Cambodia election: Workers hoping for a brighter future as country poised to go to polls

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen is set for re-election on Sunday, as the country goes to the polls. But, as David Eimer reports, the 300,000-plus people who work in the booming textiles industry have emerged as his most visible and militant opposition.

Workers outside the M & V factory where H & M clothes are made on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.  Photo: Andrew Chant

 

The Telegraph | 27 July 2013

Phoeun Chenda has spent the last 10 years of her life working in a factory in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, cutting out the material that goes to make the clothes sold by some of the biggest brand names in the world. 

Now, she's had enough. 

"If I had land, I'd be a farmer. At least I'd get to see the sun," said the 27-year-old. "I start work at seven in the morning and then work through to six or eight in the evening with just one break for lunch. By the time I get home, I'm too tired to do anything." 

Working that gruelling schedule six days a week earns Ms Phouen the Cambodian minimum monthly wage of $80 (£52). 

"It's not enough to live on, not even for one person. We think we need $150 (£98) a month to live and be able to send money home to our families," said her colleague, Phy Phearith.

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Now, people like Ms Phouen and Ms Phy are taking to the streets to express their discontent. In the last two months alone, they and thousands of other employees making clothes for western giants like Gap, H&M, Levi's and Nike have gone on strike. 

For Asia's millions of garment workers, Cambodia is the new front line in the battle for higher pay and better working conditions. And with the country preparing to go to the polls on Sunday for national elections, the 300,000-plus people who work in the booming textiles industry have emerged as the most visible and militant opposition to long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP). 

"In Cambodia, land and labour rights are the key concerns of ordinary people," said Naly Pilorge, the director of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights. "Corruption is a huge issue too, but the underlying theme is injustice." 

Ms Phouen and Ms Phy work in one of the five factories in Phnom Penh owned by a Chinese company, one of the many that have begun moving their manufacturing from China, where wage costs are steadily growing, to neighbouring countries were labour is still cheap. 

The company, M&V Manufacturing Limited, based in Macau, employs around 15,000 people in Cambodia, where their factories supply H&M, the Swedish company that is the world's second-largest fashion retailer. It makes ladies' sweaters that sell for up to £24.99 each in the UK. 

Because H&M subcontract their manufacturing they referred The Sunday Telegraph's inquiries about pay and working conditions to M&V, which did not respond to requests for comment. 

With the minimum monthly wage in the manufacturing heartland of Shenzhen in southern China now 1,600 Yuan (£170), according to the China Labour Bulletin, Cambodian workers are paid less than a third of what their Chinese equivalents earn. 

Those low costs are the main reason why the World Economic Forum estimates that Cambodia's textiles sector was worth almost £3 billion last year. With clothes making up a staggering 80 per cent of the country's exports, the industry is growing so fast that an estimated 50,000 additional workers are needed to staff the new factories opening every month. 

The mostly female workers complain that the conditions are tough as they are pressed by their mainly Chinese overseers to work long hours with just the shortest of breaks. 

"We're always being told to work faster," said Oun Sam Oun, 35, who works for M & V. 

She and Ms Phy, 26, live in the narrow, squalid lanes of the suburbs of south-eastern Phnom Penh, where many of the factories are located – a world away from the increasingly prosperous streets of the centre of the capital. 

That disparity only fuels the anger of the garment workers towards Hun Sen's regime, which has been in power for 28 years. 

"The government should come and see how we are treated," she said. 

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has proposed raising the minimum wage to US$150 (£98) a month, all but guaranteeing that no garment workers will be voting for Hun Sen or his party. 

Few observers expect Mr Hun to lose his grip on power, thanks to the CPP's total control of the media and its alleged manipulation of electoral rolls. 

But the garment workers' support for the CNRP is likely to have a positive effect on their future. 

"At the moment, the government takes the side of the brands; they don't enforce the labour laws," said union leader Kong Athit. 

"And the brands don't talk about money, they say 'talk to our suppliers.' 

"If the CNRP win more seats at the elections, it will put more pressure on the CPP to improve things," he said. 

Ms Phy, the textile worker, is hopeful that things may change. 

"We don't know how much people in the West pay for the clothes we make. But we know they're expensive. We don't think it's fair that we get so little for making the clothes and they get sold for so much more than that. It's not just."