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NEWSLETTER 14, JULY 2001
Organizing!
Manchester Workshop on International Subcontracting Chains
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The increasing complexity of international subcontracting in
the garment industry presents a huge challenge to all of us involved
in promoting the rights of workers. If we are to organise effective
strategies for improving labor conditions it is essential to gain
greater understanding of how subcontracting chains actually operate.
It is also important to help build links between organisations
supporting workers at different points along these chains. For
this reason Women Working Worldwide, one of the organisations
coordinating Labour Behind the Label (the UK CCC), organized an
international workshop in Manchester in September 2000. Participants
included representatives of trade unions and labor NGOs from Europe,
Asia and Latin America who are involved in, or would like to undertake,
work on subcontracting. As well as academics and others who are
researching the garment industry, and designers sympathetic to
these issues. The aim was to share information and to develop
a proposal for further work.
On the first day the main links in a typical subcontracting chain
were mapped out. Participants shared what they know about how
subcontracting operates in their countries. In Thailand, for example,
intense competition between the increasing number of small-scale
dispersed "shop house" operators means depressed prices
and increased pressure on workers. In the Philippines half of
garment production was reported to be subcontracted to small producers
who pay workers below the poverty level. Yet most of this production
is for major US and EU retailers, with the Gap as the most powerful
buyer. In China, participants were told, that the pool of poor
laborers from the countryside means that factory workers themselves
are so exploited that there is less pressure to subcontract to
small units and homeworkers.
Two types of subcontractor were described in Brazil, medium-sized
companies supplying main factories and small family-based sewing
shops. In Mexico it was reported that by 1996 52% of garment workers
were working in establishments employing five or less workers.
This is in spite of a move towards "full package" production
rather than just sewing operations. Similarly, in Eastern Europe
increasing numbers of women are working in small workshops subcontracted
to manufacturers supplying retailers in Western Europe.
The second day of the workshop focused on research methodology
and on the appropriateness of different strategies for supporting
workers rights. Information was shared on the International Textile,
Leather and Garment Workers Federation (ITGLWF) multinationals
project which is targeting selected companies for detailed research,
and the TIE Asia project in Sri Lanka which is building up a database
of information on factories producing for export. We also heard
about the Homenet mapping project which takes homeworkers as the
starting point in garment production chains. The value of codes
of conduct, international works councils and community action
was discussed, as well as the role that can be played by key workers
such as designers and by consumer campaigns.
Following the workshop, participants discussed how they would
like to take the issues forward in their own organisations. Most
of the participants from organisations supporting workers in Asia
and elsewhere were interested in developing their own research
from a local base and feeding this into a wider picture. The information
would be used to build links with workers outside main production
sites and to involve them in educational workshops on subcontracting.
This has become the basis for a collaborative proposal developed
by Women Working Worldwide (WWW) and funding is now being sought
to begin a project in January 2002. Worker organisations will
be participating from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Bulgaria and the UK.
Please contact WWW (e-mail: women-ww@mcr1.poptel.org.uk)
for a full workshop report.
