We are very happy to buy a cheap T-shirt from a big brand. This purchase can hide the large contribution of the fashion and textile industry to human exploitation with the lowest average wages in the world (source Ademe), unsanitary factories, when the workers are not prisoners of labor camps in totalitarian countries. Since 1989, NGOs and associations have come together to inform and make things happen, it is the Clean Clothes Campaign .
Holding multinationals in the textile industry accountable, ensuring that workers – relocated to countries where their costs are low and social rights are almost non-existent – work in decent conditions and can have their rights respected, such is the crusade of the Clean Clothes Campaign.
His ambition: decent working conditions
Created in the Netherlands in 1989, the Clean Clothes Campaign aims to raise awareness about the working conditions of textile subcontractors. This international Clean Clothes campaign gained momentum after the various disasters that took place, particularly in Bangladesh, in the 2000s: the collapse of the Spectrum factory in 2005 (64 dead and more than 80 injured), the fire at the Tazreen factory in 2012 (112 dead) and that of Smart Export in January 2013 (8 dead), and of course the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Daca in 2013 (1,127 dead). This year, it is the fate of the Uighurs, a Turkish-Muslim community in China, placed in forced labor camps and used as labor by major brands, which brings this subject back to the forefront. As well as that of subcontractors not paid by large brands during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Clean Clothes Campaign has thus developed a "Labor Code" for the textile and sportswear industry which sets out, among other principles, a minimum age, fixed working hours, safe equipment and the right to a decent wage. The Clean Clothes Campaign is putting pressure on distributors and manufacturers to adopt this "Code of Labor Practices". It also works for equal pay, women's rights and the right of consumers to know the social impact of the products they buy.
A planetary network
Today, the Clean Clothes campaign brings together a network of 230 associations across the world, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and workers' unions with regional coalitions in Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia.
It campaigns in 15 European countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland.
Photo: © Clean Clothes Campaign
The Clean Clothes Campaign's means of action
The network of associations and NGOs working within this organization is aimed at both private and public actors. Which ones?
- Brands and distributors, so that they monitor the production conditions of the goods they sell, guarantee that their purchasing practices promote social progress among their suppliers and subcontractors by insisting on freedom of association, submit to independent verifications including the stakeholders concerned (unions, NGOs, consumer movements, representatives of public authorities)
- States and international institutions , so that they guarantee the application and respect of fundamental social rights arising from ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions
- Local authorities to commit to ethical purchasing
- Citizens, through information campaigns on the real cost of clothing and on everything that lies behind the products claimed to be ethical. Informed, they then become consumers who are also able to put pressure on public authorities, free to buy or not certain products and to denounce unethical brands too.
In France, the Ethics Collective on the Label
The Collectif Ethique sur l'Etiquette is the name of the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign. An association under the 1901 law, it brings together around twenty international solidarity associations, trade unions, consumer movements and popular education associations. Its action goes beyond the clothing sector and focuses on all labor-intensive sectors, including toys and sporting goods.
