040. Manufactured x GIZ FABRIC: Kong Athit and Dr. Mark Anner on Workers and Factory Management Collaborating to Advocate a Bigger Piece of the Pie Part 2

This is part two of our conversation with Dr. Mark Anner and union leader Kong Athit. What blocks worker trust in management? And vice versa? [...]
13 Apr 2021
00:47:03
Manufactured
Manufactured
040. Manufactured x GIZ FABRIC: Kong Athit and Dr. Mark Anner on Workers and Factory Management Collaborating to Advocate a Bigger Piece of the Pie Part 2
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This is part two of our conversation with Dr. Mark Anner and Kong Athit.

Mark is a Professor, Labor and Employment Relations and Director at the Center for Global Workers’ Rights. Kong Athit. Athit started out in the fashion industry as a factory worker and is now the President of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU).

This episode picks up where part one left off. What, exactly, blocked Kim’s trust in workers and unions when she was a factory manager? What should or could workers and factory managers each do to gain each other’s trust? We also get into the exhaustion that pervades all levels of the fashion industry, and how the squeeze from the top manifests itself on the factory floor, and in the relationship between workers and management.

Want to dig deeper ?

The FABRIC project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and supports the Asian textile industry in its transformation towards fair production for people and the environment.

Both Athit and Mark were panelists on the sixth edition of GIZ FABRIC’s online seminar series. Learn more about GIZ FABRIC’s online seminar series “Getting Through the Crisis Together: Asian Dialogues on Sustainability in the Textile and Garment Industry.”

Check out Dr. Mark Anner’s report Abandoned (about order cancellations at the onset of the global pandemic), and his follow-up report Leveraging Desperation.

Read Dr. Mark Anner’s report on Sourcing Dynamics, Workers’ Rights, and Inequality in Garment Global Supply Chains in India Inequality; India Report.

Find out more about Jobbers Agreements.

Check out Kim’s article How Singular Narratives of Worker-Management Relations Fail Us

Check out episode 24 when we talk to Cambodian Labor Law expert Matthew Rendall on how legal context shapes worker-management relationships.

Learn more about CCAWDU.

Jessie Li

Photo by Alina Grubnyak

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