Outlining these achievements in a presentation in Phnom Penh before Her Majesty, Queen Sophie of Spain during her current visit to Cambodia, Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers?Federation said that though there was much still to be done, Inditex and the ITGLWF, through their partnership and International Framework Agreement, had made a positive beginning in promoting the sea change needed in management and trade union thinking to promote decent work in the global textile and clothing industry.
Significantly, the presentation was made immediately after the formal signing of two company-level agreements between Inditex suppliers River Rich Textile Limited and Gold Fame Enterprises and the Cambodian trade union, C.CAWDU and which provided for the recognition of the union accompanied by the introduction of industrial relations management systems including clear company rules and grievances and disciplinary procedures alongside a protocol for management/union relations.
In addition, as part of the agreements a comprehensive manager/worker training programme over a two to three year period was put in place aimed at building the capacity of management at all levels and the trade unions to grow sustainable decent work on the back of continuous improvements in productivity, quality, profitability and international competitivity.
Said Mr. Kearney, the trail-blazing International Framework Agreement, signed late last year, Inditex recognizes the ITGLWF as its global partner in the pursuit of decent work throughout its supply chain.
The agreement provides for the right of all workers to unionize and bargain collectively as the cornerstone of decent work. It outlaws child labour, forced labour and discrimination, provides for the payment of a living wage, puts restrictions on working hours, insists on safe and healthy workplaces and promotes job security free of abusive treatment.
Mr. Kearney outlined how an unfortunate garment factory disaster in Bangladesh in mid-2005 brought the first direct contact with Inditex. From a low key beginning when we combined our efforts to bring relief to the families of the dead and the injured at the Spectrum factory in Bangladesh we proceeded jointly to deal with conflicts elsewhere in the Inditex supply chain and to recognize the shortfalls in action and capacity at local and national levels around the world.
It was obvious that the near absence of industrial relations management systems in factories and the inadequacy of supervisor and manager training on labour issues combined with limited trade union organization was creating growing supply chain problems.
Such a framework for a joint retailer/trade union partnership was urgently needed to tackle worker abuse in the global textile and garment industry where production is today carried out in 160 countries for export to markets in only about 30 nations making the sector one of the most globalised and most competitive.
During the 1990s maltreatment of workers, including the use of child labour, disgusted consumers who turned their anger on the brands and retailers who had come to dominate the industry.
For nearly 200 years, trade unions had defended and advanced workers interests at local and later at national levels. Globalization greatly weakened that defense and retarded advance.
In the mid 1990s national trade unions began to recognize that the globalization of union efforts was needed to harness economic globalization.
In the textile and clothing sector the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers?Federation which traces its roots back to the 1860s had long been promoting cross-frontier trade union co-operation. With 220 affiliated unions and more than 10 million members in 120 countries it was one of the first global unions to recognize the need for a global drive to promote corporate accountability, in sectors such as textiles and garments, based on social dialogue between employers and workforce representatives.
