A PUBLICATION OF THE CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPAIGN
DECEMBER 1998
REVISED TRANSLATION of "ETHIEK IN DE FABRIEK"

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. The Chain
• 2. Codes and Monitoring
• 3. The Foundation Model
• 4. Negotiations in Europe
• 5. Clinton Thinks So Too
• 6. More Models: SA8000
• 7. Many questions

REVISED TRANSLATION of "ETHIEK IN DE FABRIEK"

Clean Clothes Campaign
Postbus 11584
1001 GN Amsterdam
the Netherlands
tel. + 31-20-4122785
fax. + 31-20-4122786
e-mail: info@cleanclothes.org
internet: www.cleanclothes.org
giro: 3927802

INTRODUCTION


Vietnamese women who make shoes for Nike are hit in the head if they make a mistake. Employees in China who work for Esprit have to work 93 hours per week. Indonesian women who worked for Adidas and Kappa were fired for going on strike. Romanian employees who work for H&M earn a wage far below the subsistence level. Employees in a factory producing for Levi Strauss in Indonesia earn less than the minimum wage, are not paid the proper overtime due to them, and the 2000 employees are expected to share a total of 10 toilets.

These are just a few arbitrary examples received recently. We became aware of these incidents quite coincidentally through contacts we have with various unions and women's organisations in the areas mentioned, or because we or other campaigns have done inspections of these locations. The more contacts we have and the more inspections we do, the more these kinds of stories will be heard. All companies that are active in Europe are involved in these kinds of practices. That's to be expected.

For years now, unions, women's organisations, consumer groups, world shops and solidarity movements from around the world have been campaigning to improve these sorts of business practices. The campaigns have established that workers' conditions are the responsibility of the large producers and retailers of clothing. Many of these companies have, in the meantime, accepted this in principle and claimed to have drafted policies that accommodate these demands. They write their own codes of conduct, claim that their buyers are sensitive to these issues or even create their own research bureaus. But the campaigns remain critical and insist that what the companies have done thus far isn't enough. What else should be done? How does one improve the working conditions in the garment industry? What is involved? And who is responsible?

Where do corporations currently stand regarding codes of conduct and what are the most current agreements they have made with the Clean Clothes Campaign? This pamphlet will address these questions and examine various codes of conduct and monitoring methods.