Glass-making and home textiles industries face unemployment

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In autumn 2001, two Portuguese industries - glass-making and home textiles - are facing particular problems caused by competition from countries outside Europe, bringing company closures and the threat of unemployment. Trade unions have responded with industrial action and calls for government support.

Two glass-making companies in the Marinha Grande area - Mortensen and Mandata- have closed owing to a financial crisis. The Glass Industry Workers' Union (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Indústria Vidreira, STIV) has demanded that the government and public institutions such as Institute for the Support of Small and Medium-sized Companies and Investment (Instituto de Apoio às Pequenas e Médias Empresas e ao Investimento, IAPMEI) should ensure the continuation of the support that has been provided to the glass industry in Portugal. The unions' stated aim is to improve the competitiveness and working conditions of Portuguese companies, in order to face competition from non-European countries that pay considerably lower wages and offer much poorer working conditions. They demand the creation of recovery programmes for the two companies, with special credit lines being offered, and the payment of wages in arrears.

The glass industry in Portugal has been located in Marinha Grande for centuries, and was the scene of many industrial conflicts throughout the 20th century. This helps explain the local population's general receptiveness to the industrial action that took place in the area in September, October and November 2001 in response to the crisis in glass-making. The action has included a series of roadblocks and obstructions of train lines, an encampment in front of the Marinha Grande town hall, protests in front of banks and a march to Lisbon in order to gain the support of workers from other companies on the way.

The Ministry of the Economy (Ministro da Economia) and other institutions are studying the feasibility of a recovery project for the two companies, given that, principally in the case of Mandata, there has been heavy state investment for some years.

In the home textiles and garments industry, workers and companies are facing the prospect of the early liberalisation of the European Union's textiles market. They see as harmful an agreement recently signed by the European Commission, which increases by 15% the import quotas for some Asian countries, particularly Pakistan, and the elimination of customs duties. The agreement is seen as undermining the transitional period established for the opening of the EU's textile market by 2005, negotiated at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This substantial increase in import quotas will cause serious industrial instability, particularly in the Portuguese home textiles sector.

It is predicted that the Portuguese textile and clothing sector is set to lose 100,000 jobs by 2005. Women will be most affected, as they currently make up 72.4% of the workforce in the textiles sector. However, according to the Centre for Applied Textile Studies (Centro de Estudos Aplicados da Indústria Têxtil), the effect on employment will be lessened because the pace of modernisation has remained high and it is not an industry that attracts a young workforce.

At the end of October 2001, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral de Trabalhadores, CGTP) and the Portuguese Association of Textiles and Garments (Associação Portuguesa de Texteis e Vestuário, APTV) gave their reaction to the new EU textiles agreement at various press conferences and appealed for the mobilisation of workers in the sector. The Ministry of the Economy is to evaluate the impact of the deal and mobilise the resources of the Initiative for the Modernisation of the Textile Industry ( Iniciativa para a Modernização da Indústria Têxtil, IMIT) and provide support from the Operational Economic Programme (Programa Operacional para a Economia, POE).

Both the glass-making and textiles industries have made efforts with a view to improving design, and some training has been provided in an attempt to reintroduce traditional know-how and expertise, particularly within the glass industry. The unions state that the current problems jeopardise the efforts that have been made by European countries in relation to countries where there are no political rights or trade union freedoms and where child labour and discrimination against women still takes place.