The Conscience of Clothing – Mode.Macht.Menschen – Episode 4

I did a simple Google search: “textile industry in Cambodia” and “factories”. And you will definitely find some photos of some production, but… I would say, 90 percent of the photos are probably… I don’t want to say posed, but definitely… photographed in a way so that you don’t see the grievances at first glance. And that’s why I wanted to see for myself what it would look like. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity because we just didn’t get a permit to film in such a factory, which I think is a shame because seeing it in person is something completely different than looking at photos on a laptop. In big factories, it’s just like the inside of a machine. So, probably the people who work there, I don’t want to say numbers, I think that would be a bit exaggerated, but I’m more interested in the connection between the employer and the employee. I think there is simply no rapport and to the employers, the people there are just a means to an end. Interchangeable. Definitely.

01:56 - So of course, the younger you are, the fitter you are at the sewing machine, and the faster you are at your work. And if someone does not do what they are supposed to do, then I can also imagine that they will be replaced very quickly. Hello. Please come in. Yeah, sure. -Hello, nice to meet you. -Hi. Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Jennifer. I’m Willy. Yes! Here is where we produce bags. It’s a brand that we started in 2006, it’s called Smateria and here is our production site. So please follow me if you want to have a look.

02:45 - We are actually operating like a big factory on a much smaller scale, because all together, including our sales team, at the moment Smateria counts 130 employees. But we really organized the work inside our workshop the same way as a factory. With the exception that we are just smaller, regarding the facility and the people working with us. -And more familiar. Way more familiar and this is why we’re actually really happy with the size that we have at the moment. Growing too much will turn the business into something different and we will lose this family, and yeah, it will be way more impersonal.

03:26 - Ok, so here we are at the first floor, it’s our real production site. So after the cutting of the pieces, all the bundles - we take them upstairs and here is where they are transforming into actual bags. So we have different lines, depending on our production needs, different groups. Yeah. We have a production manager, our production supervisor, and then we have all the line leaders, so for each group we also have one leader, someone leading and giving instructions to these groups. How many different bags are produced actually, at the moment here? How many different models? Usually we have up to 5 or 6 different groups and then it really depends on how complicated is a bag to sew, how many steps, sometimes we have to break them down into different steps, so it really depends.

04:15 - And that’s why our team is doing a fantastic job by being so flexible. Ok, here we are on our third floor. Ok. Here we host the children. All the children of all our employees are welcome to join the daycare for young children and our preschool is for the little bit older children. So children from 0 to 6 years old are welcome to join, it’s free of charge for them. For entertainment we have two nannies for the young children and two teachers. They always organize activities, they sing, they draw, they learn a little bit of english here.

04:52 - So mothers can just simply come to work with their children and they can spend their lunch break with them from 12 to 1, and then at 5 o’clock, they can go home together. Cool. Let’s see. (Children:) Hello. Hello. Hello. So here are the little bit older children, you know… they are busy drawing and doing a little crafting. And we have a library, we bought some books for the children, so we do some reading, they sing songs… Thank you very much. So, what does the business mean to you, and why? It means a lot.

05:56 - It means really really a lot for me, in this last 18 years that i spent in Cambodia. We grew over the years quite significantly. We’ve been thinking a lot about which direction we want to take now, ‘cause these days 130 people are working with us. Of course it will be possible to grow further, instead for now, for the moment, we have decided we want to focus more on increasing our work efficiency. Our team is following us and they tend to stay with us for a very long time.

06:25 - The fluctuation is not very high, which is unusual in Cambodia, especially now, where new opportunities are coming up… every minute, because everything is happening now. The country is really developing. So there are new opportunities, banks, shopping malls, restaurants, everything is happening now. So… you know, when I talk to other people that in know in town running businesses, it’s a real challenge, the high fluctuation of people. They tend to stay with you for a while and then they go, they would just go for… a few Dollars more.

06:58 - So, what do you think, what are the biggest problems in the garment industry? In Cambodia obviously, right? In Cambodia of course. I think it involves the entire fashion world you know? I mean this fast fashion has certain requirements - and this is, you know - and we live in a world where everything has to happen fast and it doesn’t matter if this t-shirt lasts very long. For lots of players in the fast fashion what is important is the final price. So they will assign their jobs, they will assign their production to whomever… is able to meet the low prices that they set.

07:37 - At that level you do not really know what happens inside the factory, right? How are the working conditions if the point is just the price? And Cambodia is becoming challenging, because… conditions are improving and the minimum wage is getting higher, then on the other hand for those players Cambodia starts to be a little bit less competitive than what it used to be. whenever I go back home and I see, like in a brand new shop, something really really cheap, in my mind I always go back to the process, “how is it possible, that it is so cheap?” At the end of the day, even if you make a very little profit or a very little margin. This is one of the reasons why we don’t want to grow too much in terms of numbers, because we want to make sure that it is really authentic what we do, from the beginning ‘till the end. So… it’s gonna take some time I think. OK. Yeah. It’s not easy to answer. Of course. It’s like the wound was already open, let’s put it that way, and now this has made it even clearer to me that it really is an omnipresent topic in the world, and especially in this country.

08:48 - That people are sadly dependent – especially in this industry, they are dependent on the topic of fast fashion, and the industry knows that these people are dependent on it and more or less take advantage of it, especially in large companies. And that it might not be wrong to spend a few more minutes a day looking for solutions. I’m definitely at the point where I’m starting to think about whether it all makes sense the way it is. I have to honestly say, but I can only say that for my part, that if there is an opportunity to improve the situation in a country like, for example, Cambodia, by making clothes that are produced here more expensive to sell, then I am absolutely ready to pay that price for clothes that are made here. But then the money really must get to the workers and those who sometimes work for starvation wages.

10:09 - And the standard of living and the quality of life of these people must really be improved. The big fashion companies that are producing [garments] here carry the fate of these people who work here in their hands to more or less, improve something. But I think that it will not happen in the way we want it to be as long as there is no Western pressure, in the sense of people like me, for example, who have a certain reach and can use this reach to do that, to point out to companies, to point out to large companies that it just doesn’t work this way. The important thing is that something happens. And that’s what matters. I honestly didn’t really read up much about the country because I just wanted to see it for myself, There is a huge contrast here between…

11:16 - the large, industrial capital, and on the other side you have houses, small fishing huts on logs. It’s an insanely stark contrast. I definitely feel like I’m in a completely different world. The people, the city in the background, the skyline, the way of life of the people, how the people are, that’s a difference of day and night to me. .