MAKE IT
WELL
MAKE IT
FAIR
MAKE IT
HERE
THE TCFUA PLAN FOR THE INDUSTRY 2008
Support Australian TCF jobs
During the Howard years, the TCF industry experienced: • Over 40,000 Australian TCF jobs lost • 5 tariff cuts since the late 1990s with another due in 2010 • A halving of TCF exports with imports almost doubling • 4 Free Trade Agreements and 9 more in the pipeline that hurt Australian manufacturing
WELL MAKE IT FAIR MAKE IT HERE MAKE IT
SUPPORT AUSTRALIAN TCF JOBS Productivity Commission attacks TCF jobs – Again! In its latest report, the Productivity Commission says Australia should keep slashing tariffs and abandon our industry to globalisation and the free market. Their discredited ideology says that government should stand by and do nothing, while the industry declines – tearing at the fabric of our society and taking the shirts off our backs.
The TCFUA and its members have had enough!
Australian manufacturing is ready to emerge from a decade of neglect. The new
Labor government has called on Professor Roy Green to review the TCF industry and make recommendations to revitalise and rebuild TCF capabilities for this country. Prime Minister Rudd says he wants to lead “a country that actually makes things”. We also want to live in “a country that actually makes things”. The union has made its submission to the Green Review and is campaigning to make sure our politicians and business leaders make investments to build our manufacturing industry.
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A new plan for Australia’s TCF Industry We need a plan that supports jobs, innovation, skills and export development: a plan that is smart, ethical in its treatment of workers and environmentally sustainable; a plan that genuinely assists workers and their communities. The TCF industry remains vital and important. It is a $2.8 billion industry that today continues to employ 48,200 in manufacturing and many thousand others as outworkers. The industry has suffered in the past few decades as a result of global competitive pressures, government neglect and tariff cuts. It is also affected by the high Australian dollar. All this has seen many jobs go overseas. In addition, the TCF Structural Adjustment Package (SAP) has shamefully failed to provide assistance to retrenched TCF workers. Since it began in July 2005, only 822 workers got assistance and less than $500 was spent on each worker. Yet over $2million that has gone to Job Networks has not been spent on assisting workers. The Governmentʼs Strategic Investment Program (SIP) helps many companies develop their business but has no guaranteed link to ongoing Australian jobs. Some SIP money
goes to companies that do not manufacture ethically and are in breach of current legal regulation. Outworker conditions remain notoriously bad. Most clothing manufacturing in Australia takes place in long contracting chains that end with an outworker performing work at home or in a sweat shop. Breaches of industrial laws and regulation continue and exploitation of a mostly female, migrant workforce remains a blight on the industry. A lack of appropriate training and existing skills recognition has hampered efforts to retain skills in the industry and to match workers to factories and businesses suffering from skills shortages. Despite the major challenges faced across the industry, there are many great examples of innovation and ethical production. Smart companies are developing new environmentally sustainable products and processes. Initiatives by the TCFUA, government and industry have succeeded in training outworkers and moving them to businesses in need of their skills. The TCFUA believes that the industry plan outlined on the next page needs to be adopted as a matter of urgency to secure the future of the TCF industry in Australia.
TCFUA Proposal for a new Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industry Plan • ENCOURAGE and develop an innovative, smart, ethical, clean and green industry • FREEZE tariffs and expand industry assistance to support and create quality skilled jobs • GUARANTEE entitlements and provide effective assistance for retrenched workers • ESTABLISH a TCF Innovation Council to support and implement the new plan
1: Encourage and develop an innovative, smart, ethical, clean and green industry
3: Guarantee entitlements and provide effective assistance for retrenched workers.
• Develop and market Australian made TCF products as high quality, ethically produced and environmentally friendly. • Establish clear targets for environmental standards and strategies for TCF companies and develop branding and marketing for the Australian industry. • Recognise and develop skills, invest in and expand fully funded training programs and attract young people through quality high wage jobs. • Enact Federal and State legislation that regulates work to outworkers, ensures higher wages and prevents illegal wages and conditions.
• Redesign TCF worker assistance immediately so it assists all TCF workers, their families and communities affected by restructuring. • Ensure worker assistance provides personalised TAFE training supported by community and union advocacy when redundancies are announced. • Provide a non-means tested training allowance to retrenched workers and outworkers to enable them to undertake and complete training. • Guarantee employee entitlements are paid in full.
2: Freeze tariffs and expand industry assistance to support and create quality skilled jobs • Run a new TCF Industry Plan to 2020 with a Review in 2013. • Freeze tariffs until it is in the interests of Australian workers, their families and the broader community, to review them. • Expand and extend government and industry support to at least to 2020 to create quality Australian jobs linked to fair and environmentally friendly workplaces. • Encourage State and Federal purchasing of TCF goods to support the creation of quality, well-paid jobs, preference local suppliers and Australian Made product, and provide training and skill development for shop floor workers.
4: Establish a TCF Innovation Council to support and implement the new plan • Establish a Council comprising Government, Industry and the TCFUA. • Ensure the Council supports and guides the industry to grow and revitalise and continuously improve and renew.
What you can do • GO TO OUR WEBSITE www.MakeItHere.com.au to find more information and send a message directly to Professor Green, Prime Minister Rudd and Industry Minister Kim Carr. Tell them to Make it WELL, Make it FAIR and Make it HERE! Support Australian TCF Jobs. • SIGN THE PETITION to the Federal government • TAKE ACTION by writing a letter to your local Member of Parliament, newspapers, and ring talkback radio. • SPREAD THE WORD about our campaign by speaking to your friends, families and workmates asking them to act.