Clean Clothes Campaign

The Clean Clothes Campaign (also Clean Clothes Campaign and the Clean Clothes Campaign , CCC ) is a non-governmental organization , working for workers' rights and improve working conditions in the international textile and clothing industry uses and in the sporting goods industry. These industries have a large part of their products produced in less developed or low-wage countries . The CCC is supported by many NGOs and workers' associations around the world. The organization is based in Amsterdam , a port city that has been trading overseas for centuries .

History and structure

In 1989 the Schone Kleren campaign (German: Campaign for clean clothing) was founded in the Netherlands in response to reports of scandalous working conditions in C&A suppliers . Today there are such campaigns in 15 European countries.

The CCC is a network in which over 300 trade unions and NGOs , consumer organizations, church groups, one-world shops, research institutions and women's rights organizations work together. Among the German sponsoring organizations include the Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) , FEMNET eV, the IG Metall , the INKOTA-network , the South Wind Institute and the United Services Union Ver.di . In Switzerland, Public Eye coordinates the activities of the CCC. There is close cooperation with partner organizations in developing and emerging countries .

Goal setting and activities

The aim is to improve working conditions in the global clothing and sporting goods industry. To this end, the CCC informs consumers, negotiates with companies, lobbies the German Federal Government, the European Parliament and the EU Commission and supports workers' organizations . With press reports, television and radio reports, protest letters and street actions, the CCC publicizes labor law violations and stands up for the interests of workers. About 30 acute grievances per year are taken up in protest actions ( Urgent Actions ).

In the run-up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , the CCC organized the “Play Fair at Olympia” campaign in collaboration with other organizations. This should make the big sporting goods companies aware of their responsibility for the working conditions in the factories; In an appeal with half a million signatures, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was asked to demand fair working conditions in the sponsorship agreements. Some sporting goods manufacturers were ready to change, but the IOC was not very responsive.

In recent years, the CCC has also successfully called on city administrations and municipalities in European countries to take ethical criteria into account in the public procurement of clothing. For example, 250 municipalities in France adopted a resolution stipulating that contracts for ordering clothing comply with certain standards of working conditions. This Clean Clothes Communities Campaign now exists in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Great Britain. Südwind Institute and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation offer further training in this regard.

In February 1998, after close consultations with its global partners and the trade unions, the CCC adopted the Code of Labor Practices for the Apparel Industry including Sportswear , which all apparel manufacturers should adhere to. The code requires:

• living wages
• no excessively long working hours
• Freedom of union
• Prohibition of child and forced labor
• safe working conditions
• an independent control of compliance with these criteria.

For the practical application of the CCC Code, a series of pilot projects with buyers and brand manufacturers in the Netherlands, France , Sweden, Switzerland , Great Britain and Germany were implemented between 1985 and 2005 . The CCC Code was applied directly in all of these pilot projects or assessed as a long-term reference document. However, the CCC is not a multi- stakeholder initiative. Comprehensive verification systems are to be developed from the pilot projects in the long term . The latter is an important requirement for real improvement; Partner organizations in particular warn against an overly euphoric assessment of the first improvements in working conditions as a result of pilot projects.

In the Netherlands and Great Britain, the national platforms are also members of the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) and the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI). After the successful completion of a pilot project with three retailers in 2004, the CCC of Switzerland was involved in the establishment of the verification system Independent Social Compliance Monitoring (ISCOM). In Germany, the company Hess Natur joined the FWF in 2005 after completing a pilot project. This decision was seen as a decisive step for the FWF to develop into a European verification society.

In April 2010, the CCC successfully supported a lawsuit brought by the Hamburg consumer center against the discounter Lidl . Lidl had not kept the promise made in its advertising of fair working conditions at textile suppliers in Bangladesh . Lidl undertook in a cease and desist declaration to withdraw the advertising promise complained of.

Bangladesh Agreement (ACCORD)

By November 2015, around 200 trading groups in the textile industry had signed the so-called ACCORD agreement. It is intended to increase fire protection and safety in 1600 to 2000 of a total of over 4000 export-oriented textile factories in the country with four million employees. The signatories commit to the commitment for five years. It includes, among other things:

• Checks by independent professionals
• Training programs for employees
• the right to stop working if the agreement is violated.

Shortly before, on April 24, 2013, 1,138 people were killed and 2,438 injured in the building collapse in Sabhar , Bangladesh. On November 24, 2012, the Tazreen factory (producer for C&A, KiK and others) in Bangladesh burned down, leaving 112 dead and hundreds injured. Even expensive brands like Hugo Boss produce in the same factories under similarly poor working conditions as the cheap brands H&M or C&A.

Other initiatives

Business Social Compliance Initiative

A competing initiative is the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) of the Foreign Trade Association (FTA). Among other things, the FTA represents the Foreign Trade Association of German Retailers towards European and international institutions. The CCC criticizes several points of the BSCI regulations:

• The BSCI Code of Conduct contains regulations on working hours, wages and freedom of union , but no obligation to comply with social standards.
• The inspections of the factories do not take place across the board and do not take place unannounced, but mostly coordinated with the factory owners.
• The results do not have to be published.

Alliance for Sustainable Textiles

In October 2014, the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles (Textile Alliance) was founded after a six-monthly discussion process between companies, NGOs and the government . However, initially the majority of the textile industry (producers and traders) did not join. It was only in April 2015 that the German Trade Association (HDE) and the General Association of the German Textile and Fashion Industry (textil + mode) called on their members to join the textile alliance. After one year (October 2015) around 160 companies joined, which together generate almost 50% of sales in Germany. The steering committee, which has to decide by consensus, consists of twelve representatives: four from business (HDE, textil + mode, Otto , Seidensticker ), three NGOs (FEMNET, CIR, INKOTA-netzwerk), the German trade union federation , the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) as a non-commercial standard organization and three ministries (BMZ, BMAS, BMU). Regardless of its vehement commitment to legal regulations, the CCC participates in this voluntary alliance.

See also

• Textile industry in Bangladesh
• Ali Enterprises

Web links

• Clean clothes campaign
• Clean Clothes Campaign Austria
• Clean Clothes Campaign Switzerland
• Clean Clothes Campaign (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ www.cleanclothes.org National Clean Clothes Campaigns , accessed November 28, 2015.
2. ↑ Unfair advertising: Lidl has to withdraw advertising for “fairly produced” clothing - clothing not produced under fair working conditions , report from April 21, 2010 on www.kostenlose-urteile.de.
3. ^ Company Signatories , accessed November 28, 2015.
4. ↑ Florian Diekmann: Safe textile factories , accessed on November 28, 2015.
5. ^ Gisela Burckhardt: Todschick. Noble labels, cheap fashion - produced inhumanely . Heyne, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-453-60322-6 .
6. ↑ Press release of the campaign for clean clothing from October 15, 2015: 1 year textile alliance - why we are there ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .