Mr V Elangovan, Chairman, TSF and Vice President, TEA in his address said that this initiative by ETI and PST is a platform for engagement, action, and knowledge sharing. He mentioned that such programs support the most vulnerable part of the industry the workforce and that SPEAK is mainly aimed at representing the voice of the workforce. He concluded by saying that participants would take back valuable learnings from the session.
Mr Kumar Duraiswamy, Joint Secretary, TEA He said that TEA, ETI, and the TSF are taking many initiatives and organizing workshops to bring the Tirupur apparel cluster to the global limelight and set a benchmark for other apparel clusters. He thanked ETI for their continuous support and initiatives in highlighting Tirupur as one of the best apparel manufacturing clusters in the world. He stated that the concept of Freedom of Association is not new to Tirupur and has been one of the key principles for the cluster’s development since the beginning of its export business. He highlighted that during the 34-year export journey of Tirupur and the Tirupur Exporters Association, there has not been a single strike or major labour unrest, which he described as a key success of the cluster.
Mr Rana Alok Singh, Regional Director, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), breifed about ETI and explained how the SPEAKS program fits into ETI’s five-year strategy. He said the program was being implemented with the PST a German-based coalition of brands and civil society organizations, to create a platform for collaboration among brands, suppliers, and worker representatives to strengthen Freedom of Association. He explained that in the first phase the initiative would focus on building a SPEAKS knowledge-sharing platform rather than directly entering factories, and the learnings would later guide factory-level actions. He highlighted that strengthening worker representation and stakeholder engagement is a key pillar of ETI’s 2030 strategy.
Ms. R. Aruna, Advisor, and Ms. Janani from ETI led the Group Discussion on Promoting Freedom of Association and Multistakeholder Engagement.
