The Winnipeg Garment Industry: Industry Development and Employment A report for the Manitoba Research Alliance on Community Economic Development in the New Economy Project #4 Assessment of the Impact of New Technologies on Composition of the Labour Force in the Garment Industry in Manitoba Raymond Wiest, Editor November 2005 ii Table of Contents Research Team iv Acknowledgements v 1 Introduction to the Winnipeg Garment Industry Study: Objectives, Methods, and Training 1 Raymond Wiest and Kathryn Mossman 2 Government Programs and the Garment Industry 17 Aaron Pettman 3 Technology in the Winnipeg Garment Industry 29 Leigh Hayden 4 Labour Recruitment Strategies of the Winnipeg Garment Industry 41 Sara Stephens 5 Training of Labour in the Winnipeg Garment Industry 51 Kathryn Mossman 6 Worker Views on Changes in the Winnipeg Garment Industry: In-depth Interviews with Ten Immigrant Garment Workers 67 Amena Khatun 7 Biases and Beliefs: Impacts of Perspectives on the Garment Industry 103 Sara Stephens and Kathryn Mossman 8 Reflections on the Garment Industry in Winnipeg: Alternative Visions, Fashion, and Opportunities for Small Business 119 Erin Jonasson 9 Radical Entrepreneurs: Towards a Model of First Nations Approaches to Economic Development in the Secondary Textile Industries 133 Cory Willmott 10 Conclusions and Propositions 145 Raymond Wiest References Cited 159 iii Research Team Manitoba Research Alliance, Project #4 Raymond Wiest, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, University of Manitoba (team leader) Cory Willmott, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Manitoba; currently Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL (sub-team leader) Leigh Hayden, BA, MA, Anthropology, University of Manitoba Erin Jonasson, BA, MA Student in Anthropology, University of Manitoba Amena Khatun, MA, Gender & Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok Temperance McDonald, BHE—Clothing and Textiles, University of Manitoba Kate Mossman, BA Advanced, MA Student in Anthropology, University of Manitoba Aaron Pettman, BA Advanced, Global Political Economy, University of Manitoba Sara Stephens, BA, MA Student in Anthropology, University of Manitoba Sara Komarnisky, B Com, MA Student in Anthropology, University of Manitoba Asfia Gulrukh Kamal, BA, MA Student in Anthropology, University of Manitoba iv Acknowledgements This project is Project #4 of the Manitoba Research Alliance on Community Economic Development in the New Economy. Project #4 is titled “Assessment of the Impact of New Technologies on Composition of the Labour Force in the Garment Industry in Manitoba”. The team leader and entire Project #4 team are pleased to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, grant #538-2002-1003, via the Manitoba Research Alliance on Community Economic Development in the New Economy. The team extends gratitude to the Manitoba Research Alliance for its effective organizational efforts. Special thanks are extended to Garry Loewen for clear communication, constant support, and patience in awaiting the assembly of this relatively complex team production effort in the midst of multiple and competing obligations. It has been a memorable experience and distinct pleasure to work together with such a vibrant, intelligent and committed research team. This project has been a genuine cooperative and mutually supportive team effort. My heartfelt appreciation is extended to all these talented team members. I greatly appreciated the prompt communication from team members since this project had to be completed during a time that I was conducting another research project in Anchorage, Alaska. Deep gratitude goes to Shirley Wiest for assisting with formatting and layout of the manuscripts in the form of a unified report. Finally, I am pleased to acknowledge that the excellent commentary and suggestions by two reviewers—Jennifer DeGroot and Parvin Ghorayshi—were integrated into the report. Raymond Wiest November 2005 v vi 1 Introduction to the Winnipeg Garment Industry Study: Objectives, Methods, and Training Raymond Wiest and Kathryn Mossman PROJECT OBJECTIVES This case study of the garment industry and fashion industry in Manitoba approaches two issues: 1) labour availability, recruitment and treatment; and 2) labour implications of technological innovation in the industry. The study documents and assesses structural and technological changes in the industry and impacts of these changes on the composition of the labour force. Composition of the labour force in this study involves identification of the gender, ethnic and class character of the industry. Building upon the garment industry’s impact on labour, the study also explores existing and potential relationships to Community Economic Development (CED) in line with the larger project to which this study relates.1 Initially seeing a disjuncture between the garment industry and CED, the research team modified its objectives to include attractive and promising Aboriginal fashion initiatives. This decision added significant 1 This project is Project #4 of the Manitoba Research Alliance on Community Economic Development in the New Economy. Project #4 is titled “Assessment of the Impact of New Technologies on Composition of the Labour Force in the Garment Industry in Manitoba”. The team leader and entire Project #4 team are pleased to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, grant #538-2002-1003, via the Manitoba Research Alliance on Community Economic Development in the New Economy. complexity and breadth, but also provided opportunity for informative and provocative theorizing. The project explores labour implications of new information technology introduced into the industry. By examining and questioning the background to heavy reliance on offshore labour recruitment, the project explores relations with and predispositions within industry and government regarding potential labour living in the vicinity. In the context of an underemployed inner city population, the objective was to investigate garment industry labour recruitment practices in Winnipeg, current skill requirements and skill training, and labour relations in the industry. The garment industry in Winnipeg, as elsewhere in North America, has been built upon immigrant labour. Until recently there has been an active engagement by the industry in offshore labour recruitment that has involved governmental support for special immigration policies designed to attract investment and a competitive edge for the industry. In many areas of the world (e.g., see Ross 1997), and to some extent in Winnipeg, this has translated into wage concessions and work conditions generally not tolerated by workers who are not legally constrained by temporary worker agreements, and these labour conditions have contributed to profit margins deemed essential by the industry to remain competitive. In Canada, both federal and provincial governments have made concessions and considerable investments in order to hold and expand the industry, generally with the argument and defence that a local industry, well-known for its special products and for its innovation, has generated and maintained important research and development investment and local employment. In recent years, however, new job creation in this industry has been linked systemically and systematically to outsourcing opportunities which are designed to address rising labour costs and the gradual phase-out, and January 2005 discontinuation, of protection under the MFA (Multi-Fibre Agreement). Hence, labour recruitment abroad has slowed down, although the local industry continues its heavy reliance on immigrant labour, the reasons for which we hope to make clear in this collection of essays. One of the principal questions addressed in the research is the relation between immigrant labour and under- and unemployed inner city residents, particularly those of First Nation origin, and the connection to the garment and fashion industry of Manitoba. 2 To broaden upon comparisons based in the literature and some of our own research, we explored industry engagement in CED approaches, the assumptions about people and work, about labour recruitment policy and practice, and about sense of community participation. This lead to a closer examination of the ready-made garment industry in the context of the new economy and introduction of information technology— ranging from global integration of fashion design, production decisions, inventory monitoring, and production and delivery information processing on the one hand, to technological innovations designed to improve quality control as well as reduce labour costs, e.g., computerized fabric-cutting technology. The project put a challenge to CED to address the problem of an industry predicated upon an “entrapped” labour force. What kinds of incentives can be brought to government and industry to integrate and build upon a local labour force, and not continue to rely on an imported labour force encumbered by constraints on its social and economic mobility? While the industry in North America has moved more and more to “home-work” (sewing done in the sewing machine operator’s own home) to avoid increasing labour costs associated with unionized labour, the Winnipeg ready-made garment industry (RMG) has continued with the on-site factory production model. It used to be argued that this was because of Winnipeg’s emphasis on winter garments that necessitate heavy duty equipment.