World-famous clothing brands choose Ukrainian sewing factories over cheap labor

A sewing factory located in Pervomaysk, Mykolaiv region, employs three hundred people involved in a licensed production of clothing for Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino and other highly-acclaimed brands, according to TSN.

The staff polled by reporters say they are happy with their working conditions and salary. The entire production process is tightly controlled - the manufacturer must report for each meter of used material.

At the same time, the report notes that no Made in Ukraine tag is attached to the newly made pieces of clothes for some reason. "Maybe they're embarrassed or something, I do not know," one of the factory workers suggests.

Read alsoUkraine's state budget 2018 envisages $1.8 mln to support innovation – PM GroysmanExperts explain that the cost of fabric, cutting, sewing, packaging, and transportation - even across the ocean – makes up only a third of the price of the finished product. Meanwhile, from every UAH 1,000 that the buyer pays for a dress or shirt, UAH 700 goes to the brand, not the actual manufacturer.

"Brands get millions in profit, while these people who actually create the product live on the brink of poverty," says Oksana Dutchak, co-author of a study that the European Clean Clothes Campaign held in Ukraine for the first time.

Activists set up pickets outside brand stores in attempts to force them to pay more to manufacturers from the third world countries. Working conditions in Ukrainian factories are no better than in Asia: the average salary in the industry is UAH 2,700 per month (at a factory in Pervomaysk it’s UAH 8,000, which is considerably higher), which is about the same as in Bangladesh or Macedonia.

However, in China, the same job is paid four times higher. The country is no longer a provider of cheap labor with the wages of factory workers fluctuating between $450 and $700.

However, Ukrainian manufacturers do not risk demanding more from big brands. "We had a company named Gelco, a good one… But Macedonians gave them an offer which was a bit cheaper, and they moved all their production to Macedonia," said the director of the garment factory Yevhen Dirdin.

Read alsoEuropean accelerator for Ukrainian reformsThe report notes that some Ukrainians working in the industry move to the EU where they are much better paid for the same job. For example, they move to Poland, only to replace the Poles who in turn tend to move to Germany or UK to find jobs that are more well-paid than in Poland.