As part of the STITCH Together project, employers’ organisations and trade unions from Austria have adopted a joint declaration reaffirming their commitment to building a competitive, sustainable, and socially responsible textile and clothing industry. Agreed during the project’s seventh seminar in Vienna, the declaration addresses the sector’s growing challenges, including global competition, rising energy costs, climate change, digitalisation, and labour shortages, while emphasising the importance of social dialogue in managing the industry’s transformation.  

The Vienna Declaration identifies six shared priorities for the sector: strengthening social dialogue and collective bargaining, ensuring a just green and digital transition, supporting industrial competitiveness through public investment, investing in skills and lifelong learning, improving the sector’s attractiveness to current and future workers, and safeguarding quality employment and workers’ rights. The declaration highlights the need for employers, trade unions, and policymakers to work together to ensure that sustainability and competitiveness go hand in hand as the textile industry continues to evolve. The initiative forms part of the EU-funded STITCH Together project, which promotes cooperation between employers and workers across Europe’s textile and clothing industry to support fair and inclusive transitions.  

The Austrian seminar demonstrates how social partners are working collaboratively to prepare the textile sector for future challenges while reinforcing Europe’s industrial resilience. Through the STITCH Together project, stakeholders continue to promote dialogue, skills development, and shared solutions that support a competitive, innovative, and socially sustainable textile ecosystem.

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