Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective » (1st Edition)

Angela Hale is Director of Women Working Worldwide, an NGO based at Manchester Metropolitan University. She previously lectured in sociology at the university and has published many articles relating to women workers. Women Working Worldwide works with a network of trade unions and NGOs supporting the rights of workers in international supply chains producing consumer goods for the world market.

Jane Wills is Reader in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London and a board member of Women Working Worldwide. Her previous publications include Dissident Geographies: An Introduction to Radical Ideas and Practices (2000), Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms (Blackwell Publishing, 2001) and Union Futures: Building Networked Trade Unionism in the UK (2002).

Threads of Labour draws on a rich body of action research gathered by organisations supporting women workers in ten different garment-producing locations in Asia, Europe and Mexico. This research provides important new empirical information about the global garment industry and also creates a blueprint for conducting worker-oriented action research in order to better understand and resist the negative impact of globalization on labour.

This book combines bottom-up research conducted by women workers’ organisations with the latest academic research and debate. It seeks to ensure that workers’ voices reach those who are trying to reconfigure global capitalism in more humane directions. Finally, it explores the ways in which workers might begin to develop new forms of organization that are more suited to securing gains in the global garment industry than those strategies deployed in the past.

List of Illustrations.

List of Tables.

List of Boxes.

Notes on Contributors.

Acknowledgements.

Abbreviations.

1 Threads of Labour in the Global Garment Industry. (Jane Wills with Angela Hale).

2 The Changing Face of the Global Garment Industry. (Jennifer Hurley with Doug Miller).

3 Organising and Networking in Support of Garment Workers. (Angela Hale).

4 Action Research. Tracing the Threads of Labour in the Global Garment Industry. (Jane Wills with Jennifer Hurley).

5 Unravelling the Web. Supply Chains and Workers’ Lives in the Garment Industry. (Jennifer Hurley).

6 Coming Undone. The Implications of Garment Industry Subcontracting for UK Workers. (Camille Warren).

7 The Impact of Full-package Production in Mexico’s Blue Jean Capital. (Lynda Yanz with Bob Jeffcott).

8 Defending Workers’ Rights in Subcontracted Workplaces. Rohini Hensman (Women Working Worldwide.

9 The Phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement from the Perspective of Workers. (Angela Hale with Maggie Burns).

10 Conclusion. (Angela Hale with Jane Will).

References.

Index