History Of Textile

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Establishment of TGC          Executive Board
 

History of Textile, Garment
& Clothing Industries in Jordan

Textile, garment and clothing industries are new ones in Jordan; their ages are not more than forty years. At that time they were restricted to some kinds of traditional textile and wears. This industry continued to be on a narrow scale up to 1980 when it started to spread and diverse very widely as a result of the attention of a number of Jordanian investors to this industry. It reached its peak in the 1980s when the number of workers in this sector reached 30 thousand workers distributed on 1850 establishments.

The year 1990 was an acute turning point; the region testified many strong political changes resulted by The Gulf War which put Jordan in a series of political and economical crises that exhausted it. Those unstable conditions remarkably impacted the industrial investments; the above-mentioned number of factories, for example, has shrunk to 650; in other words 1200 factories were closed up. Unemployment rate went up to 60% among the workers of our sector. Many factories sank into debts. Their machines turned to scrap. Many plant-owners became merchants and importers especially from the Far East. As a result of that and with the absence of the protection, the local market was filled with foreign goods of prices lower than the cost price of the national goods. The surviving factories, therefore, had few choices all of them lead to decreasing production.

Jordan TGC factories were retreating when Oslo Peace Treaty was signed in 1995. Accordingly government began to amend and revise investment laws, considering encouragement of investment and facilitation of export. Labor law, social security constitution and vocational training laws were also amended. With these amendments to laws Jordan became seasonable for foreign investments. QIZ were established where investors can meet some conditions then manage to export their products to USA without any restrictions. So, the retreat of national investments outside QIZ went along with massive growth in foreign TGC investments inside QIZ.

It is obvious that these qualified zones were established by American support to achieve a political target; that is to normalize the relations between Jordan and Israel; as one important condition must be met to invest according to QIZ system that is to complete not less than 8% of the production in Israel; and that of course means to normalize the relations between the people of both countries. Anyway, the refreshment of Jordan economically was a reward for its efforts to bring peace to the region. Also investment in such areas will certainly help enhancing the peace, the stability and the security in the countries surrounding Israel; as our region can never act stable without solving the problems of the poverty and unemployment. It’s noteworthy that USA signed an agreement of free trade with Jordan. The FTA reserved workers’ rights declared in domestic and International laws as well as the environment protection laws. This achievement which materialized for the first time in a trade agreement between Jordan and USA was a result of the efforts of brother Fathalla Omrani and the sisters & brothers at the AFL-CIO in convincing governments, trade chambers, congresses and ministry of foreign affairs of both countries.

Today in Jordan, there are (70) seventy foreign establishments invest in QIZ and employ more than (30000) thirty thousand workers. Ten thousand of them are migrant workers coming from China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In addition to (15000) fifteen thousand employees work outside the QIZ. By noticing the number of workers in TGC industries and the population of Jordan who are (5000, 000) five million persons, one can imagine the load and the responsibility that fall upon our trade union.

Establishment of TGC Trade Union

On April 4th 1954 and by the letter of The Minister of the Social Affairs at that time, The General Trade Union of Workers in Textile, Garment & Clothing was established. Here is the translation of the Ministers letter:

Ref. No. 4/4/20/700
Date: April 4th 1954

Dear Mr. Wasif Jawharee and His Colleagues,

Regarding your application dated March 17th 1954 and its attachments, asking to register a trade union named (Forum of Trade Union of Tailors in Amman); please be informed that I the minister of the social affairs, by the law of workers' trade unions article no. 35 for the year 1953, agree to register this trade union as from the issuance date of this letter.

Best Regards

The First Executive Board
Elected on Sep 27th 1954

The Present Executive Board
2006- 2011

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