“It’s unsurprising the factory uses illegal timber,” said William Conklin, Cambodia director for U.S.-based labor rights group Solidarity Center. “We know energy costs are high in Cambodia. And it’s actually the highest cost in [garment] production so factories would seek to minimize that.”

In discussing the anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex, Global Envision pulls information from a New York Times op-ed by David Welsh, Solidarity Center country director for Indonesia and former country director for Cambodia: “To counteract the brands’ habit of playing one producing country off another, governments from sourcing countries should act together. Rather than be driven by the fear of losing out to one another, they should form a bloc and insist that the big brands set uniform standards for wages, union rights and workplace safety.”

Story by the Solidarity Center’s Tula Connell about women and their unions fighting for this protection republished.