC is attempting to blame the unions:

Van Sou Ieng called Sunday for the country’s 1,000 unions to limit their activities while the sector faces problems.

“Some union activities are leading to fewer orders and are leading to thousands of job losses, so [unions] must be careful with their actions,” said Vann Sou Ieng. “I would like to publicly announce to the world that no matter what obstacles we face, Cambodia will not die. I will try to look for new markets and new buyers.”

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodia, rejected the GMAC accusation, saying that many of the factories closing down were simply avoiding taxes.

“This is just GMAC’s accusation,” he said. “GMAC cannot blame strikes – there have been no strikes in the first two months of 2009, but 70 factories closed.”

via The Phnom Penh Post – Garment orders plunge 40 percent.

Garment industry unravels

Well, we saw it coming, but the numbers are still good to have, and deeply alarming.

Garment exports – the country’s chief source of foreign exchange – contracted in January to less than a third of their value compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce announced Tuesday.
…

Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said that garment exports generated revenue of only US$70 million in January, compared with $250 million in January 2008, a situation the Ministry of Finance acknowledged was a troubling signal of tough times ahead.

Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that, after years of growth, Cambodia’s gross domestic product would shrink by 0.5 percent this year in the most negative assessment yet of the Kingdom’s economic health.

This contraction comes largely due to falling demand for Cambodian garments, the IMF said.
…

Officials with the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia [GMAC], which holds accounts with large Western brands – including Gap, Nike and Adidas – said that in previous years orders were placed in October for the 12 months  ahead.

But given the downturn, these companies are now placing orders on a monthly basis, GMAC officials said, predicting that things will get worse before they get better.
…
The Free Trade Union of Cambodia said Monday that more than 20,000 garment workers have already lost their jobs this year, with another 10,000 at risk of becoming unemployed as more garment factories face closure.

The Phnom Penh Post – Garment industry unravels.

Cambodian Garment Factories Closing: Debate about causes, None about effects

Garment Factories closing, fast. Alarm bells? Phnom Penh Post:

Cambodia’s garment exports to the US – the Kingdom’s largest foreign textile market – totaled US$1.8 billion in the first nine months of 2008, slightly down from the same period last year, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.

Last year, the sector exported $2.9 billion worth of garment produced in 319 factories that employed more than 380,000 workers, according to figures from Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce.

But some 30 garment factories have closed their doors so far this year, leaving nearly 20,000 workers unemployed, said Van Sou Ieng, president of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC).

The effects of these wide-spread layoffs could be devastating for many impoverished families in the countryside, for whom the monthly salaries of relatives working in factories are one of the few sources of income available to them.

The Cambodian garment slowdown is rooted in the US recession, which has seen sharp drops in clothing sales, industry officials say.

US retailer sales tumbled in November, the worst monthly decline in almost four decades, according to Bloomberg, and the Dow Jones US Retail Index is down about 28 percent on the year.

…

Nuon Veasna, an employee education coordinator for the International Labour Organisation in Cambodia, said the increasing effects of international market turmoil has made it more difficult for unions to protect workers rights.

“It has always been difficult to demand worker protections from employers, but it has become harder as purchase orders continue to fall,” he said.

But Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Workers, says Cambodia’s garment sector has remained largely unaffected by international markets.

“For me, I do not believe the global economic crisis has affected factories much because the industry has made a lot of
progress recently,” he said, saying instead that the decisions by individual investors to close shop in Cambodia were to blame for the layoffs.

“The closing of garment factories is the result of long-time investors who want to pull out of Cambodia … in order to escape legal confrontations with their workers,” he said.

“I remain sceptical as long as there is no confirmation from relevant ministries or [national auditors] that factories have closed because of the global crisis,” he said.

Reasons for the growing decline in garment sales might vary, but the effects are not in dispute.
Sitting on a hammock beneath a plastic tarp, 29-year-old Se Thy has created a makeshift camp in front of Phnom Penh Garment City Ltd in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district.

He represents 500 workers seeking compensation for lost wages.
“I have been waiting here for 10 months since the factory closed,” he said.

Philippines grants duty-free status for more Cambodia goods | balita-dot-ph

This is good news for Cambodian garment factories. Maybe the owners will stop trying to illegally destroy unionizing efforts in their factories now, as a factory which supplies Puma and Adidas is currently attempting to do.  Don’t hold your breath, though

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 1 – The Philippines has granted duty-free privileges to more imports from Cambodia in line with the ASEAN Integration System of Preferences (AISP), according to Cambodian Ministry of Commerce.

Products from Cambodia that will be duty-free are clothing, as well as products made of textiles other than ramie, linen or silk.

A preference is a unilateral offer made by old ASEAN members – or the so-called “preference-giving” countries the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – to new ASEAN members or the “preference-receiving” countries Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

This is meant to narrow the development gap among these countries and to facilitate the integration of new ASEAN members.

via Philippines grants duty-free status for more Cambodia goods | balita-dot-ph

Link Dump N24

Garment Jobs expected to be cut in Cambodia. Numbers of closed factories range from 25-35, and estimates of those laid off already have reached 20,000. [see also DAS]

Chea Mony, of the FTUWKC, has expressed confidence that the garment sector will survive and be relatively unaffected. I sure hope he’s right.

Obama is the antichrist. Right. via Anthropophagus

Savage Minds wrote a note on the legacy of Studs Terkel for Anthropology. No doubt. Also included are links to the many audio files available on the studsterkel website.

Also over at Savage Minds, a fantastic image of Franz Boas from the cover of a 1936 Time Magazine:

Union News

While a few Cambodian labor unions are, in my opinion, wasting their time mobilizing marches to support the nationalists who spend far too much time worrying about the border, one of their real enemies has launched a campaign so offensive it left me speechless. [for a greater threat to union workers, see here]

ECKO, a company which brands and sells clothing made in Asia and Latin America, including Cambodia, has launched an ad campaign called “Hot Girls Make Great Clothes.” Here’s the splash ad – you can google it yourself if you want to see more of the garbage they are peddling.

While I hardly want to impugn the ‘hotness’ of the vastly female workforce that labors in difficult, often abusive, and vastly underpaid circumstances in the factories that actually produce the clothes ECKO brands and sells for enormous profits, I can pretty much assure you that none of them wear bikinis to work.

A visit to the website of OceanSky International, the holding company which owns the notoriously violent and repressive Suntex Garment Factory in Cambodia, shows that they have removed most of their customer listings from their website. When I last checked, however, they were supplying to ECKO in addition to the GAP, DKNY, &c. This company does claim to currently supply ECKO.

I can’t help but wonder what factory workers in Cambodia would think if they saw this egregious campaign. Maybe I’ll show them on my next visit and videotape their responses.

Press Release From the FTUWKC Union

Union organizers from the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) have been fired from their jobs at the Shoe Premier Factory in Cambodia. Hoeurn Tarith and Sen Sithourn, both of the FTUWKC, were fired fro their positions at the factory. This firing is an illegal action, according to Cambodian law. The press release follows after the jump. See also the union’s response to the claim that strikes are the Garment Industry’s “HIV”, a claim made by an official of the Garment Manufacturer’s Association of Cambodia (GMAC).

Are Unions to Blame for Cambodia’s Market Slowdown?

Of course not. The massive economic crisis just beginning to wrack Cambodia’s two largest markets – the United States and Europe – is very obviously the cause, in addition to increased competitive threats from the industries in China and Vietnam, countries which both ban trade unions (or have a single state-dominated one, which amounts to the same thing).

But the owners of Cambodian garment factories will use any threat on the industry’s health to blame the unions, which have been getting stronger, and more effective over the years. We begin to see, even from abroad the development of a real, militant, and mature union movement in Cambodia.

In an article in the Phnom Penh Post, one of those owners makes an unbelievably dumb comment on this front:

“It would be nice if the ministry allows only three unions,” said Nguon Meng Tech, Director General of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, warning that the sector could collapse if it does not pick up the pace.
“Look at China, there are no unions. People love working hard to make money,” he said.

Just three unions? Dumb idea, but if I could choose? FTUWKC (Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia), CITA (Cambodian Independent Teachers Association), and CCWDU (Cambodian Garment Workers Democratic Union).

As for the China comment – good gracious. People love eating too, buddy.

Weekend Links

Because I need to start tomorrow morning with no distractions – here’s the stuff that’s been occupying cramped headspace this weekend:

* DAS has done the best job of commenting on the latest round of press killings in Cambodia. I’m not sure why these don’t get more press than they do – perhaps no press killings get much press? Perhaps it’s because the Cambodian press is not more respected? Perhaps it’s just third-world racism? Or perhaps it’s just because there’s no way you could ever give sufficient attention to this sort of murder – the kind where they not only shoot the target, but then murder the man’s son as he comes to give aid to his dying father. Khem (Khim) Sambo and his son Khat Sarinpheata were cremated today.
* Not sure yet what to think about the recent set of news reports on the slowdown (or feared slowdown) in Cambodia garment factories. These stories have a cycle, tied to the renewal of quotas and trade agreements, but there’s always a lot of genuine fear and worry. This one’s pretty heartrending.
* Some jackass thought it would be a good idea to use the final line of a Khmer proverb for the title of his dissertation. Nicholas Farrelly over at New Mandala quoted it. Nice of him. But isn’t using the last line kind of like titling your dissertation “There once was a man from Nantucket”? (I know, that’s the first line – but you really expect me to put the last line in a blog post?
* Also over at New Mandala – a good post (actually, a couple) on the supposed exceptionalism regarding takes on the Burmese Junta. Nope, they probably aren’t any more thuggish or ignorant than other regimes. Maybe just worse at PR? (see also, Charles Tilly, Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime)
* And yet another example of the end of civilization. Oprah reaction shots.

Cambodian Exports Down (To the US)

This is not good news. From Xinhua, via KI-Media

In the last three months of 2007, apparel exports to U.S. were 352 million U.S. dollars, 30 percent below the 2006 level, according to the ministry.

In the first three months of this year, exports to U.S. slipped1.44 percent compared with the same period last year, to some 500 million U.S. dollars, it said.

But wait, there’s more:

But overall, Cambodian apparel exports have increased slightly,4.78 percent in the first three months of this year over the same period last year, because of rising demand in Europe and Canada, it added.

Exports to EU have been on the rise since 2003, a trend that has been bolstered by the falling dollar, said Kaing Monika, external affairs manager for the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia.

Oh, and also:

Rising production costs in China have worked in Cambodia’s favor, as buyers search for alternative sources of clothing, he added.