On 6 March 2019, the first major conference of the multistakeholder initiative - Tamil Nadu (MSI-TN), which is supported from Germany by some members of the Textile Alliance as part of an alliance initiative, took place in Coimbature. Around 130 representatives from the government of Tamil Nadu, business associations, trade unions and NGOs took part. They came from Germany: Representatives of BMZ, Hugo Boss, Brands Fashion, FEMNET and the Alliance Secretariat of the Textile Alliance. The theme of the conference was: Better Compliance – Better Competitiveness. The question was whether compliance with social and environmental standards would lead to a higher competitiveness of spinning mills, as the German representatives argued, both on the economic side and on the part of FEMNET. A paper on the topic was also prepared by the MSI-TN. The participants discussed the topic vividly in mixed groups and each group developed recommendations.
Further information on the website of the Textile Alliance
This has been achieved so far: Written agreements on training to be carried out were agreed with 61 spinning mills. Through training, 3,500 workers have already been informed about their rights. In cooperation with the management of the factories, complaint committees are established after completion of the trainings, which will henceforth also be accompanied in their committee work.
And so it goes on: By the end of February 2020, training programs are to be carried out in up to 300 factories. In addition, the development of the multi-stakeholder initiative Tamil Nadu (MSI-TN) will further strengthen the dialogue between local actors, including through direct exchanges with Alliance members.
The MSI-TN has a Extensive website Created in which you can see the training materials and the list of factories where trainings have taken place so far: https://www.msi-tn.org/
