Do you have a list of "good" or "clean"
garment brands, retailers or manufacturers?
Where should ordinary consumers buy their clothes?
Unfortunately we don't have a list of "clean" retailers
or manufacturers -- things are not really at the point yet where
we would feel comfortable endorsing or recommending any companies
(since they all have a long way to go).
Recently, we've seen an increase in small companies originating
from a fair trade or activist background who are trying to provide
an ethical alternative for consumers. For an overview of these
alternative of fair trade companies and brands, and the questions
you should ask them if you plan to buy something via them, see
the critical overview of ethical brands on our website:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/
04-04-alternative-ethical-clothes-review.htm
There are some companies that have made some progress on the
policy level, for example by agreeing to have a code of conduct
that refers to ILO standards. Of course companies also have to
make sure they implement the labour standards outlined in the
codes, and this is where it gets difficult. CCC believes its important
that trade unions and NGOs, and ultimately the workers themselves,
have a voice in determining how codes are implemented. In that
sense we believe participation of companies in so-called Multi-Stakeholder
Initiatives is a step forward. There are several in operation
right now of which companies can become a member, these include
the Ethical Trade Initiative in the UK, the Fair Wear Foundation
in the Netherlands and the Fair Labor Association in the US. Being
a member does not mean that the clothes the company sells are
clean. What it means is that companies have committed to a certain
programme of work, and workers and their organisations can file
a complaint with the MSI if they believe the member company has
violated the code. For a comparison of these and other MSI's ,
and a list of member companies, see " Workers' tool or
PR Ploy? A guide to codes of international labour practice "
by Ingeborg Wick: http://www.cleanclothes.org/codes/05-11-03.htm.
Once again, we can't say that these companies are clean, but
at least they made this first step. Other companies have agreed
to work with Trade Unions and NGOs to experiment with methods
of code implementation, for example with the CCC in so-called
pilot-projects. Again this offers no guarantee for clean production,
it does however show the preparedness of these companies to cooperate
with organisations like ours in working out effective means to
protect workers rights. For more information on these projects
and the companies involved see www.somo.nl/monitoring
and http://www.cleanclothes.org/codes.htm.
We know this does not give you a list, but rather brings extra
work and a confusing amount of initiatives and abbreviations.
This is the present situation, and we can only change that by
keeping the pressure up, while recognizing progress where and
when its realized. So what we need you to do is to is keep asking
questions to the store personel if you do buy your clothes. Where
do these clothes come from? Do you know how much they've got paid
for making them? Does this brand have a code of conduct? Is freedom
to join a union and a living wage included? Do they have publicly
available information on how they plan to implement their code?
Do they cooperate with trade unions and NGOs, for example in one
of these Multistakeholder Initiatives? If they say 'yes' to any
of these questions, ask them for proof and/or how they know it
is 'yes'. Most of the time they will not know the answers, but
if we keep asking, their managers must, at some point, try to
get some answers from the owners or the brands, who do take consumer
signals seriously. After all, to them it's the market that counts.
Another thing you can do is participating in our urgent appeal
system , see http://www.cleanclothes.org/appeals.htm
where workers who have seen their rights violated call for support,
often in the form of letter-writing.
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