ARTE wants to negotiate the first national textile collective agreement with the unions

The Spanish Association of Textile Retailers (ARTE), which consists of Inditex, Mango, Primark and H&M, among other fashion companies, has informed the trade unions CC.OO., UGT, Fetico, ELA, LAB and CIG of their readiness to negotiate the first national collective agreement in activities of trade in textiles and footwear, it is stated in the press release.

Namely, the new textile employers are working on a new national agreement aimed at large groups or trade chains in the textile sector (including textiles and footwear, clothing, other accessories and household products) that have a Total physical sales area of ​​more than 3,500 square meters throughout the country, physical stores in at least three autonomous communities or that have more than 400 employees.

The employers specified that the goal of this new agreement is progress with the union “common stable and homogeneous” framework of working conditions at the national level that serve as a basis for the sector, also respecting existing company agreements.

The Retail Textile Spain Association was created to represent the textile trade sector at national level to promote sectoral approaches in the economic, social and regulatory fields. The entity promoted by the Inditex group and Mango, which was gradually joined by other large companies in the sector, was created at the beginning this month of January outside of the major national textile employers, Acotex (National Textile, Accessory and Leather Trade Association), and just a few weeks later CEOE joined. It represents a third of the sector and was constituted as a new association of employers in the fashion sector to express the views of the industry in dealing with the challenges it faces in the economic, social and regulatory spheres. ARTE also strives to represent the general and common positions of the sector in the institutional sphere, and especially in relation to public administrations at their various levels and trade union organizations that represent their workers.

ARTE consists of major textile companies such as Inditex (Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, Oysho and ZaraHome), H&M, Iberian Sports Retail Group (JD, Sport Zone and Sprinter), Kiabi, Mango, Pepco, Primark and Uniqlo .