dressed & undressed clothed & stripped - in the news 15-22 February 2018

CHINA

* H&M, C&A, 3M investigate China prison labour report

European fashion giants H&M and C&A, as well as technology company 3M, are looking into a report in the Financial Times alleging that inmates of a Chinese prison made packaging used by the companies.

C&A’s chief sustainability officer Jeffrey Hogue said the privately-held company owned by Swiss-based Cofra Holding AG took the allegations very seriously and was investigating.

“We have a zero tolerance policy for any form of modern slavery including forced, bonded or prison labour.
If we detect a case, we immediately terminate our relationship with the supplier,” Hogue said in an emailed statement.

Peter Humphrey, a British corporate investigator and former journalist, spent 23 months in jail in China for allegedly obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information on to clients including drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc, charges he has denied.

In an article for the Financial Times last week, Humphrey described his time in jail, including work the prisoners did: “Our men made packaging parts. I recognised well-known brands – 3M, C&A, H&M.”
…
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/global-business/hm-ca-3m-investigate-china-prison-labour-report-1538185

* ‘I was locked inside a steel cage’:

Peter Humphrey on his life inside a Chinese prison In an article in the FT it is alleged, by a former Reuters journalist and anti-corruption consultant in China, who was arrested in China, that the prison inmates were forced to produce clothes for *3M, C&A, H&M
” So much for corporate social responsibility, though the companies may well have been unaware that prison labour was part of their supply chain. “
…
https://www.ft.com/content/db8b9e36-1119-11e8-940e-08320fc2a277
You have to subscribe to read the article.
Here you can read the article in a pdf: 20180216 I was locked inside a steel cage-Peter Humphrey on his life inside a Chinese prison

VIETNAM

* Final version of Trans-Pacific trade deal released, rules pushed by US on ice
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/economy/final-version-of-trans-pacific-trade-deal-released-rules-pushed-by-us-on-ice-3713680.html

* Long-awaited CPTPP presents opportunities and pitfalls
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/195745/long-awaited-cptpp-presents-opportunities-and-pitfalls.html

CAMBODIA

* Workers protest for cash instead of leave
Nearly 1,000 workers from a shoe factory in Kampong Cham province’s Chherng Prey district protested yesterday for the fifth time to demand that the company pay their remaining annual leave as cash…
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109652/workers-protest-cash-instead-leave/

* Shoe factory workers stage rolling protests
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/109525/shoe-factory-workers-stage-rolling-protests/

* Workers ask for release of unionists
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-ask-release-unionists

* Union reps charged for ‘organising illegal strike’
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-reps-charged-organising-illegal-strike

* Court seizes factory property
Kandal Provincial Court officials and relevant authorities yesterday confiscated property from the Gawon Apparel factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao city after the court issued a protection warrant late last year.

Rann Bora, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said yesterday thatauthorities confiscated the factory’s property, but he was not aware if it had to temporarily close.
…
Early last month, the factory fired nearly 600 employees for breaching a court warrant ordering them back to work after months of protests.

The workers had been staging protests for many months, with several staff sleeping outside the factory.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109651/court-seizes-factory-property/

* Factory owners to be sued if they flee
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/109316/factory-owners-sued-flee/
&
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109503/bankrupt-factory-owners-face-court/

* Workers sell machines to cover missing wages
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109299/workers-sell-machines-cover-missing-wages/

* PM seeks action on missing wages
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109839/pm-seeks-action-missing-wages/

* Chinese man charged for beating garment workers
A Chinese national was provisionally charged and sent to pre-trial detention on Saturday for intentional violence after garment workers at Kandal-based Bing Win Garment protested his alleged beating of two women on the factory floor.

The incident occurred on Thursday, when Xue Shu Bing, 50, was accused of hitting a factory worker, who proceeded to faint, and later hitting another woman….
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chinese-man-charged-beating-garment-workers

* Major garment industry hauler says crackdown ensnaring legal trucks
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/major-garment-industry-hauler-says-crackdown-ensnaring-legal-trucks

* Garment sector still plagued by truck bans
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/garment-sector-still-plagued-truck-ban

* Garment wages soar
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109499/garment-wages-soar/

* Exports up despite a slight drop in the number of factories
…“In the garment sector, some businesses lease small factories. When their contract comes to an end, the factory closes. By contrast, bigger factories continue to operate as long as they are profitable,”..
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109563/exports-despite-slight-drop-number-factories/

* Garment workers injured in truck crash
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109837/garment-workers-injured-truck-crash/

* Groups call for charges against activists to be dropped
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/groups-call-charges-against-activists-be-dropped
&
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50109500/rights-defenders-urge-charges-dropped/
&
https://cleanclothes.org/news/2018/02/19/global-unions-international-human-rights-and-workers2019-rights-organizations-call-for-end-to-politically-motivated-prosecution-of-tola-moeun

MYANMAR/BURMA

* Striking garment workers return to work after deal
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/striking-garment-workers-return-work-after-deal.html

* VisionFund Myanmar launches loan scheme for factory workers
VisionFund Myanmar recently announced the launch of a new microfinance loan product exclusively for garment factory workers, funded by the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), according to a press release on 16 February.

The loans were first launched at the ZES garment factory located in Hlaing Thar Yar Township, with over 160 workers availing themselves of the facility, which will subsequently be extended to other factories.

Many workers in the garment sector have migrated to Yangon from rural areas. Research informing LIFT’s migration programme shows that around 20 per cent – one in five people – in Myanmar are migrating within the country, moving from rural areas to urban areas to find better jobs and training opportunities to support themselves, their families and communities back in rural areas…
http://www.mizzima.com/business-domestic/visionfund-myanmar-launches-loan-scheme-factory-workers

* Dawei SEZ is for the few, not the many
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/dawei-sez-few-not-many.html

* Petition calls on Yangon government to control factories disposing of waste water
http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/local/13426

* Government sees rise in child workers
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/government-sees-rise-child-workers.html
&
http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/local/13450

BANGLADESH

* Garment industry boom leaving workers behind
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/analysis/garment-industry-boom-leaving-workers-behind-1518803835

* ILO panel once again calls for a robust labour law
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/ilo-panel-once-again-calls-robust-labour-law-1535632

* Bring EPZ unit inspections under labour inspectorate
http://www.newagebd.net/article/35052/bring-epz-unit-inspections-under-labour-inspectorate

* Accord reports garment factories remediated 82% hazardous issues
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/accord-reports-garment-factories-remediated-82pc-hazardous-issues-1518872670
&
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/82pc-remediation-complete-accord-1536334

* 400MW solar power possible from textile units’ rooftops: study
http://www.newagebd.net/article/35053/400mw-solar-power-possible-from-textile-units-rooftops-study

* Remediation Progress Update
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
http://bangladeshaccord.org/2018/02/accord-remediation-progress-update/
&
http://www.industriall-union.org/signatories-to-the-2018-accord

* RMG market expansion faces lots of challenges
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/economy/bangladesh/rmg-market-expansion-faces-lots-of-challenges-1519188656

* Exploring new markets will sustain RMG sector, say participants at a workshop
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/economy/bangladesh/exploring-new-markets-will-sustain-rmg-sector-say-participants-at-a-workshop-1519140669

* How spinning business can be made sustainable
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views/views/how-spinning-business-can-be-made-sustainable-1518970637

* Automation threatens garment jobs
https://bdnews24.com/economy/2018/02/17/automation-threatens-jobs-for-garment-workers-in-bangladesh
&
https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/automation-threatens-garment-jobs-1518853371

* The Robots Are Coming for Garment Workers
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-robots-are-coming-for-garment-workers/ar-BBJdLau

* Factory waste pollutes Halda
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/factory-waste-pollutes-halda-1537288

* Bangladesh losing RMG market share in US
http://en.prothomalo.com/economy/news/171056/Bangladesh-losing-RMG-market-share-in-US

* Denim exports to US decline
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/export/denim-exports-us-decline-1537663

* Leather goods exporters stare at tough times
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/export/leather-goods-exporters-stare-tough-times-1538299

* Lack of diversification challenge: BFTI study
Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute has identified product and market concentration, lower productivity of workers and lack of mid-level professionals as major challenges for the readymade garment business in Bangladesh.
Despite having potentials in Commonwealth of Independent States, Oceania and Latin American
countries, high tariff and non-tariff barriers have been hindering the export of RMG to the regions, observed a BFTI study published on Tuesday.

As per the instruction of a taskforce on the RMG sector under the commerce ministry, the BFTI conducted the survey titled ‘Expansion and Facilitation of the RMG sector of Bangladesh’ and presented its summary at a workshop organised by the ministry at the CIRDAP auditorium in the capital….
http://www.newagebd.net/article/35193/lack-of-diversification-challenge-bfti-study