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Asia Floor WageCCC Action WeekInterview with Amirul Haque Amin and more...

Newsletter o the Clean Clothes Campaign

Number 28 Autumn 2009

LivingWage

This Issue

2Threads

Autumn 2009 Clean Clothes Campaign

Asia Floor Wage

Austria

Clean Clothes Kampagne

cck@cleanclothes.atwww.cleanclothes.at

Belgium

Schone Kleren Campagne

campagne@schonekleren.bewww.schonekleren.be

Campagne VêtementsPropres

ino@vetementspropres.bewww.vetementspropres.be

Central & Eastern Europe(including Turkey)

Bettina Musiolek

ostwind-institut@email.de

Regina Barendt

oreginally@yahoo.de

Denmark

Clean Clothes Campaign Denmark

mail@cccdk.orgwww.cleanclothes.dk

France

Ethique sur l’étiquette

ino@ethique-sur-etiquette.orgwww.ethique-sur-ethiquette.org

Germany

Kampagne ür Saubere Kleidung

ccc-d@vemission.orgwww.sauberekleidung.de

Italy

Campagna Abiti Puliti

coord@cnms.itwww.abitipuliti.org

The Netherlands

Schone Kleren Campagne

ino@schonekleren.nlwww.schonekleren.nl

Norway

Kampanjen Rene klær

ino@reneklaer.nowww.reneklaer.no

Spain

Campaña Ropa Limpia

ino@ropalimpia.orgwww.ropalimpia.org

Sweden

Natverket Rena Kläder

ino@renaklader.orgwww.renaklader.org

Switzerland

Clean Clothes CampaignErklärung von Bern

ccc@evb.chwww.evb.ch

Clean Clothes CampaignDéclaration de Berne

ino@cleanclothes.chwww.cleanclothes.ch

United Kingdom

Labour Behind the Label

ino@labourbehindthelabel.orgwww.labourbehindthelabel.org

Clean Clothes Campaign contacts inEurope, Southern & Eastern Europe, Turkey4 CCCs in Action6 Asia Floor Wage8 Living Wage Action Week10 Urgent Appeals12 Partner Profle14 News From the Global Network15 Guest Column & New Resources16 Looking Ahead

Colophon

This newsletter is a Clean Clothes Campaign publication ISSN print:

1877-9905

ISSN online:

1878-0458

Editors:

Paige Shipmanand Marcella Kraay

Design:

Annelies Vlasblom

Printed:

on FCS certied paper by PrimaveraQuintThe Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is dedicated to improving working conditions and supporting the empowerment o workers in theglobal garment and sportswear industries. Since 1989, the CCC has worked with trade unions, NGOs and workers across the globe to helpensure that the undamental rights o workers are respected. We educate and mobilise consumers, lobby companies and governments, andoer direct solidarity support to workers as they ght or their rights and demand better working conditions.

7

3Threads

Clean Clothes Campaign Autumn 2009

Clean Clothes Campaign

International Secretariat

P.O. Box 11584

1001 GN Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Tel:

+ 31 20 412 27 85

Fax:

+ 31 20 412 27 86

E-mail:

ino@cleanclothes.org

Website:

www.cleanclothes.org

Financial contributions: Account holder:

St. SKK/Clean Clothes Campaign

Bank and account number:

ING 392 7802

IBAN:

NL83 INGB 000392 7802

BIC/Swit code:

INGB NL2A

demand or a decent and air wage. The wage gure is dier-ent in each currency and country, but the purchasing power isthe same: garment workers in one Asian country would be ablepurchase the same set o goods and services as their col-leagues across the border. And as we all know, solidarity across borders wins successes. Ater more than a year o international campaigning, work-ers at the DESA actory in Turkey won a protocol agreementthat includes recognition o the union and reinstatement odismissed workers. Ater two years o international solidaritysupport or workers in the Philippines, the government wasnally orced to accept an ILO high-level mission in Septemberto investigate labour rights abuses.These achievements are just a couple that we, along with theworkers and partner organisations with whom we work, wish tocelebrate as the rst national Clean Clothes Campaign – in theNetherlands – celebrates its 20th year.

E

vents took place across the globe to commemorateWorld Day or Decent Work on October 7th. Notcontent with one day o events, the Clean ClothesCampaign organised a whole week o actions to ocus thepublic’s attention on the urgent need or garment workers tobe paid a living wage.With lively events and awareness-raising actions in 11European countries, the CCC highlighted the important roleo giant retailers and brands in ensuring that workers receivea wage that allows them to live in dignity. The message wasclear: a job in the garment industry should keep workers out opoverty, not in it.Despite being an internationally-recognised human right,garment workers are denied a living wage, and global buy-ers are largely responsible. It is their pricing and purchasingpolicies – the constant threat that they’ll take their businesselsewhere – that dissuades suppliers and governments romimplementing a living wage and makes workers apprehensiveabout demanding one.Substandard housing, lack o clean water, and insucient oodare a daily reality or garment workers. Yet most European con-sumers are largely unaware o this, and international brandsand retailers are happy to keep it that way. The CCC’s LivingWage Action Week aimed to make this reality known andmobilise people to demand that companies implement a livingwage in their supply chains.Global buyers need look no urther than the Asia Floor Wageor a concrete ormulation o a minimum living wage or work-ers in Asia, which accounts or 60% o garment production. As described in a new report, Stitching a Decent Wage AcrossBorders, the Asia Floor Wage is a unied, regional pan-Asian

20 years o the Dutch CCC