A workshop in Vietnam has seen 33 trade union leaders from Inditex supplier garment factory unions review their network’s activities for 2017, exchange best practices and set the agenda for 2018 as part of their role to implement a pledge made by the Spanish clothing giant to protect and promote labour conditions throughout its entire supply chain.
Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M and 11 local suppliers also joined the meeting, which was held in Hanoi earlier this month, for a session on improving social dialogue and industrial relations.
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The workshop is part of a series of national meetings supported by FES, the IndustriAll Global Union, and Spanish clothing giant Inditex in the implementation of the Global Framework Agreement (GFA).
Designed to protect the interests of workers employed in all operations of the multinational companies who sign them, GFAs are negotiated at a global level between trade unions and companies. They establish the best possible standards on trade union rights, on health and safety, and on the labour relations principles adhered to by the company in its global operations, regardless of the standards existing in a particular country.
Inditex CEO Pablo Isla met with IndustriAll in Spain earlier this month to mark the tenth anniversary of the GFA which acts to protect some 1.5m garment workers
Inditex GFA one of the best tools to enforce labour rights
The contract, which is unique in the garment sector, was originally signed in 2007 and then renewed and strengthened in 2014. Today, it covers workers in around 7,000 supplier factories making clothes for the company’s eight different brands, including Zara, Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti, and sets out to promote workers’ rights, freedom of association, and collective bargaining.
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By GlobalDataSpeaking at the meeting, Ngo Duy Hieu, presidium member and director of industrial relations department at the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), said his organisation “highly appreciates such network meetings and that working in such a system brings new experiences and ideas to the Vietnamese labour movement.”
Internal discussions took place around the role of local unions, upper level unions and core worker groups in the network, while local union leaders were urged to focus on increasing wages within the scope of local CBAs.
Meanwhile, participating members worked on a checklist of guaranteed rights under the GFAs and discussed the importance opening the network to more global brands. It was further discussed that the network needs to work both on the local factory level but also on a sectorial level.
“Such networks are an important platform for textile and garment unions to engage with global brands and retailers, specifically to ensure workers’ rights on a factory level and to develop grievance mechanisms,” said Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriAll’s director for the textile and garment sector.
