Garments and textiles

The price of imported raw silk decreased to US$44 per kilogram even as raw silk production fell off, according to industry insiders. Imported raw silk dropped 12 per cent to $44 per kilogram compared to $50 per kilogram last May. Cambodia Craft Federation CEO Soeng Kemyun, said ...

A new report – 10 Years of the Better Factories Cambodia Project: A critical evaluation – has been released by Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center. Started in 2001, the goal of the Better Factories program is to improve the working conditions in ...

The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program must overhaul its monitoring practices before it can meaningfully improve working conditions in the garment sector, accoring to the authors of a new report. the new report by Community Legal Education Center and the Netherlands-based ...

Almost 150 garment factory workers from two Phnom Penh factories fainted late last week after inhaling toxic fumes used to treat clothes, workers and union leaders said yesterday. The mass faintings came as the Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center released an evaluation report ...

Better Factories Cambodia must name and shame garment factories that abuse the labour law if it is to transform Cambodia into an ethical sourcing option, a report on the International Labor Organization initiative says. Better Factories should make monitoring reports public, according to the 10 Years ...

More than 2,00 female workers from a factory in Phnom Penh that makes clothes for the U.S. brand Gap protested yesterday for a third straight day demanding that the firm sack a manager at the factory for allegedly abusing workers. Lining Russian Boulevard near the Ocean ...

Am Phalla sits outside the factory gates of apparel maker Shen Zhou (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., sharing a lunch of rice, vegetables and fried fish with coworkers. She has been sewing clothes at Shen Zhou for a little less than a year, but is unaware that the ...

About 2,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, Gap and Old Navy were stopped by security forces yesterday as they attempted to march from Kandal province to the Ministry of Labor to protest for severance payments and additional benefits. Protests at ...

About 3,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy blocked traffic for nearly five hours yesterday on National Road 4 in Kandal province, as part of a protest for more benefits and severance pay, protesters and police said. Protests ...

Roughly 4,000 garment workers at a factory supplying clothes for U.S. brands Gap, Levi Strauss and Old Navy went on strike yesterday and threatened to march in Phnom Penh on Thursday to demonstrate against poor pay. The demonstration took place at Tai Yang Enterprises in Kandal ...

Cambodia’s silk producers say they must cut costs in order to continue reaching troubled European markets, the primary target for the Kingdom’s sericulture products. Insiders said Cambodian companies must start producing their own silk for the industry to survive. Silk craftspeople import some 400 tonnes of silk ...

A representative of a factory that produces clothing for international clothing brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss warned yesterday that its buyers will place orders elsewhere if the strike for higher wages and benefits in its two factories continues. An official at the American Center for ...

Workers at a large Cambodian garment factory that makes clothes for Levi’s, Gap and other well-known international brands are striking for more pay and better working conditions. More than 5,000 workers from the Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their ...

About 3,000 garment workers from two factories that supply clothes to international brands Levi Strauss, H&M and Gap continued protesting for higher wages yesterday in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, before marching to the Ministry of Social Affairs. Upon arriving at the ministry, workers employed by the ...

More than 100 female workers fainted yesterday in Kompong Speu province at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory manufacturing clothes for the US sports brand Nike, an official from the Ministry of Labor said. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety inside the ministry’s health department, said he ...

Cambodia is importing hundreds of tons of silk from China and Vietnam to compensate for a fast-declining domestic industry, which is suffering due to producers opting to grow other crops instead or raising silk worms, according to silk producers. Men Sinoeun, director of the Artisans’ Association ...

Seng Takakneary started her business in a one-room shop with two sewing machines in 2004. Today, Ms. Takakneary’s Sentosa Silk employs about 100 staff in Phnom Penh who produce a range of fine Cambodian silk items, including pillows, curtains, bedspreads, dresses, shirts and bags. Since ...

Low wages and a lack of occupational health and safety measures led to a mass fainting on Tuesday at a Phnom Penh garment factory that produces clothes for well-known brands Wal-Mart, Target and Reebok, according to a statement released by the Community Legal Education Center ...

Europe’s continued economic troubles have weighed heavily this year on Cambodian silk producers, officials and industry insiders said yesterday. Debt woes in the euro zone, the Kingdom’s main export market for silk, have caused job losses, among other issues, according to officials. Cambodian Craft Cooperation, ...

Another worker fainted at the M&V International Manufacturing Ltd garment factory in Kompong Chhnang yesterday morning, sparking “hysteria” and resulting in 10 workers having to return home to rest, a union official said. Two mass-fainting incidents occurred at the factory, which produces clothes for outfitter ...

Three women were slightly injured while participating in a strike of about 500 workers outside the Zongtex Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district yesterday, a union representative said yesterday. Suos Sokha, head of the Rights and Profit Workers Federation of Trade Unions, said yesterday the ...

Cambodia’s Agriculture Ministry has announced plans to increase the annual production of silk from 4 tons to 400 tons by 2020. Cambodia primarily relies on silk from Vietnam and China. The project is entitled the Silk Rehabilitation Project and is funded by the UN Food ...