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Friday, March 29, 2024

Prioritise textile industry in One-District, One-Factory policy – TUC

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The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is asking government to include the textile industry in the list of factories it plans to set up under the one -district, one-factory policy.

The TUC believes the industry has the potential to generate many jobs and thus deserves some attention as the nation seeks to industrialise.

“The textile industry can generate tens of thousands of jobs…we, therefore, expect some of the industries under the one district, one-factory policy to be in textiles,” Secretary General of the TUC Dr. Yaw Baah said at a parade at the Black Star Square in Accra to mark this year’s May Day.

The textile industry has struggled in recent years, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. It employed more than 25,000 workers in the 1970s but now provides employment to only about 1,500 people.

The more than 130 million meters of fabric it produced has also been reduced drastically to less than 30 million.

The Textiles, Garment and Leather Employees Union used the occasion of the May Day celebration to drum home the need for government to deal with the fundamental challenges confronting the industry to prevent the total collapse of the sector.

With various inscriptions on placards, they called for an end to the smuggling of cheap and fake prints from China which they say is collapsing the local industry. 

They also called on government to clamp down on those who pirate local designs. The workers are additionally calling for the re-activation of the work of the anti textiles piracy task force that was set up by the Trade Ministry in 2010 to deal with traders in counterfeit textiles as a way to keep the industry afloat.

General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour who is also chairman of the Textiles, Garments and Leather Employees Union Abraham Koomson insists these challenges must be fixed first before government considers investing more money in the textiles industry.  

He believes government needs to focus on revamping existing industries instead of channelling resources into the building of new industries whose viability cannot be guaranteed.

“Government should plug the loopholes that are making the textile industry uncompetitive. That is the only way the keep us in business and help create more employment for the youth of this country,” he told Joy News. 

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