When we buy
inexpensive clothes in our home countries), often someone else offshore has
paid a high price in terms of miserable working conditions and wages.
We all know that,
don´t we?
But do we really
understand how life is for the women in the garment industry, in e.g.,
Cambodia?
We have now a chance
to hear how 3 young Norwegian girls began to understand how hard life is for
the garment workers who make our clothes, which we buy dead cheap in the
western world.
In 2014, the 3 Norwegians, Anniken, Frida, and Ludwig were 17-20 years old and
fashion bloggers in their own country with a lot of followers. At that time,
they had never really thought about why a lot of so-called “Fast Fashion”
garments sold through the big chains are so cheap.
When the Norwegian
newspaper ”Aftenposten” gave them a chance to visit Cambodia, however, then
unknown parts of this global industry opened up to them: They worked for a day
in a sweatshop, they stayed at workers homes, and they became friends with some
of the workers.
Afterwards, in 2014,
the Aftenposten web channel produced 5 video episodes as a reality show, which
was followed up by a “Season 2” in 2016: Anniken and Frida returned to Cambodia
(together with 2 other girls Sarah & Lisa from Sweden) and tried to visit
the factories, which produces the garments they buy in Scandinavia. Here they
met the same girls as first time. Furthermore, they experience the fight for
better working conditions by members of the garment worker labour unions.
It is a moving journey
from focus on style and fashion as bloggers, through eye-opening experiences, resulting in friendship and
involvement in collaborative solidarity actions in conjunction with workers in
Cambodia and back home as well.
Here are links and
overview of all episodes (English subtitles):
If you don’t want to
view all of them, then I recommend episode 5 in season 1 & episode 5 in
season 2.
“SWEATSHOP” Season 1
Episode 1: How many
will die here every year?
“Frida, Ludvig, and
Anniken arrive their at new reality in Cambodia. It is hot,
humid, dusty and miles away from "Norwegian comfort". (11
minutes, video) Click
Episode 2: Our
bathroom is larger than her entire house
“Frida, Ludvig, and
Anniken visit Sokty, a factory worker living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. They go
shopping to compare prices.” (14 minutes, video) Click
Episode 3: - I´ll
keep going until I faint
“After a night on
hard concrete floors Frida, Ludvig, and Anniken wake up to their new jobs at a
textile factory in Phnom Penh, and a lunch out of the ordinary.” (12 minutes,
video) Click
Episode 4: - The
large chains are starving their workers!
“One day’s work at
the textile factory has earned Frida, Ludvig, and Anniken a total of $US 9
dollars. Now they have to survive on it.” (14 minutes, video) Click
Episode 5: - What
kind of life is this?
“Reality hits like a
fist when Frida, Ludvig, and Anniken meet textile workers at a resource center
in Phnom Penh.” (12 minutes, video) Click
“SWEATSHOP” Season 2
Episode 1: The Dispair
“The girls pick up where
they left us after Season 1 one. They want to see the inside of an
H&M factory…… By any means necessary.” (10 minutes, video) Click
Episode 2: The Truth
“Digging into the working conditions
of a textile worker in Cambodia, Frida gets very emotional after meeting a girl
who is about to have a baby. An unsure future awaits them both.” (11 minutes,
video) Click
Episode 3: The Insight
“Things get too real while
the girls are transported to work on the back of a truck. Anniken breaks down
after a close encounter with high voltage cables.”
”This is the way workers
are transported out to factories. Every Year, over 1,000 textile workers die in
road accidents in these trucks” (10 minutes, video) Click
Episode 4: The Fight
“The girls learn the tragic
realities of home-based production and break an entry trying to get behind
factory doors.”
”Home-based production” is
the term used for all unregulated textile production. The machines can be in
peoples homes or on hired premises. The workers have no rights and they are
paid only by the units they produce. (12 minutes, video) Click
Episode 5: The Promise
“The girls team up with
workers to plan a demonstration and learn the potentially deadly consequences
of joining a union.” (11 minutes, video) Click
Final Words
The strength of
these videos is the authenticity of all the persons we meet. This goes for the
Norwegians as wells all the Cambodians.
But many questions
about how the garment industry and how the big supply chains functions are not
answered. If you want to go deeper then the film “At all cost” is recommended
(To be found at Netflix, iTunes, Amazon and at www.truecostmovie.com)
(To be found at Netflix, iTunes, Amazon and at www.truecostmovie.com)
Here is a quote from
the website: “ … It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and
the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been
decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown
dramatically. “The True Cost” is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls
back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays
the price for our clothing?”
Some alternative
ways of production are also documented.
The final words in
the film are these:
“Without human
capital, without cheap labor, cheap female labor, it (the international textile
industry) would not be generating the profit it is. This needs to be
acknowledged, it needs to be dealt with, and the garment workers need to be
rewarded instead of exploited. Where is their piece of the pie? That is what we
have to ask ourselves.” …
”Will we continue a
blind eye to the lives of those who are behind our clothes? Or will there be a
turning point, a new chapter in our story when together we begin to make a real
change as we remember, that everything we wear is touched by human hands. In the
midst of all the challenges facing us today, for all the problems that feels
bigger than us and beyond our control, maybe we can start here: With clothing!”
………………………………………
You may also go
deeper by reading the blog article “Why are our clothes so inexpensive?”
Here is an overview
of the content: of the blog post:
Curated
learning materials that focus on…
- Who/What makes our
clothes so inexpensive?
- The definition of
“sweatshop”
- The 1911 sweatshop
fire in New York
- The 2012 sweatshop
fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Saying no to
buying clothes from sweatshops?
- Focus on the CSR
(Corporate Social Responsibility) is another way forward
- The “Save the
Children” example of CSR cooperation: “Work2Learn” in Bangladesh
- Do the producers
of your clothes practice “Corporate Social Responsibility”?
The
Un Sustainable Development Goal no. 8 (out of 17) focus on “Promote sustained,
inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all.”
Deepening:
Goal no. 8: Ecomic Growth and Decent Work for all
No. 8: “…
the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all
women and men by 2030.”
Actions around the world: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-8-decent-work-and-economic-growth.html
