Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-13-Speech-4-023"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071213.4.4-023"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, what will the year 2008 bring to the textile industry in the European Union? Certainly nothing good. China has developed into the most aggressive textile power in the world and in 2006 alone, 50 to 60% of high technology in textiles was bought for China in the ring-spinning, weaving and texturing machine sector. Capacities are now waiting in the wings.
European retailers and manufacturers are no longer ordering, but are waiting for better offers from China. Further bankruptcies are imminent. The European focus on trade will create even bigger problems for us in other sectors, not just in textiles.
The volume of products we are offered will, of course, increase. The variety of textiles, however, will fall. If the issue is still to have any meaning, then further restructuring of the industry in the European Union must be flanked and more effectively cushioned in social terms. Only a very few niche producers will survive.
This development also has an extra dimension, however. In China, working and pay conditions for textile, garment and leather workers are still abysmal. European retailers and investors are in addition beating down prices in China. Alongside all the competitive advantages in China, survival is made more difficult because of the strong European support given to the remaining European textile industry. A fast buck is always at the expense of the smallest players.
As a trade unionist, I would expect the sports economy staging the Olympics in China to reveal what it is like for the female workforce there. Today 350 to 400 people already die on a daily basis in China’s textile factories. Up to 100 sustain mutilations to their hands every day. Nine out of ten Chinese manufacturers violate international labour standards and even labour standards laid down in Chinese legislation!
However, business is going well for us in the retail trade. As a trade unionist and as Vice-President of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation, I would say to you that it is too late, but not too late for us to take social measures."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples