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Western retailers decline to back $40 monthly wage hike in Cambodia

Major Western retailers like Walmart, Nike, Adidas, Levi Strauss, H&M and Gap Inc among others that source clothing from Cambodia have declined to endorse a proposed hike in the garment industry’s minimum wage that amounts to roughly $40 a month.

Like many of its neighbours in the Southeast Asia, Cambodia is a popular spot for American and European brands to sub-contract production of textiles and shoes. It offers easy market access and above all, cheap labour. Against this backdrop, exports of garment and footwear have more than doubled in the last decade. But the industry is not without conflict. In recent years, its overwhelmingly female workforce has led mass strikes and protests to demand higher wages and several workers were killed in a police crackdown in January 2014.

This month, labour unions representing hundreds of thousands of garment workers proposed a hike in the industry-wide minimum wage from $140 a month to $179.60. They’ve been met with stiff opposition from factory owners’ lobby, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, which countered with its own monthly minimum wage offer of $144.20. Many Western brands, too, have declined to endorse the unions’ proposal.

In These Times reached out to six of the top U.S. and European brands with contracts in Cambodia—Walmart, Nike, Adidas, Levi Strauss & Co., H&M and Gap Inc.—asking for their position on the unions’ proposed minimum wage hike. None of them endorsed the proposal. Walmart and Nike did not respond; Adidas, Levi’s, H&M and Gap all highlighted their support of ongoing negotiations.

 
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