Home page > Topics > Topic 1, Workshop 1 : Textile-garment sector: Textile-garment sector: uniting competition, equity and sustainable development

Topic 1 : What kind of global chain of trade for fair development?

Workshop 1.1 : Textile-garment sector: uniting competition, equity and sustainable development

Workshops Topic 1 :

The textile-garment sector stands on the front lines of globalisation and therefore offers an ideal vantage point for observing industrialists’ strategies in a period of intense change.

The elimination of quotas on 1 January 2005, in accordance with the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, has forced producers and distributors to revise their strategies. Smaller companies, those with low technology and those without known brands or advanced design, have suffered in all countries, pulling their least qualified employees down with them.

In developed countries, labour, environmental, ethical and social issues are taking on greater importance. They are influencing demand and consequently the practices of buyers, as well as law-makers, though the consumer is sometimes slow to “put his money where his mouth is” in terms of supporting sustainable development.

From this perspective, management of the value chain in the sector has to reinvent itself on a global scale. This workshop aims to focus our thinking on some key questions for the future of the sector:

What changes are possible and desirable for the sector, in particular as concerns the international division of labour and transfers of added value?
What are the pre-conditions for the emergence of new types of alliances between labour and management in the sector, in light of new regulations?
How can workers be helped to evolve to keep pace with these changes which affect not only the companies but their staff as well?
What are some potential strategies for adapting the regulatory context to integrate notions of sustainable development?

This Workshop has been prepared in coordination with the Union of Textiles Industry (UIT).

Speakers

Chair: Jean-Claude Montagnon, President, Unitex, France

Workshop Moderator: Emmanuelle Butaud, Director of Economic and International Affairs, UIT - Union des Industries Textiles

Players in the production chain:

Bruno Colombani, Social Ethics Manager, Casino Group, France
Pierre Frachon, Commercial Director, Mayor S.A., France
Nicole-Marie Iresch, President and Founder, Township Patterns, South Africa
Tolé Sagnon, Secretary General, General Confederation of Work in Burkina, Burkina Faso
Shashi Singh, Head of the Economic Division, Joint Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, India

Discussants:

Eric Defrenne, National Coordinator, Yamana, France
Patrick Itschert, Secretary-General, European Trade Union Federation – Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF-TCL), Belgium
Jean-Pierre Lapalme, Adviser, World Trade Organisation (WTO)

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