Has the Clean Clothes Campaign had any successes in improving
working conditions?
Yes. A significant part of the urgent appeals we've sent out
in the last couple of years has had victories as a result. The
urgent appeals system is one way that the CCC works to support
workers in their struggle to improve working conditions and to
forge international solidarity links with labour rights organisations.
The CCC frequently receives appeals from workers producing garments
for multinationals. The Urgent Appeals Working Group takes these
requests, verifies them and adds to the initial information regarding
the case using our local contacts in the country where the rights
violation has occurred. A wide appeal for action is then posted
to the CCC international network (via email). Using this system,
members of the Clean Clothes Campaigns are effectively mobilised
to react to requests for action when workers rights are violated.
Please have a look around at the urgent
appeals section of our website, for instance
at the:
Also - after campaigns directed at their factories - workers
have reported changes in the local health & safety circumstances.
Especially in the first tier of the subcontracting chain, conditions
might have become somewhat better.
Companies have reacted to being targets of international campaigns
in the recent years as well. They've adopted codes of conducts
of their own, and drafted policies with regard to corporate social
responsibility. Although the CCC in most cases doesn't think very
highly of these codes (also see the Companies/Code
of Conduct-section of this FAQ) and their rules tend to be
broken in most factories, the fact that companies were forced
to deal with these issues and set up even whole departments, definitely
counts for something. It can be considered the first step in the
whole process of abolishing sweatshop conditions in the global
garment industry. Now, at least companies have made promises they
can be hold accountable for. One important result of the Clean
Clothes Campaign is that it has put the labour conditions of those
millions of women who produce our clothes firmly on the agenda.
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