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Sept, 2008
The Structural Crisis of Labour Flexibility
Clean Clothes Campaign
 Strategies
and Prospects for Transnational Labour Organising
in the Garment and Sportswear Industries
The Clean Clothes
Campaign (CCC) was launched over 15 years ago. Much
has been achieved in this period with regard to
awareness raising, network building and a growing
group of transnational corporations that recognise
their responsibility for the (substandard) working
conditions in facilities they do not directly own.
At the same time, everyone active in the field knows
that working conditions in the garment and athletic
footwear industries have in general not improved.
The CCC continues to receive reports of worker's
rights violations on an almost daily basis. While
code implementation programmes have led to some
incremental improvements with regard to more visible
worker's rights violations, fundamental principles
such as the right of workers to be able to join
a trade union and negotiate collectively with management
are not being sufficiently addressed. Neither has
there been much progress in other areas - for example,
discrimination and harassment. Wages have generally
been stagnant.
Since the CCC was established to improve the working
conditions in the global garment industry and empower
its workers, we must now ask how we can continue
to increase our efforts to extend the impact of
our campaigns. This paper is part of an ongoing
evaluation and strategising process through which
the CCC's aims and activities can be accessed, reviewed,
redefined and adapted.
The central question here is what strategies, tools,
campaigns would help to achieve our objectives?
The paper first discusses why poor working conditions
are so persistent in the global garment industry,
despite fifteen years of codes of conduct. The second
section discusses three main strategies the CCC
has employed over the last 15 year to improve working
conditions. It includes an overview of how the debate
on codes of conduct, monitoring and verification
has evolved. Finally, the third section discusses
the three broad strategies that might increase the
impact of voluntary, private instruments on working
conditions. It discusses three different contexts
in which voluntary initiatives can contribute to
improve working conditions.
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