Clean Clothes

Liesbeth Sluiter

Description

The Clean Clothes Campaign is a worldwide movement that aims to improve the wages and conditions of sweatshop workers. This is the story of their struggle.



Large retailers such as Tesco, Walmart and Carrefour lure shoppers in with prices that seem too good to be true. This book shows that they're too good to be fair. All along the industry's supply chain, workers, often children, are exploited through poverty wages, unpaid overtime and harsh anti-union measures. The campaign urges those in charge of the garment industry's supply lines to protect their workers and treat them fairly.



This dynamic account of direct engagement by concerned consumers is a must read for those that see globalisation differently and want their shopping choices to support the most vulnerable people involved in the clothing industry.
Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Preface

Introduction

Part I: A Globalising Industry

1. A Footloose Enterprise

2. Destination Elsewhere

Part II: A Globalising Network

3. Asia

4. Africa

5. Europe's Neighbours

Part III: The Campaign in Action

6. Strategic Developments

Interlude: The European Network Up-Close

Part IV: Debates and the Future

7. Support for Workers

8. Consumers

9. Hard law

10. Companies

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Organisations in the Network

Index

Sujets

• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Advocacy group
• Sociology
• General officer
• Economics
• Business
• General
• Labor

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 09 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849643917
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

Clean Clothes

CLEAN CLOTHES A Global Movement to End Sweatshops

Liesbeth Sluiter

First published 2009 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

www.plutobooks.com

Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Copyright © Liesbeth Sluiter 2009

The right of Liesbeth Sluiter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN ISBN

978 0 7453 2769 3 978 0 7453 2768 6

Hardback Paperback

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. The paper may contain up to 70 per cent post consumer waste.

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, 33 Livonia Road, Sidmouth, EX10 9JB, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

Contents

Photographsviii Dedicationxi Acknowledgementsxiii Essential Abbreviationsxiv Prefacexvii

Introduction 1

PART 1 A GLOBALISING INDUSTRY  1 A Footloose Enterprise  The quiet giant awakens Dutch sweatshops  The other side of the world Campaign launch  Naming and shaming  A code of conduct  A rare inside view  And the beat goes on  2 Destination Elsewhere38

PART 2 A GLOBALISING NETWORK  3 Asia47  Bangladesh: a lethal industry  Sri Lanka: the fight in free trade zones  Indonesia: jobs at a discount  Thailand: how cats became tigers  Cambodia: plastic killers and yellow unions  China: where the sun never sets  4 Africa91  Madagascar: overcoming isolation  Southern Africa: research in action  5 Europe’s Neighbours101  The sweatshop finds new territories  Eastern Europe: industry-turned-sweatshop  Poland: caught in the middle  Turkey: labour rights are constitutional rights

9 9 11 14 16 19 22 24 28

47 52 57 63 69 74

91 94

101 102 106 109

vi  CLEAN CLOTHES

PART 3 THE CAMPAIGN IN ACTION  6 Strategic Developments117 Act locally 117  NGOs without borders 119  The network in action 124  Codes and companies 128  The legal angle 133  Clean clothes communities 136 Sportswear campaigns 139 Urgent appeals 143 Gender 144  The elastic network 148 Interlude: The European Network UpClose154  Malin Eriksson, Sweden 154  Carole Crabbé, French-speaking Belgium 156  Stefan Indermühle, Switzerland 158 Maik Pflaum, Germany 160  Frieda de Koninck, Flemish-speaking Belgium 161  Eva Kreisler, Spain 163  Bettina Musiolek, Germany 165  Nayla Ajaltouni, France 166  Michaela Königshofer, Austria 168  Christa de Bruin and Floris de Graad, the Netherlands 169  Martin Hearson, United Kingdom 171  Deborah Lucchetti and Ersilia Monti, Italy 173  Thomas Petersen and Birte Moeller Jensen, Denmark 176 Carin Leffler, Norway 177

PART 4 DEBATES AND THE FUTURE  7 Support for Workers181 Urgent appeals  The informal economy and migrant labour Gender  Trade unions and NGOs Worker education  North and South  8 Consumers200 Fair trade  Rating and ranking Ethical brands Sustainable production

183 187 191 193 196 198

200 202 203 210

 9 Hard law215 Litigation National legislation European legislation OECD guidelines  The Ruggie process: do no harm 10 Companies233 Codes Audits Multi-stakeholder initiatives  Fair Wear Foundation Purchasing practices  Asian transnational production companies Global retailers  New campaign perspectives

Epilogue261 Notes266 Bibliography293 Organisations in the CCC Network295 Index301

CONTENTS vii

217 220 221 225 228

233 234 236 237 241 244 245 249

Photographs

 1. Grandmother and child home-worker, India 2008 85  2. Sweatshop, India 2008 85  3. Participants in the European tour push the broken-down bus, Brussels 1996 86  4. Made with Love, label in a C&A brand sweater, Utrecht 2007 86  5. Emelia Yanti, general secretary of GSBI, an Indonesian federation of independent trade unions, Bangkok 2007 87  6. Sign in a Philippine factory supplying Wal-Mart, 2006 87  7. Worker in economic processing zone, Sri Lanka 2002 88  8. Worker tour of Sri Lankan and Indonesian workers and unionists. Indrani Wijebandara of North Sails Lanka visits the sportswear shop of a former Dutch surf champion, 2003 88  9. Solidarity Group, a cooperative garment factory established in the wake of a strike in a regular factory, Bangkok 2007 89 10. Knitwear factory in Madagascar, 2004 89 11. Nur-E-Alam lost his left arm after waiting 17 hours to be rescued from the collapsed Spectrum factory, Dacca 2005 90 12. Spectrum workers demanding the arrest of Spectrum owners after the factory collapsed, killing 64 and injuring 70 workers, Dacca 2005 90 13. Barbed-wire bra – image used in the campaign that convinced lingerie company Triumph to withdraw from Burma, 2001 253 14. South African union leader Jabu Ngcobo meets garment workers in Lesotho, 2001 253 15. Yunya ‘Lek’ Yimprasert, founder of the Thai Labour Campaign, Bangkok 2007 254 16. Protest against the closure of the Gina Form bra factory that supplied brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein, Bangkok 2006 254

viii

PHOTOGRAPHS ix

17. The Greek god Zeus launches the Play Fair campaign at the occasion of the Athens Olympic Games, Amsterdam 2004 255 18. Ineke Zeldenrust during an action for Indonesian PT Busana Prima Global workers in Amsterdam, 2003 255 19. Françoise Rabary Harivelo, leader of garment union Syndicat Textile Malagasy, and Hanta Adrianasi, doctor and labour-rights advocate, Bangkok 2007 256 20. CCC International Campaign Forum, Bangkok 2007 256 21. ‘Help the Hema’ campaign of the Dutch Clean Clothes Campaign, Amsterdam 2008 257 22. Marieke Eyskoot of the Dutch Clean Clothes Campaign tries to convince bus drivers to ask their employer for ‘clean’ uniforms in public procurement campaign, Utrecht 2006 257 23. Clean Clothes Campaign Austria stages an action in the context of the Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign, Vienna 2008 258 24. Press conference for the pre-launch of the Play Fair Beijing Campaign 2008, Hong Kong 2007 258 25. Emine Aslan sits outside Desa factory for months after being fired for trying to organise her co-workers, Istanbul 2008 259