Protest at the Hugo Boss Annual General Meeting

Photo: © FEMNET

A banner calling for transparency was received by Hugo Boss shareholders at their annual main meeting in Stuttgart on 23 May 2017: "Missing transparency costs lives. We demand: Disclosure of supply chains”, it said. FEMNET, members of the Clean Clothes Campaign and critical shareholders distributed leaflets calling for transparency.
The topic of sustainability was very much on the agenda of Hugo Boss and the approximately 700 shareholders present. FEMNET CEO Gisela Burckhardt also took the floor and criticised, among other things: ‘Until now, there have been no improvements in working conditions at the seamstresses of Hugo Boss’s suppliers. Good intentions, but now action must follow.’

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European Parliament wants anti-exploitation rules

On 27 April 2017, the European Parliament voted by a large majority in favour of legally binding due diligence and transparency. MEPs propose a number of measures. To this end, the EU should present a legislative proposal for a mandatory due diligence system based on the OECD guidelines, covering the entire supply chain, similar to the so-called ‘blood minerals’.

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Publication of roadmaps in the Textile Alliance

Until 16 June 2017, the revised roadmaps can still be submitted by the members to the Alliance Secretariat of the Textile Alliance. In the course of the summer, they will then be published if the member wishes to do so voluntarily. FEMNET is there. We also hope that numerous companies will lead by example and publish their roadmap. Then we will determine which goals the companies set and whether they are sufficiently demanding to improve social and environmental standards in the supply chain.

Educational and consulting work

Presentation of the Fair Fashion Guide at the Kirchentag

Gisela Burckhardt & Friederike von Wedel-Parlow, Editor-in-Chief
the FFG of the Beneficial Design Institute Berlin
The Fair Fashion Guide. Photo: © BMZ

On the 36th. Gisela Burckhardt presented the Fair Fashion Guide (FFG) together with Friederike von Wedel-Parlow, FFG editor-in-chief of the Beneficial Design Institute Berlin. The FEMNET Chairman presented him at a stand of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This was followed by many stimulating inquiries from the approximately 50 listeners to the Fair Fashion Guide. The brochure appeals to young audiences in particular.

The Fair Fashion Guide can be ordered via the FEMNET office and is available as PDF version via our website available. We would also like to point out the website created in parallel to the brochure. It contains additional interviews, numerous video clips and background articles that are not included in the print edition.

www.fairfashionguide.de

FEMNET exhibition now also available as a poster series

Poster: © FEMNET

The FEMNET travelling exhibition ‘I make your clothes! The strong women from South East Asia’ has been successfully touring Germany for two years. Since May 2017, the exhibition is now also available as a poster series.

This is accompanied by some innovations, here at a glance: The ten posters can be purchased for 25 euros plus around 10 euros of packaging and shipping. They are suitable for various event formats – such as workshops, action days, seminars and lessons at schools and universities or similar. They also provide additional information on the role of women, their working conditions and rights in Asia. The poster series is easy to handle. If you are interested in buying the posters or borrowing the touring exhibition, please feel free to contact us for further information.

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Educational and consulting work at universities

New multipliers from economics and a new topic module on shoes and leather

Photo: © FEMNET

Since January 2017, FEMNET's educational work has also been aimed at students of economics and teaching. In order to meet this new target group, we have now expanded our existing multiplier team to include people with an economic background. Our Multipliers implement workshops and lectures at universities throughout Germany.

For the training of the new speakers, we conducted a seminar on 28 and 29 April. Training in Bonn through. Knowledge was imparted and skills trained – the exchange between the various disciplines from economics to textile technology was also an enrichment for all participants. Together we worked under the guidance of Eva Maria Reinwald from the Südwind Institute new topic module. In addition to our 12 topics already offered, universities can now also arrange workshops on shoes and leather with us.

Information work at career entry fairs at universities

Students in today's fashion and business degree programs are the decision makers in tomorrow's apparel companies. We want to win them over to actively engage in the respect of human rights. Career starter fairs are a predestined place for our information work. Finally, students should also include social criteria in their considerations when choosing a job. In the spring of 2017, we were therefore once again present at the ‘MGzieh an’ at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and, for the first time, at the ‘contextme’ at Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences.

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Fair public procurement

‘Shop and offer safety and work shoes clean, but how?’

Photo: © FEMNET

On 16 May, FEMNET and the City of Cologne discussed the question of how to buy and offer shoes cleanly together with numerous manufacturers and dealers of safety and work shoes as well as municipal buyers from all over Germany.

Embedded in the project of the City of Cologne to strengthen fair procurement, FEMNET has been advising and supporting the City of Cologne in the purchase of fair protective and service clothing since the beginning of the year. As part of the dialogue, potential bidders were therefore informed about the requirements for a socially and ecologically fair award of safety and work shoes and informed about production conditions. Despite heated temperatures and spatial narrowness, there was great interest, the feedback was positive and the results were effective. "Keep it up!" - it was said by both local authorities and businesses, and it means: A call for tenders will be published at the end of June, taking into account proof of compliance with eco-social criteria with a rating of 30 percent as a key competitive element.

More information about the project...

Actions & networking

FEMNET at the Spring Market Bonn

Photo: © City of Bonn

Every year, the Bonn Office for Urban Greenery organises the Spring Market. In the project ‘Good work fairbindet – fair public procurement’, FEMNET accompanied a call for tenders for occupational clothing in 2016.

On 22 April 2017, for example, we took part in the spring market with fair-produced occupational safety clothing and informed interested citizens about the possibilities of their municipality to improve the working conditions of people in the clothing industry worldwide. ‘Think global, act local’ became ‘touchable’ for many people despite not so good weather.

News from our partners

India, Bangalore: 3,500 demonstrate with GLU on Labor Day

Photo: © Munnade

Also this year, the Indian women's rights organization Munnade, together with its trade union arm, the Garment Labour Union (GLU), brought together workers from the garment industry in Bangalore on 1 May to demonstrate for the implementation of labour rights.

More than 3,500 workers had come to fight for fair pay and the implementation of labour rights, in particular to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.

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India, Tamil Nadu: League for Social Justice calls for end to modern slavery in spinning mills

Photo: © READ

In the spinning mills of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, young girls are held in overcrowded sleeping barracks as if in captivity and have to do the hardest work in the shift system for a starvation wage. FEMNET has supported a project by the Indian NGO Rights Education and Development Centre (READ) to combat this modern form of slavery.

The project has now been successfully completed and has led to the establishment of the League for Social Justice initiative, which brings together six local NGOs to work together against labour camps and slavery-like working conditions. In November 2016, members submitted a list of demands to abolish modern slavery to local authorities.

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News from the association

FEMNET General Assembly in Bonn

The Board of Directors 2017: From left to right: Susanne Kupka, Gisela Burckhardt, Vanessa Puellen, Britta Amorinn (missing Anna Hoff). Photo: © FEMNET

On May 13, the FEMNET General Assembly took place in Bonn. In good weather, 29 women and one man attended the meeting. The Board of Directors and employees reported on the work of FEMNET last year. There were many questions about the textile alliance in particular.

There was lively discussion about FEMNET's mission statement and our understanding of feminism, and employees and the board were thanked for the good work.

Two board members resigned (Andrea Lindner and Christiane Kühnrich) and two new board members were elected (Britta Amorinn and Susanne Kupka).