Like every year, the network meeting provided an important opportunity for affiliates to exchange information on national developments, identify common challenges and coordinate trade union priorities at European level before engaging in the formal social dialogue process.

Discussions focused on the evolving situation of the sector across Europe, including employment trends and wages, industrial restructuring and national challenges, and their impact on workers and trade unions.

Participants also exchanged views on several key policy and labour issues affecting TCLF value chains:

• Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), including emerging risks and the need to strengthen prevention and protection measures for workers throughout the sector, for example in case of extreme heat, and to take into account the gender dimension of the textile and garment workers.
• Subcontracting practices in textile and garment production, addressing concerns related to accountability, transparency and working conditions in increasingly fragmented supply chains.
• The implementation of the EU Forced Labour Regulation and its implications for global supply chains, workers’ rights and responsible sourcing practices.
• Corporate sustainability due diligence, with a focus on ensuring meaningful worker involvement, social dialogue and effective enforcement throughout value chains.
• Recent EU legislative and policy developments impacting the sector, including ESPR (Ecodesign Regulation), the Digital Product Passport, Circular Economy Act, Textile Labelling Regulation and other policy initiatives.

The discussions helped shape trade union contributions to the following day’s Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee, where social partners and EU institutions reviewed a broad range of strategic issues for the future of the TCLF industries.

The SSDC agenda included exchanges on European industrial policy and competitiveness, notably the Industrial Accelerator Act, the “Made in Europe” agenda and the forthcoming Circular Economy Act. Participants also discussed developments in trade policy, including the EU-India and EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreements, and received updates on sectoral skills initiatives under the Pact for Skills.

A dedicated session addressed the implementation of the EU Forced Labour Regulation, while social partners also reviewed ongoing joint projects, including the SER2026 Social Dialogue Project led by industriAll Europe and COTANCE, and the Stitch Together project supporting social dialogue and capacity building in the textile and clothing sector in 7 EU countries.

This week’s meetings once again demonstrated the importance of strong European social dialogue and trade union coordination in addressing the economic, social and environmental transformations facing the TCLF industries.

Judith Kirton-Darling industriAll Europe's general secretary said  “Workers cannot pay the price of industrial transformation. Whether we are discussing trade policy, sustainability requirements, forced labour, subcontracting or competitiveness, the same principle must apply: workers’ rights come first. These meetings demonstrated once again why strong trade unions, coordinated across Europe, as well as European social dialogue, are indispensable to secure a just transition in the TCLF sector and to hold companies accountable throughout global supply chains”.