Play Fair Campaign launches in Brazil ahead of 2014. →
London demonstration presses for fair Olympics in 2012.
An international conference organised by “Play Fair” and the Building Workers’ International has opened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil….
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Killer Jeans still not banned by all brands
Fashion brands Diesel, Dolce & Gabbana, Replay and others refuse a dialogue with the CCC to bring an end to sandblasting of jeans. The practice is known to kill sandblasting operators in the garments producing countries, and thousands of lives are at risk.
Some major brands , such as Levi’s, H&M and C&A have already abolished sandblasted jeans in their collections. It’s time we told the others that they should take their responsability too!
Take action today, and write to these jeans brands to let them know you demand an end to the sandblasting of jeans right now! -
Freedom Balloons →
Relatives and friends of the unfairly imprisoned Cambodian union leader Sous Chantha gathered in front of the prison to protest his detention. They launched dozens of balloons, hoping that…
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Update on arrest of Sous Chantha
On December 14, the CCC issued an urgent appeal to release the arrested trade union leader Mr. Sous Chantha from jail.
Unfortunately, there is little progress on this case so far. On January 16, 2011, over a hundred garment workers and civil society members gathered outside Cambodia’s Prey Sar prison to demand the release of their union leader, Sous Chantha. Joined by Chantha’s wife and little kid, the group held a religious ceremony and proceeded to launch balloons in the air for Chantha to see from within the prison’s walls.
The gathering highlighted the fact that Sous Chantha has spent nearly two months in pre-trial detention on drug trafficking charges. His arrest on November 18, 2010, followed his 1,000-member union’s migration to the pro-workers Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU). Information gathered by LICADHO [Cambodian human rights group] strongly suggests that Chantha was framed in retaliation for changing his union’s affiliation.
Ath Thorn, head of the Cambodian Labour Confederation was quoted in a Cambodian newspaper: Sous Chantha was arrested one day after he resigned from a trade and joined my trade union … We suspect that there was someone who put the drugs in his motorbike”
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Update on worker dismissals in Cambodia
Little progress has been made on the reinstatement of the 300 illegally dismissed workers in Cambodia.
The CCC has been in contact with the various brands and retailers to urge them to reinstate dismissed workers. While the main brands sourcing from these factories, H&M, Inditex and Gap, have approached factory management, the Cambodian unions and the CCC feel that buyers could do much more to pressure manufacturers to immediately reinstate the dismissed workers, with all their back wages paid.
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Burmese migrant workers: caught between a tyrant and a tiger →
This news article from the Guardian highlights widespread abuses of migrant workers in Malaysia, similar to stories we hear from migrant garment workers.
“Malaysia’s economic boom has been driven by the exploitation of cheap migrant labour, from Burma and Thailand. Underpaid and with no rights, this is their story”
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You gotta love the “Human Rights Defender… in training” t-shirt :-)
Pic taken in Cambodia on a demonstration January 16th in support of trade union leader Sous Chantha.
See http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/cambodian-trade-union-leader-arrested for the full story and how you can take action.
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Cambodia: Garment Workers Sacked for Striking
Take action today to support over 300 Cambodian workers sacked for their participation in strikes for fair wages. The workers downed their tools in September last year to support trade unions in ongoing minimum-wage negotiations. They were dismissed from their factories as a consequence. Since then, efforts to get them reinstated have remained without success, despite a court order and the government calling on employers that the workers should be allowed to return to work.
Gap, Zara and H&M source from a large number of the involved factories. Please take action and demand that these workers are allowed to return to work immediately, with compensation paid for the time they have been dismissed. -
Threads 30 - International Forum Special →
Newsletter of the Clean Clothes Campaign - december 2010
This is a special issue, with a look back to the International Forum of the Clean Clothes Campaign, which happened in Turkey from November 22-26 2010.
Four days in Turkey, over 90 workshops, more than 230 participants from 51 countries. For most of the participants, the recently-concluded CCC International Forum presented a broad range of activities: in-depth discussions as well as lighter entertainment, living-wage strategy discussions and belly-dancing courses, labour issue films and beer-tasting sessions, cold windy days and sunny beach walks, a hurried meal in the corridors and late-night gender discussions, task force side meetings and dancing to Bangladeshi hits – to name just a few of the highlights.
Discussions went on from breakfast into the late hours, but there was also time for fun and laughter, getting to know one another, and learning each other’s protest songs. It is impossible to summarize this four-day CCC International Forum in just a few pages. We are going to try nonetheless.
For some of us, this was our first experience attending an International Forum of this nature. Some of us finally got to meet the people face-to-face we had been working with for months or even years. It was exciting to meet one another in person and learn more about the people behind the email addresses. For others, the Forum offered a chance meet old friends again and engage in the kinds of discussions not easily engaged in via phone or Skype.
The Forum inspired a feeling that, despite our different situations, we are all united in the struggle for better working conditions in the garment sector, and that we have all experienced similar setbacks, challenges and victories.
