Textile Job Losses


Introduction

Due to the rising of new suppliers and the competitiveness from many low production cost countries particularly China, textile and apparel industries in many countries are facing great threat. Factories closing down and job cuts. In Malaysia, even though we do not have the published figures of job losses from this sector, we are aware that some companies are shutting down while many others just struggling to maintain. According to the President of Perak Garment Manufacturers Association, Mr. Loh Wai Fong who is also the Treasurer of the Federation of Textile General Goods Association, in the state of Perak itself, garment factories are closing down from the previous 180 companies to just about 50 operations. National wise, the leftovers is about 800 factories from the previous 2000 factories. Many manufacturers are resorting to traders.

US Knitting job losses

Employment in the US knitting sector is being hit hardest by the tidal wave of imported fabric from China, according to the American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI).

Chinese knit fabric imports have risen from 3.3 million kg to 7.7 million kg in the last eight months, jumping 110% in the last two months alone. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that the US knitting sector has lost 6,500 jobs or 7% of its workforce over the last year, the most of any textile sector.

The picture elsewhere in the industry is no less depressing. US textile employment has hit a new low of 409,000 and the rate of job losses is accelerating. There were 6,000 jobs lost in the US textile industry as a whole during April, more than double the 2,900 lost in March.

Cass Johnson, senior vice president of ATMI, said, "These job losses were entirely preventable. ATMI asked for the US government to implement the WTO China textile safeguard. As of today, we're still waiting in bureaucratic limbo while China mounts the biggest export surge in US history and thousands more US textile workers are losing their jobs."

MEXICO Textile Sector hit by Illegal Import

Textile Industry has warned that it will go on national strike if federal government does not stop illegal imports of products, mainly from the East Asia. The general secretary of the Coalition of Textile Industry Unions, said that illegal imports is menacing companies and jobs in the sector. In the last three years around 200,000 jobs have been lost. He called for the government to burn 4,000 tons of confiscated cloth, which was imported from China. He said the authorities had three months to do something before strikes broke out.

SLOVENIA 13,000 Textile Jobs At Risk

Up to 13,000 textile and leather processing industry workers could lose their jobs in the next three years, a worried union chief claimed.

Secretary general of the Slovenian textile and leather industry trade union, Anton Bozman, said 1,000 workers had already been axed this year as a result of poor market conditions and another 13,000 are at risk.

Employment in the clothing industry shrank 13% last year from 2001 as output fell 24% amid a wave of bankruptcies and insolvencies.

GREECE 30,000 Textile Jobs Lost In 10 Years

Up to 30,000 textile and clothing industry workers in Greece have lost their jobs in the past 10 years because of the growing move to offshore manufacturing.

Data from the Greek Association of Knitting and Clothes Manufacturing Companies showed the losses were mainly due to firms relocating production to Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Turkey.

Officials said up to 50,000 jobs were created in those countries as a result but the switch has left the Greek industry with only 10,000 workers this year compared to around 40,000 in 1993.

Massive Job-Cut in Bangladesh Garment Sector

The Bangladesh garment sector is the biggest foreign exchange earner of the country, employing 1.8 million workers. The industry flourished due its cheap and predominantly female labour market as well as the favoured international textiles and clothing regime under the MFA.

In recent years, about 600 garment factories of Bangladesh have faced closure rendering about 500,000 labourers out of employment, of whom 80% are females.

In the aftermath of the September 11 incident in the US, a total of 1,276 RMG factories closed down in Dhaka and Chittagong, and 350,000 workers were rendered jobless. Some of the factories have gradually reopened since March 2002, 501 factories still remain closed.

According to the Bangladesh Garment Workers Protection Alliance (BGWPA), 72 Caribbean and Sub-Saharan LDC are to enjoy quota free and duty free access to the American market under the USTDA – 2000 law. India and Pakistan have also been given concessions by the US for their cooperation in the “war on terrorism”, while China dominates the RMG market. Bangladesh would face dire consequences for its failure to compete with the other LDCs due to its lack of linkage industries in this sector.

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