AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

4 Labour Rights Governance, Decent Work and Global Value Chains 43
comings of the company code for the enforcement of labour rights. In
2002, the Spanish NGO, SETEM, issued a striking report about the social
responsibility of Spanish textile companies in production sites in
Morocco. The report found important labour and human rights violations
in some of the factories where Inditex had outsourced its production.
Especially alarming was the situation of the female workers, some
of 12 years of age (SETEM, 2002). Comparable concerns about the
company production practices were raised in similar reports issued in the
years 2003 and 2004 (Campaña Ropa Limpia et al., 2003; Intermón
OXFAM, 2004). The company was also found to be sourcing from two
illegal manufacturing workshops in Galicia and Catalunya in 2003, where
migrants worked up to 17 hours per day under very poor working conditions.
Awareness protests have also taken place against the company in
2005 in Galicia, when the women’s association Mulheres Transgredindo
organized different street actions in front of Inditex subsidiaries.
The case Spectrum was probably the most serious failure of labour
rights enforcement. Spectrum was a factory in Bangladesh where Inditex
together with other European brand names were sourcing from. The
factory had repeatedly been audited by BSCI and other company monitoring
programmes, failing to ensure safety and healthy working conditions
as well as to address the extreme abuses that workers were facing.
The factory collapsed in April 2005, killing 64 workers (Clean Clothes
Campaign, 2005). This and the mentioned examples show the weakness
of a complete code of conduct which is issued unilaterally and lacks of
real implementation, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
In 2007, the company signed an IFA with the International Textile,
Garment and Leather Workers Federations (ITGLWF). According to the
ITGLWF, the agreement was the outcome of a long ongoing relationship
with the company towards ensuring decent work (ETUF-TCL,
2007). In the textile sector, an IFA negotiation is far more complicated
than in other sectors. The high number of code of conducts, the established
anti-union stance of some multinationals and the possible collective
employer resistance are important factors underlining this complexity
(Miller, 2004).
However, the cautiousness and bargaining capacity of the ITGLWF
during the discussion process was well worth it. The agreement was described
as ground-breaking. It was not only the first to be signed in the
textile sector, but also the very first one to cover a retail supply chain and