Introduction: Why We Need Stronger Unions in the Global Garment Industry

Abstract

AbstractFor newly industrialising countries, the global garment industry is considered a vehicle for economic and social development, especially for increasing women’s participation in the labour market. At the same time, the garment industry has also been widely criticised for frequent labour rights violations, low wages and bad working conditions. Media and public discourses have focussed largely on private regulatory mechanisms and international labour standards as tools for promoting ‘decent work’ in the global garment industry. However, this chapter argues that lasting improvements for workers can only be achieved through the agency of strong local unions in garment producing countries. Against this background, this chapter introduces two central research questions that remain understudied in existing literature on labour in Global Value Chains (GVCs) and Global Production Networks (GPNs): (1) How do labour control regimes at specific nodes of the garment GPN shape and constrain the terrain for worker and union agency in garment producing countries? (2) Which relationships and interactions enable unionists and workers in garment producing countries to develop strategic capacities and power resources that allow them to shift the capital-labour power balance in favour of workers?