Three years ago, Gap Inc. embarked on a major programme of work to encourage its suppliers to engage with trade unions, so that workers' issues can be resolved swiftly and effectively.

"They're out to destroy us!" "They're just a bunch of mad leftists!" "They're all corrupt!" In many countries, including the UK, the reaction of many business people to trade unions is based on fear and mistrust. And the reverse is often true, too: many in the trade union movement have equally low opinions of business.

In many cases, mutual mistrust is so great that trade unions can't operate as an effective mechanism for workers to raise their issues with management and get them resolved through negotiation.

Workers issues often escalate into intractable problems.

This often means that instead of being dealt with as they occur, workers' issues - for example, late payment of wages, unreasonable amounts of overtime - soon escalate into major, intractable problems, requiring head office staff - both retailer and trade union - to get involved to resolve them. And for companies, big problems provide perfect fodder for negative campaigns and media exposés.

In 2006, ETI members Gap Inc. and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), embarked on a major project to build positive relationships between Gap Inc. staff and suppliers, and trade unions. The overall aim is to enable workers' issues to be resolved where they should be: on the factory floor.

The first step was for ITGLWF to brief Gap's team of 90+ social responsibility staff on the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining - that workers should be able to join and form trade unions and negotiate collectively with management for their rights.

Next, ITGLWF regional affiliates in South East Asia & South Asia were introduced to Gap Inc. regional staff, to begin the process of developing relationships. Then, at the country level, Gap Inc. and ITGLWF organised various meetings and workshops in Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Turkey...

Breaking down barriers

"These events are about getting rid of stereotypes and then building dialogue, based on respect and understanding," says Lakshmi Bhatia, Director of Global Partnerships at Gap Inc.

We get suppliers to think about how they can overcome their fear of trade unions, and vice versa.

"We start out by asking our suppliers why they are so wary of unions, and then ask the unions why they mistrust the companies. Then we get them to think about how they can overcome their fear and mistrust.

"Sometimes, each group is so nervous of speaking to each other at the beginning that we look for opportunities to get them to interact. Once they are able to relate as ‘people to people', they always find things in common - for example, either they come from the same area, or they went to the same university - and in some cases, after a few hours they're all swapping photos of their children and reminiscing about their student days!

"For example in the Cambodia workshop, there were people there who remembered the dark days of Pol Pot's regime, and started talking to each other about their experiences. They began to realise that they weren't talking to adversaries, but just to other ordinary people, like themselves".

Benefits for business and workers

Lakshmi says that the business has already reaped major benefits from this work, including far fewer strikes and stoppages in the countries where the interactions and workshops have taken place: "I'd say we've seen about a 90% drop in issues that have had to be escalated to our head office - most of them are now dealt in the factories themselves or at the local level with the help of the social responsibility team.

"This is a huge benefit for us. It saves our compliance team valuable time and resources as helps us manage risk and reputation."
Neil Kearney General Secretary of ITGLWF says that there is now much healthier dialogue between managers and trade unions, which means that workers get swifter redress.

"Put simply, problems are best resolved as close to source as possible," he says. "With Gap Inc. we are trying to develop mechanisms to make this happen.

Neil Kearney, 1950-2009

Neil Kearney passed away on 19 November 2009 while on mission in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Neil was a prominent and vital personality within ETI and the wider labour rights movement, championing the rights of garment workers for more than two decades.