Strong partners for fair textiles manufacturing
Pioneers from the textiles industry are committed to strengthening trade unions and NGOs in the Global South.
Berlin (d.de/bmz.de) - A pioneering group of businesses, non-governmental organisations, the ver.di trade union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) aims to strengthen trade unions and NGOs in textile manufacturing countries. The group recently signed a statement of intent at an event to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Textiles Alliance. The alliance to for sustainable textiles is committed to social and environmental standards and ending corruption in the textiles industry. It was set up in 2014 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the statement of intent, the aim is to integrate trade unions more strongly into complaints mechanisms to allow workers in textiles factories to demand their rights. It also includes plans to set up round tables to develop responses to issues such as sexualised violence. Signatories to the statement are also planning to improve how they work at a local level in order to coordinate efforts at achieving fair working conditions.
Svenja Schulze, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development said, “Sustainable and fair supply chains can succeed if all involved work together, sharing and passing on their expertise. We are committed to advancing exactly this type of knowledge sharing in the textiles sector. Trade unions in our partner countries have a particularly important role to play in this. After all, they and local NGOs are vital to bringing about social changes in these countries.