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Workers after a meeting in the office of the FEMNET partner organisation BCWS. Photo: S. Marx ⁇ FEMNETWorkers after a meeting in the office of the FEMNET partner organisation BCWS. Photo: S. Marx ⁇ FEMNET

Bonn. Workers protesting for the lawful implementation of wage increases are currently being fired, detained and harassed. The Bangladeshi trade union NGWF informs FEMNET:

  • Hundreds of workers were arrested.
  • The 4,000 workers were indicted.
  • More than 30 workers have been sued in court.
  • About 7,000 workers were laid off.

On 1 February 2019, the NGWF union protested and called for the arrested workers to be immediately released, false accusations to be withdrawn and dismissed workers to be reinstated.

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logos femnet suedwind inkota

Bonn/Berlin. Living wages are a key element of decent work. In the countries of the Global South, however, a large proportion of employees cannot live humanely on hard-earned wages. This also applies, and in particular, to employees in the textile and clothing industry. The Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, founded in 2014 on the initiative of Federal Development Minister Dr. Gerd Müller, has started to change this. The civil society organisations in the Textile Alliance are now calling on all members to follow their commitment to action and to step up their efforts to pay living wages.

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Basic wage demo 27 July 2018. Photo: © NGWFPhoto: © NGWF

Bonn. Following the recent revision of minimum wages in the textile sector, thousands of workers have taken to the streets in Bangladesh in protest. In the capital Dhaka, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd, after which one worker died and many others were injured.

‘The campaign for clean clothing strongly condemns the violent curtailment of the right to demonstrate“, says Artemisa Ljarja, Rapid Action Coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign.

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Seven years is not enough: No justice for Ali Enterprises textile workers and their families

Photo: © medico international/Holger PriedemuthPhoto: © medico international/Holger PriedemuthDortmund. The Regional Court of Dortmund made a very disappointing decision on 10 January 2019: The case of the factory fire at the Pakistani supplier of the German textile company KiK from Septmeber 2012 will not be negotiated – due to statutory limitation periods. The plaintiffs were four members of the Ali Enterprises Factory Fire Affectees Association. With this decision, the company avoids any responsibility towards the workers who produce its goods.

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Mary Viyakula (left) and Deepika Rao (right) after the lecture at Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences. Photo: © Volker Rekittke, Swabian dailyMary Viyakula (left) and Deepika Rao (right) after the lecture at Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences.
Photo: © Volker Rekittke, Swabian dailyFrom 5-16 November 2018, the two Indian speakers travelled as part of a Lecture tour Mary Viyakula of the organization SAVE (Social Awareness and Voluntary Education) and Deepika Rao Cividep India across Germany to report on gender-based violence at work in the Indian textile industry. They vividly described the precarious situation of women and reported on approaches to how women workers in the clothing industry defend themselves and how we can support them from Germany.

The tour was made by the Civil society organisations in the Textile Alliance 450 people were reached at stations in Halle (Saale), Leipzig, Reutlingen, Augsburg, Munich, Hamburg and Bremen.

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A review of 2018 and outlook for 2019 from the perspective of civil society representatives in the steering committee

Logo NGO Textilbündnis Bonn/Berlin. Once again, a busy year is coming to an end in the Textile Alliance: In 2018, for the first time, all members had to disclose their environmental and social compliance targets in their supply chains in individual action plans. Previously, these were checked by an external testing organisation for plausibility and compliance with the requirements. The steering committee also defined the topics of living wages, supply chain transparency and impact measurement as priorities for 2018. The following explanations provide an insight into how the progress made last year is assessed by the civil society representatives in the steering committee of the Textile Alliance.

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Consumers can find out more about the newly procured shoes at the user workshop in Stuttgart. Photo: © FEMNETConsumers can find out more about the newly procured shoes at the user workshop in Stuttgart. Photo: © FEMNETSuccess stories in Cologne, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Veitsbronn (Bavaria) & Markkleeburg (Saxony): With the ongoing consulting and training offers, FEMNET 2018 succeeded in broadening the topic of eco-fair awarding. Large and smaller municipalities and districts built up expertise and demonstrated with successful pilot projects that public procurement can be made eco-fair. In 2019, ongoing discussions will continue. The experiences and learning effects will be made available to FEMNET in a detailed publication at the end of the year.

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What do we need to ensure that fair public procurement of textiles is implemented across the board in local governments? There are currently pilot practical projects, guidance documents, instructions, Council decisions in various municipalities – the Compass sustainability currently shows 877 examples from 67 municipalities for 12 different product groups. But we are still far from a standard effective inclusion of social and environmental responsibility criteria in the production of the textile products procured. This challenge was met on 26 and 27 October 2018 by the 20 participants of the Intensive training on how to achieve fair public procurement of textiles. Many of the participants had previously attended intensive training courses on FEMNET modules 1-4 for their multiplier work on the topic. However, procurers and other employees from local governments also took part in the initial training.

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Exhausted girls in a spinning mill in Tamil Nadu who sleep during the day because they worked at night. Photo: © FEMNETExhausted girls in a spinning mill in Tamil Nadu who sleep during the day because they worked at night. Photo: © FEMNETBonn. On July 1, 2018, the Partnership Initiative (BI) Tamil Nadu started as part of the Textile Alliance, a first progress report is now available.

The BI has three components:
dialogue;
b) training of young women in factories,
c) Training of inspectors.

FEMNET’s Partner SAVE The training is carried out in around 300 spinning mills. More than 80 trainers from 40 NGOs were trained for this purpose.

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Our workshop in the Fairtrade-Town Saarbrücken. Photo: © FEMNETOur workshop in the Fairtrade-Town Saarbrücken. Photo: © FEMNETFrom North Frisian drizzle to the sunny Saar, from vineyards on the Main to the Mecklenburg Baltic Sea: In 2018, we held strategy workshops on fair public procurement of workwear in five Fairtrade Towns across Germany. As diverse as the locations are, they all share the goal of using workwear and textiles produced in the city administration under decent working conditions and without harming the environment.

Fairtrade towns offer great potential to promote fair public procurement of clothing and textiles. Because fair coffee and another fair product are served in the city administration, the topic of fair trade is present in the city administration. Because a steering group is established, civil society, retail, city politics and city administration are already networked locally around fair trade. Based on these existing structures, FEMNET offered strategy workshops on the topic of fair public procurement for fair trade town control groups for the first time in 2018.

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Photo: © Kristof VadionPhoto: © Kristof VadionBonn. Five years of successful work are coming to an end. The Government of Bangladesh opposes the continued work of ACCORD, the agreement on fire safety and building safety in Bangladesh.

The call ‘Never again Rana Plaza!’ is still echoing. Nevertheless, the current decision of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh is intended to put an end to the further work of ACCORD as of 30 November 2018. "The ACCORD is a credible and effective programme that has ensured around 1600 safe export factories. But the situation in many factories is not yet certain, as European buyers see it, says Gisela Burckhardt, CEO of FEMNET and member of the Clean Clothes Campaign.

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Press conference and panel discussion of civil society in the Textile Alliance: It's time! Stop the empty promises.

2018 11 06 TB Symposium Press conference 01Berlin. A key issue is the reward for living. Trade unionists in Bangladesh are on hunger strike due to insufficient minimum wages. In Cambodia and Indonesia, but also in Turkey, there are strikes and protests because wages are not paid. As a result, trade unionists are pressured or dismissed.

The Alliance for Sustainable Textiles wants to change this and has set itself the goal of achieving social, ecological and economic improvements along the entire textile supply chain.

From 2019, all companies of the Textile Alliance are to anchor measures for the payment of living wages in their suppliers as a binding alliance goal. Alliance initiatives in Cambodia, among others, are in preparation. The joint effort could have a leverage effect. For this, however, a broad participation of the industry is needed. “Existence-enhancing wages are a human right. So far, the clothing companies have only paid lip service. It is finally time for promises to become a reality", says Tim Zahn, coordinator of civil society in the Textile Alliance.

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