The factory of Lao Wu, the boss of Jiangxi Yugan, may have to move again this time. At this time, it had only been two months since he arrived in Changyaoling Village, Zhongluotan Town, Baiyun, Guangzhou.
A few years ago, due to the eviction of small garment processing workshops in Dayuan Village, Guangzhou, more than 300 garment factory owners from Jiangxi, including Lao Wu, decided to close their stalls early. Looking for a place to stay north, we finally came to Changyaoling Village, the former hometown of fur.
The scene of the garment making workshop in Changyaoling Village
I originally thought that after moving to a new home, I would be able to live the same life as in previous years. Likewise, work has started smoothly to welcome the peak season of clothing production after the Spring Festival. But this time, the local government of Zhongluotan showed a tough attitude towards the “two-in-one” and fire inspection and other problems faced by the garment workshops. If fire protection fails, we will never give in. Recently, the production of the garment processing workshops of Lao Wu and others has been suspended.
In recent years, small clothing workshops seem to have been unable to escape their fate due to problems such as fire protection and pollution. In addition to dealing with the current problems of starting production, garment manufacturers also need to think about where they will go in the future. Where should a clothing workshop be located? Is there still a chance to stay in Guangzhou?
Moved, started construction and then suspended
In Changyaoling Village, Zhongluotan, Baiyun District, just after the New Year However, brand-new signboards have been hung in front of numerous residential houses. The newly posted job notice states that the monthly salary is 6,000 yuan, and long-term employment is required.
This is the garment processing factory run by Lao Wu and other fellow villagers from Yugan, Jiangxi. Compared with the spacious factories on the streets of Zhongluotan Town, these factories should be called “garment workshops”. Most of the workshops are only a few hundred square meters, and they live in the handshake building. The indoor workshops and fabrics are stacked together, and it is difficult to see the sun all year round
The garment factory moved into Changsha at the beginning of this year Inside a private house in Yaoling Village
On March 12, the reporter came to Changyaoling Village, entered a private house at the intersection of the street, and followed the elevator to the fourth floor. The floor was covered with cloth strips, and Lao Wu’s factory had arrived. In the factory, workers performed repetitive actions mechanically. When they saw someone coming, they glanced up, then lowered their heads and continued doing the work at hand.
Although it is still far from the most ideal site, Lao Wu still rented this four-story house as a factory at a monthly rent of 12 yuan per square meter. Years ago, Lao Wu closed down the Dayuan Village site, moved equipment, and renovated it. It took two months to complete the transformation of a garment processing workshop covering an area of more than 3,000 square meters. “We can start work again when the workers arrive after the Spring Festival.” At that time, he did not expect that work would be unable to start.
“The local government said we can’t start work if we don’t pass the fire protection.” Lao Wu told reporters that after the eighth day of the new year, the newly moved garment workshops in Changyaoling Village began to resume work one after another. In just a few days, it was stopped by local government staff. As for the reason for the suspension, the village committee stated that this type of clothing workshop failed to pass the inspection due to fire protection and could not meet operating standards.
“How can we stop the work? What will we do if the work stops?” Old Wu sighed as he looked at the piles of semi-finished clothes, his eyes filled with helplessness. , “Now is the peak season for garment processing. There are as many new orders as snowflakes every day. I was originally waiting to make a big profit in March and April. Now that we have stopped working, not only can we not make any money, but we are really fined for overtime orders from Duoduo every day.” It’s unbearable. Besides, there are so many workers and their families are waiting for us to get paid and eat.”
Long waist Clothing workshops in Lingcun
It is still difficult for small workshops to start operations as they move further and further north
Coming to Changyaoling Village is not the first time Jiangxi garment workshops have moved.
Recalling the scene when he first arrived in Guangdong, Brother Tu, the owner of a clothing workshop, told reporters that in 2002, he and his fellow villagers came to Guangzhou from Yugan, Jiangxi for the first time. Gangcun became their first place to stay, and making clothes became their livelihood. “The rent of private houses was cheap. At that time, no one cared about whether two-in-one or three-in-one. Production could be done anywhere. I still remember that a bunch of workers lived in the factory together.”
However, as more and more people flock to the garment processing workshops, the small Yuangang Village can no longer accommodate such a large-scale workshop. “Go wherever it’s cheap,” Lao Tu told reporters. Four or five years later, they found a new settlement in Dayuan Village, Baiyun District, in the north of Guangzhou, where they stayed for fifteen or sixteen years.
It only takes 20 minutes to go to Shahe from Dayuan. Lao Tu’s stall in Dayuan at that time was one of the thousands of workshops. After production, he would take the products to Shahe. , find stalls to help sell on behalf of others, produce and sell by yourself.
With the rise of e-commerce, Dayuan Village on Dayuan Street became the famous “Taobao Village” in the country. 80% of Taobao stores are mainly engaged in clothing business. This has resulted in the clustering of local garment and textile factories.
According to news released by Guangzhou Baiyun, in 2020, Dayuan Street will comprehensively launch a special clean-up and rectification work for “private houses and factories”. It is planned to complete the cleanup before the end of last year.”In the next step, Dayuan Street will continue to take strong measures such as shutting down and shutting down in accordance with the law, relocation and integration, industrial upgrading, production suspension and rectification, etc., to eliminate “private factories” in rental houses and effectively eliminate potential safety hazards and environmental pollution in rental houses. and other issues.”
The local self-media Changyaoling News introduced the matchmaking meeting for the settlement of garment factories in November last year. Recently, it also introduced the renovation of factories in the village in Changyaoling Village. The situation
Dayuan Village could no longer stay, so the merchants had to find another place, and finally came to Changyaoling Village, Zhongluotan Town, the former hometown of fur. The official self-media of Changyaoling Village, Changyaoling News, once introduced the symposium held on November 20 last year between the village committee and the merchants settled in the village. At the meeting, the relevant situation of some clothing companies on Dayuan Street planning to settle in the village was introduced. “It is necessary to both Strong support and reasonable guidance must be given, especially to ensure safe production, implement fire management requirements, take necessary technical and preventive measures, and strictly prohibit “three-in-one” and “two-in-one” places. The meeting also required all economic and social cadres to do a good job in publicity and guidance , and effectively strengthen the management of rental housing.”
In the view of Jin Zhuoyi, member of the Party Committee and Deputy Mayor of Zhongluotan Town, the main reason for suspending the production of garment workshops this time is ” The fundamental problems involved in “operating a factory in a private house” are: first, it is not legally allowed to set up a factory in a private house, and the area does not meet the requirements. The site where the workshop is located belongs to a private house, and production activities are not allowed; second, the fire protection conditions are difficult to meet the standards, and the consequences in case of a fire are unimaginable. .
So why did the factory move here? In response to this issue, Jin Zhuoyi said that the town asked the owners of Changyaoling Village and learned that the fur industry has been in a downturn in recent years and many houses in Changyaoling Village are vacant. Therefore, merchants came one by one to ask if they could rent a house, and the villagers then House to rent. “Dayuan belongs to Baiyun District, and Zhongluotan also belongs to Baiyun District. If you can’t set up a factory there, why come to us? We were not asked before we came here. It is not up to the village owners to decide whether it can be done.”
Jin Zhuoyi introduced that on February 20, when relevant staff from Zhongluotan Town went to Changyaoling Village for investigation, they unexpectedly discovered that many workshops had poured in, and there were seven garment factories. Work had already started, so he ordered the garment factory to stop working and asked the factory to relocate as soon as possible. At the same time, the owners of the garment factories were asked to inform each other and fellow villagers not to move the garment factories into private houses in the village.
On December 31, 2020, in Dayuan Village, Baiyun District, some factories were producing while waiting to be relocated. Photography by Dong Tianjian, reporter of Nanfang Daily and Nanfang+
“Workshop clothing production” is now in urgent need of transformation
In recent years Recently, with the rise of e-commerce, the production model of workshops such as Laotu has also changed from supplying markets such as Shisanhang and Shahe to supplying e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo. Clothing workshops are facing e-commerce platforms. The flood of orders in Taobao was once unparalleled. “Sometimes the order volume on Taobao can reach several million a day.” Recalling the glory of the year, Lao Tu sighed.
With the upgrading and transformation of Dayuan Village, the garment workshops that have been stationed in Dayuan Village for more than ten years have to move out again to find a location. It’s just that Lao Tu and the others never imagined that all these changes would happen so quickly. The once prosperous garment factory was now in a situation that no one wanted to take over.
If private housing doesn’t work, why not go to an industrial park? A workshop owner calculated an account for reporters. In 2020, the turnover of a workshop with about ten people in the past year was about 2 million yuan. Excluding rent, workers’ wages, water, electricity, raw materials, etc., the harvest was not optimistic. . Therefore, when considering relocation, Lao Tu and others also inquired about industrial parks, but in the end due to price reasons, they finally wanted to try an urban village again.
“We all came to Guangdong with our families to work hard. Now that school has just started, it is very troublesome for the children to transfer to schools. There are also a lot of fines from Pinduoduo. Can you give us some more time? What?” According to Lao Tu and others, if they relocate the garment factory at this time, in addition to facing problems such as missing the peak production season and finding a suitable venue, issues such as children’s schooling have also become difficult problems. Lao Tu and others are looking for a place to start construction again, while still waiting to see if the local area can be given some time to relax.
Regarding the current predicament of small factories, Hu Gang, a professor at Jinan University, said that the garment industry in small workshops is a labor-intensive industry. The industry itself is relatively low-end and comes with pollution. And other issues.
The garment industry is currently in urgent need of upgrading and transformation, from the original small workshops, high pollution, and manual work to large-scale, low pollution, automation, and centralized pollution control. The demise of small workshops may become a trend, leaving them with only the option of upgrading and transforming themselves, being merged by large companies, or directly facing elimination.
Hu Gang believes that the garment industry is a major issue in people’s livelihood, but only industrial scale, intelligent machinery, and specialization of labor are the future development of the garment industry in Guangzhou and even the country. direction. </p
