Social partners propose plan to revitalise textiles sector

On 21 November 2008, the trade unions and employer organisation in the textiles and clothing sector signed a joint document designed to revitalise the industry. The document was to be presented to the Italian government and the European Commission. It outlines a range of initiatives and interventions aiming to boost consumption and reinforce the production capacity of companies operating in the sector.

Sector profile

The textiles and clothing sector in Italy has been in decline due to competition following the opening of international markets on a gradual basis between 2001 and 2005, and due to low-cost products from industrially developing countries. This crisis has provoked the closure of more than 25,000 companies and the loss of about 120,000 jobs. Most of the enterprises dealt with the challenge by concentrating on the innovation of products and production processes, as well as on quality and the specialisation of specific areas of productivity.

Currently, more than 58,000 companies are operating in the Italian textiles and clothing sector, which employ some 513,000 workers and make an annual profit of almost €52 billion – €28 billion of which comes from exports. These figures for 2007 are from the Textiles and Fashion Federation (Federazione Tessile e Moda or Sistema Moda Italia, SMI) referring to data from the National Institute for Statistics (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, Istat). Regarding profits, the fashion industry as a whole – including textiles, leather articles and accessories – is second only to the metalworking industry in the Italian manufacturing sector. However, it has the highest level of female workers: 76% of those working in the clothing industry are women, and this proportion stands at 58% in textiles and 47% in footwear.

Strong versatility

The textiles and clothing sector in Italy has a well-integrated production chain and a specialised supply network organised in homogeneous territorial districts. This versatility was particularly evident in the first seven months of 2008, when economic difficulties arose due to the strong euro and high oil prices. Despite the negative situation, during this time commercial profits in the sector rose by 5.6%, compared with the same period in 2007.

Given the production and employment levels in the sector, the social partners aim to maintain competitiveness in the textiles and clothing industry. For this reason, on 21 November 2008, the three sectoral trade unions and the employer organisation, SMI, produced a joint document to be presented to the Italian government and the European Commission. The three trade unions concerned are the Energy, Fashion, Chemicals and Allied Industries Federation (Federazione Energia Moda, Chimica e Affini, Femca-Cisl), the Italian Federation of Workers in Textiles and Leather Clothing and Footwear (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Tessili Abbigliamento Cuoio Calzature, Filtea-Cgil) and the Italian Textiles and Clothing Workers’ Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Tessili e Abbigliamento, Uilta-Uil). The joint document proposes urgent measures to be adopted in order to consolidate the sector and protect it from the global economic crisis.

Content of document

Overall, the document refers to interventions that have two objectives: to boost consumption and to reinforce the production capacity of companies operating in the sector.

Encouraging consumption

The social partners have asked the government to support consumption through general interventions, such as tax reductions on salaries, as well as the following more specific initiatives:

• the ‘regeneration of fashion’ – promoting sales of new clothes by enabling consumers to trade in their old clothes;

• tax relief for the purchase of children’s clothes;

• tax incentives in the tourist industry for the purchase of textile products, such as upholstered furniture, for renovations and restorations in hotels and restaurants;

• encouraging the public administration to launch more public tenders for the purchase of high quality textile products for its offices and premises;

• tax relief for the purchase of products complying with EU ecotoxicological and social standards.

Supporting companies

In order to sustain the enterprises in the textiles and clothing sector, the social partners have asked the government to:

• facilitate borrowing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the sector;

• support the employment of women by offering tax relief for companies and waiving tax on the salaries of female workers;

• reduce costs for energy supply;

• reduce premiums to the National Institute for Industrial Accident Insurance (Istituto Nazionale per gli Infortuni sul Lavoro, Inail) in exchange for greater efforts by companies to improve health and safety in the workplace;

• provide financial support to facilitate the preparation of fashion design collections;

• fund industrial research programmes on new technologies in the sector.

Furthermore, the social partners have asked the EU for interventions to protect the quality of products through compulsory certification of the source of the raw material and indication of the site of production.

Other measures

The document also includes other general aspects such as vocational training and employment issues. Underlining the importance of vocational training, the social partners have agreed to ‘define projects which will introduce widespread and systematic vocational training policies for the human resources in the sector’.

Regarding employment, they asked the government for more economic resources to fund social ‘shock absorbers’ (ammortizzatori sociali); these mainly consist of special funds to support workers in companies experiencing severe economic difficulties (IT9802319F, IT0205204F). In addition, the social partners requested a more specific use of the resources of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, extending protection to apprentices and workers on fixed-term employment contracts.

Views of signatories

The signatories consider that the document is highly important and they intend to ask all of the employer and artisan organisations in the fashion industry to sign it.

The General Secretary of Filtea-Cgil, Valeria Fedeli, has underlined that the document ‘summarises the requirements of enterprises, employment and of the economy in general’.

Vice-President of SMI, Michele Tronconi, stated that the partners ‘are, once again, able to accept the responsibility to indicate joint and shared solutions in order to sustain their industry and the entire economy’.

Commentary

The document represents an example of the various policies of the trade unions in Italy. At sectoral, territorial and company level, Italian trade unions are collaborative and pragmatic. However, the situation is different at national level. The General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil) tends to act unilaterally as a political and social force opposing the current centre-right government, led by Silvio Berlusconi. This strategy greatly reduces the capacity of the Italian trade union system to influence the social and economic decisions of the government through concertation and negotiation.

Vilma Rinolfi and Domenico Paparella, Cesos