Factory Tour at Fashion Garments Ltd.

January 10th was a highly anticipated day—the one in which we toured the garment factories
so well known throughout Vietnam. Many of our conversations until now, including the
minimum wage conference, discussions of global supply chains, and classroom reviews of
collective bargaining strategies, seemed to culminate in and center on this experience. I think I
speak for everyone when I say we did not take the opportunity to tour the Fashion Garments factory lightly. Earlier in the week, we had been denied access to the Hansae Vietnam’s
garment factory—a company revealed to be engaging in unfair labor practices after a complaint filed by Cornell University in January 2016—and it was only through a friend of Fashion
Garments’ Human Resource officer that we were permitted to tour the Fashion Garments
facility.

Sign outside the factory gate stating FGL is hiring

The day started early and we assembled in the morning humidity to board the buses
to Binh Duong. Binh Duong is a province immediately to the north of Ho Chi Minh City and
home to one of Fashion Garments’ 123 factories worldwide. Upon arrival at Fashion Garments
we were asked to turn in our laptops, prepare questions for management, and not take any
photos of the facility.

The Cornell cohort excited at the opportunity to tour FGL

Upon entering the factory, I was pleasantly surprised by the perceived conditions. The factory
was relatively cool, if not cold, and we were escorted upstairs to meet with management and
holistically review the garment design to manufacturing process. Specifically, we met with a
woman named Jamie who was in charge of designing lingerie and other apparel for clothing
brands such as PINK and Victoria’s Secret. She explained to us the sample process where
factories such as Fashion Garments design pieces that are mailed to brands for approval and
function as templates for mass production upon authorization. After meeting with Jamie, we
were escorted by members of management to the factory floor. We first toured the planning
room where the standard minute value was calculated by management and production speeds
tracked. Curious as to what the standard minute value entailed, I spoke with the manager who
was in charge of calculating the figure. From my conversation with him, I discovered that 600
clothing products are completed every 14 minutes in the Fashion Garments Factory and the
standard minute value was similar to a quota determined by brands. While on the factory floor,
we also toured the sample room, the cutting room, and the sewing room.

As we walked through the factory, apparent to me was the transparency in management and
the factory’s overall commitment to CSR. In a hallway between the cutting and the sewing
rooms, the CSR policies of all 17 brands who outsource to Fashion Garments were posted.
Furthermore, the factory is relatively well kept and management honors its commitment to an
8-hour day, with time for lunch and a stretch break. Although the relationship between workers
and management can be authoritarian (the workers are only permitted one factory-mandated
5-minute stretch break at 10am) it was nice to see a factory doing more than the bare minimum to invest in and develop its workforce.

CSR activities at FGL

Codes of Conducts from the Brands

I think this is especially true when juxtaposed to the sweatshop conditions described
throughout the apparel industry and the revealed scandals at places like Hansae Vietnam.
Apparent even in a factory like Fashion Garments—who is attempting to do right by its
workers—is the heavy-handed pressure from the brands. Apparel factories are producing
entirely new lines every 90 days and are under tight time and cost constraints, often framing
workers as little more than disposable capital. From our time in the factory, I realized change
that better considers workers and the environment will require an entire remodeling of the
fashion industry and a more authentic commitment to CSR from the brands in addition to the
factories. — Lexi