Clean Clothes
Communities:
Focus on Work Wear
 Governments
have a key role to play in ensuring that good labour standards
are enforced, not only by regulating the private sector but
in their own activities. At local and national levels, they
spend millions on uniforms, for example. The CCC believes that
all work wear worn by public workers should be produced in workplaces
that respect workers' rights. Through community-council targeted
action, lobby and research, the CCC is already seeing positive
results.
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Working
Towards Ethical Procurement of Work Wear
516kb) Clean Clothes Campaign Seminar Report
Barcelona, Thursday 20th October 2005
Clean Clothes Communities
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Experience of European
Clean Clothes Campaigns
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Work in progress: Labour policies
of workwear companies supplying public authorities in
Europe
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Each year, towns and cities across Europe spend a huge amount
of money on clothing for municipal services such as the fire
department, cleaning, and public transport. Until recently,
however, how well or badly the workers who make this work wear
are treated was not a factor in their purchasing decisions.
But all that is starting to change.
A plan to better coordinate CCC activity on this front was
developed in October 2003, at a meeting in Paris of CCCs from
six European countries plus the CCC International Secretariat.
There it was decided that municipal buying and procurement ought
to be a key focus for community activists looking to set up
"Clean Clothes Communities" or CCCommunities, as they've
come to be known. It would, for example, also help to strengthen
local CCC campaigning and public awareness-raising.
It was decided that the "CCCommunities" campaign
would mainly focus on social standards. However, municipalities
should also address ecological issues, and so this is an area
where CCC groups can work together with environmental activists.
At the meeting, the CCCs decided what they would demand of the
communities, and set out these demands in a model resolution
that communities should be pushed to adopt (see the box).
Some national CCCs had already been working on this area
prior to the meeting, and since then, CCCommunities campaigns
have taken off in a number of countries. Today:
In France , no fewer than 250 communities, large and
small, have adopted a resolution to take labour standards into
account when tendering for new clothing orders. The campaign
has developed a model resolution, and a guide on how to implement
it.
In Belgium North, 60 municipalities have become CCCommunities.
In addition to this, the Clean Clothes at Work project has been
set up, in cooperation with two unions. Here, the purpose is
to get people in the workplace to look critically at the clothes
that their employers make them wear, and to ask for "clean
clothes".
In Amsterdam , the Netherlands, following a resolution
adopted by the City Council in December 2000 and subsequent
research by the Dutch CCC, a "guide" for the purchase
of clean work wear was written. This was presented in 2004 to
the thirty city employees who handle purchasing decisions. In
2004 Amsterdam won an award for this handbook from the Dutch
Ministry of housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM)
for governments who inspiringly integrating sustainability into
their buying practices. Meanwhile, the city of Enschede became
the first Dutch city to implement the procedures.
In Spain , an extensive programme on ethical procurement
was initiated in the Catalonia region in September 2004, with
three different local governments involved: Barcelona, Manresa
and Badalona.
In the UK , the project is part of a broader campaign
on public procurement, in which the CCC UK cooperates with many
other organisations and the University of Cardiff. A preliminary
study of the UK legal framework for public procurement was done
in 2004, and a questionnaire has been sent out to all local
authorities to establish their purchasing practices and policies
with regard to work wear.
In Sweden , in February 2005, the Swedish
CCC Rena Kläder began campaigning on public procurement.
The campaign is called Se Upp which is a short form of the Swedish
for "Community for Ethical Procurement" but also means
"Watch Out!". The campaign brings together the CCC with
other Swedish fair trade groups and, as in the UK campaign, does
not focus on clothes alone but takes them as a useful focus. Others
participating include the Swedish Association of Health Professionals
(Vårdförbundet) and the trade union for community officers
SKTF. Among the first activities, there have been seminars for
local authority buyers, and the release of a book about public
procurement. Rena Kläder says that, after a gentle start,
"this could be big".
Work wear company research
Past campaigning experience has made it clear that it is vital
to understand the make-up of the market you are dealing with.
Also, the CCC feels it is necessary to be able to confront the
work wear companies themselves with their responsibility to
ensure decent working conditions.
So, in April 2005 the CCC commissioned the Dutch-based Centre
for Research on Multinational Companies (SOMO) to research the
CSR performance of work wear companies.
To kick off the research, national CCC coalitions compiled
lists of the biggest work wear companies supplying their (local)
authorities. Out of this seven companies have been selected
which sell to authorities in various European countries. The
companies are themselves from different countries, and of various
sizes and background. The seven are being investigated for their
CSR policies and implementation, supply chain structure, and
past history of labour rights' violations.
The research will be presented at a two-day seminar focusing
on public procurement in October 2005, hosted by the Spanish
CCC. As well as national CCCs and SOMO, those invited to the
first day will include the companies researched, the Fair Wear
Foundation, and representatives of (local) authorities who have
or haven't passed a motion. They will hear the outcomes of the
research and discuss the consequences for (local) authorities.
The following day will be used by the CCC representatives to
plan their joint future strategies and campaigns on this theme.
So how does it work?
A city or municipal authority that wants to become a "Clean
Clothes Community" first adopts a resolution that says
that only work wear made under good labour conditions will be
purchased. They then have to formulate an ethical procurement
policy and develop a plan of action so that within a specified
period of time buying "clean" uniforms becomes a reality.
Before they start, they need to determine exactly who is responsible
for the purchases, who their suppliers are, where their current
uniforms are actually produced, what is known about the labour
conditions there, and which labour criteria they now want to
take into account.
What the CCCommunities Model Resolution says
Communities should:
- Demand that suppliers accept and implement the CCC model
code of conduct.
- Demonstrate compliance with the CCC code.
- Publicly disclose any efforts made and results achieved
to comply with the code.
- Publicly disclose where they are sourcing and in what circumstances
(optional: disclose a list of suppliers).
- Form an accountable task group that is responsible for
the development of implementation.
- Support the creation of a European Fair Wear Foundation.
- Act to promote the labour rights of garment workers (through
lobbying at national and European level).
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