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Signatures handed over to Primark in Bonn on 03.02.2018. Photo: ©FEMNET e.V.Signatures handed over to Primark in Bonn on 03.02.2018. Photo:© FEMNET e.V.70,000 people ask Armani and Primark to reveal where they have their clothes made

On February 3, 2018, FEMNET together with other activists handed over a golden gift box with 70,000 signatures to the low-cost manufacturer Primark in its branch in Cologne. We pointed out that Primark should be transparent about its supply chain and disclose the names of its suppliers. There were also actions in other cities in Germany, Europe and even Hong Kong.

This action was a complete success! On February 7, 2018, three working days after our promotion, Primark published its supplier list. We note: Public pressure is working! Thank you to all who have supported us in this.

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Control group of the Textile Alliance at the Klausurtagung on 23.11.2017. Photo: © Covenant of TextilesControl group of the Textile Alliance at the Klausurtagung on 23.11.2017. Photo: © Textile allianceThe Textile Alliance has been in existence for three years now, but it was only since June 2015 that the textile (trade) companies joined the alliance. Today, around 90 companies are members, responsible for around half of textile sales in Germany. In addition, the Federal Government, under the auspices of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), around 20 NGOs, standard organisations such as GOTS and Fairtrade and trade unions are active differently in the alliance depending on the organisation.

The year 2017 marks the end of an intensive test phase in the Textile Alliance: All members had to create individual action plans (roadmaps) for 2017. These action plans were thoroughly examined to see whether they were in line with the Alliance's self-imposed objectives and constituted progress for the respective member. Finally, at the end of November, the Steering Committee of the Textile Alliance adopted binding time and quantity targets for the years 2018 to 2020, which each member must work on. So a lot has happened in the Textile Alliance – and yet important decisions are still to be made in 2018.

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Today, four years ago, on November 25, 2013, the fashion group H&M made a landmark announcement. By 2018, the approximately 850,000 seamstresses producing for the company are to receive a living wage. In Bangladesh, seamstresses in H&M supplier factories currently earn around $87 per month. This average income is just below the poverty line of $88 per month calculated by the World Bank.

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Spinning mill in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Photo: © Gisela BurckhardtSpinning mill in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Photo: © Gisela Burckhardt, FEMNETPress release of the Clean Clothes Campaign

For 2017, the members of the Textile Alliance had to set targets for the implementation of environmental and social standards in their supply chains for the first time in so-called roadmaps. The publication of these roadmaps is still voluntary this year, but mandatory from 2018. The first roadmap process was therefore still in the ‘trial run’ this year and thus a challenge. Contrary to civil society expectations, only a few member companies published their roadmap in 2017. In total, this was 19 out of 87 reporting member companies, i.e. around 22 percent.

All the more, civil society in the Textile Alliance welcomes the fact that a total of 40 members (including the Federal Government, two trade unions, 12 NGOs, 4 standard organisations, 2 associations and 19 companies) have already published their roadmap this year.

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FEMNET Roadmap for the Textile AllianceAs a member of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, FEMNET has published a catalogue of measures (Roadmap). For 2017, Alliance members have undertaken more than 1,500 measures that will lead to concrete improvements within the framework of the goals set by the Alliance. They relate to topics such as living wages, combating child labour, avoiding chemicals harmful to health or sustainable water use in cotton cultivation.

Photo: © FEMNETPhoto: © FEMNETCivil society press release in the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles

This summer, according to civil society members, the Textile Alliance is in a crucial phase: How many roadmaps (Members’ annual action plans to implement social and environmental objectives) will the plausibility check pass successfully? How many members of the Textile Alliance will publish their roadmap? What level of ambition will these roadmaps have? Will the Alliance agree on binding content requirements for the roadmaps of the coming years, such as steps towards the implementation of living wages?

All members of the Textile Alliance had to create a roadmap for 2017 for the first time and subject it to an external plausibility check by an independent service provider. Many companies have not complied with this obligation and have been excluded from the alliance or have previously resigned. Among the top-selling and publicly known companies that have left the alliance are Engbers, Ernsting's Family, Real, Trigema and Walbusch.

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Fire protection equipment. Photo: copy; Pieter van de BoogertFire protection equipment. Photo: © Pieter van de Boogert Berlin. In the Multifabs Ltd. factory in Bangladesh, a heating boiler exploded on Tuesday, July 4, 2017. At least 10 people were killed and many more injured. The explosion was so violent that parts of the factory collapsed. The factory is part of the Accord for Fire and Building Safety. The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) therefore calls on the companies involved in the Accord to include the safety testing of heating boilers immediately in the safety inspections of the factories.

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Marie-Luise Lämmle from FEMNET explains: What evidence of fair production conditions is credible? What are the challenges for clean production, especially with work and safety shoes? Photo: © FEMNETMarie-Luise Lämmle from FEMNET explains: What evidence of fair production conditions is credible? What are the challenges for clean production, especially with work and safety shoes? Photo: © FEMNETTen representatives of manufacturers and trading companies for work and safety shoes discussed the requirements and possibilities of fair production with the city of Cologne. Employees in charge of procurement from numerous other municipalities also sat ‘at the round table’.

Companies that apply for public tenders have to face new requirements when municipalities formulate social and environmental claims. Since 2017, we have been supporting the Office for Landscape Management and Green Areas of the City of Cologne in integrating sustainability criteria into its tenders for work and safety shoes. To ensure that the city receives good offers for shoes and that compliance with eco-social production conditions is anchored as a central competitive criterion, we spoke with manufacturers and dealers on 16 May 2017.

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Titiel Fair - Your fashion guideBonn. Sustainable fashion is attractive. This proves the Fair fashion guide (PDF file), which will be published on 22.4.2017, shortly before the day of remembrance of Rana Plaza. In the factory collapse in Bangladesh on 24 April 2013, more than 1,100 textile workers died and 2,000 were severely injured.

"The Fair Fashion Guide is a plea for the wardrobe of the future and wants to encourage fashion to live with a clear conscience. With interviews, fashion routes and tips for restyle, in a visual language familiar to the young target group from magazines without using them without criticism," says Friederike von Wedel, editor-in-chief.

On 34 pages, professional models show fair fashion, which was produced under human rights responsible conditions. There are also tips for sustainable consumption: from clothing care to sharing and swapping to up-cycling.

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Protests in front of the German Embassy in Jakarta.On March 30, 2017, the Indonesian trade unions GSBI and FSPMI organized a protest in front of the German embassy in Jakarta to draw attention to the fate of 4,000 workers who worked for a supplier of the German companies s.Oliver and Gerry Weber. In April 2015, the insolvent textile factory Jaba Garmindo in Indonesia closed. To date, thousands of predominantly female employees, who were laid off at the time, are waiting in vain for four outstanding monthly salaries as well as severance payments totaling almost $11 million. The Clean Clothes Campaign calls on s.Oliver and Gerry Weber to participate in the compensation payments.

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