 Max
Havelaar textile-products in the supermarket
June 2005, Stefan Indermühle - Coordinator
CCC Switzerland
The Swiss fair trade
labelling foundation Max Havelaar expands
its products and enters the garment sector.
Since April, 28th 2005 five Swiss companies
are selling cotton and textile-products
with the fair-trade-label. The variety of
products reaches from T-shirts, terry towels
to Q-tips.
Up to now, the fair trade movement was
mainly working with agricultural products
such as coffee, rice, dried fruits as well
as artisan handicrafts. In the fair trade
shops there is so far a very limited range
of garments (see list: "Alternative
or Ethical Clothes"). The production
chain for garments seemed to be too complicated
for fair trade: it goes from the crop growing
and spinning company to the dyeing factory
and the actual making of the clothes. How
can all this be controlled? It is a huge
challenge for Max Havelaar to make sure,
that all producers and fair trade
- partners are following minimal
social standards. But the monitoring of
the whole production chain could be an opportunity
to enforce social minimal standards and
to promote multi-stakeholder verification.
If the fair-trade labelling organisations
develop a close cooperation with trade unions
and other initiatives in the garments sector,
the new label initiative can have a positive
impact on the aim of Clean Clothes Campaign
to improve working conditions in the garment
factories.
Questions and answers
about the textile label of Max Havelaar Switzerland
What does the Max
Havelaar trademark mean for textiles?
First and foremost, the new Max
Havelaar label indicates fairly traded cotton.
If a textile product carries this trademark,
the cotton comes from Max Havelaar certified
small scale farmers who receive a fixed
minimum price and a fair trade premium for
communal projects. For the harvest of 2004-2005,
the fair trade price was around 20-30% above
the market price. The premium amounts to
13% of the fair trade minimum price. Cotton
farmers commit themselves to specific social
as well as ecological criteria (e.g. no
use of genetically modified seeds). Organic
cotton growing is encouraged, although the
Max Havelaar label compromises products
with and without organic certification.
In the initial phase, around 500 cotton
farmers from India, Pakistan, Mali and Senegal
have taken part in the fair trade programme.
At the launch on 28 April 2005, the companies
Switcher, Manor, Migros, Helvetas and Balsiger
Textil AG took part in the cotton label.
The range of articles includes T-Shirts,
baby bodies, terry towelling and various
cotton wool products.
Further, the entire textile production
chain for each product is transparent and,
according to Max Havelaar, is monitored.
For the processing of the product, Max Havelaar
requires the same workers' rights the Clean
Clothes Campaign (CCC) has demanded for
years (trade union rights, ban on child
labour, no forced labour, etc.). Around
5000 employees benefit from these rights
in the textile industry.
What is the difference
to the approach of the Clean Clothes Campaign?
The CCC follows a sectoral approach,
Max Havelaar a product based approach. The
CCC's social code of conduct (CCC model
code) therefore defines the responsibility
of a clothes company in the making of the
whole clothes range. Max Havelaar, on the
other hand, monitors the social standards
along the production chain, from the crop
growing and spinnery to the dyeing factory
and the actual making of the clothes.
According to the information at hand, all
Swiss licensees currently accept the minimal
workers' rights that Max Havelaar stipulates
for the whole product range (including the
living wage). The CCC hopes that also in
future, it will be a matter of course that
Max Havelaar licensees will not apply lower
social standards. Like the CCC, Max Havelaar
only requires a minimum standard in the
processing of the product. A lower standard
would therefore already constitute social
dumping. No fair trade business partner
could justify such behaviour with acceptable
reasoning.
Why have fairly produced
clothes not existed for a long time already?
Without the pioneering work of Switcher,
which has systematically implemented social
and ecological standards for years, the
Max Havelaar label would probably not exist
today. The Max Havelaar label can be seen
as the high point in the long-lasting effort
of companies that have worked towards better
working conditions in the clothes industry
for years. The textile label is therefore
also owed to years of campaigning and sustained
public pressure.
However, the monitoring of social standards
in the processing of cotton remains a great
challenge for Max Havelaar: there are still
no independent institutions that carry out
reliable inspections on working conditions.
In order to fill this gap, the CCC has been
demanding the creation of an internationally
networked verification body for years. Max
Havelaar, amongst others, also supports
the creation of such a body in Switzerland.
Switcher and Migros have gained experience
with verifications through a pilot project
of the CCC as well.
What do controls
in the textile factories look like?
In the stage of processing, Max
Havelaar uses controls carried out by external
companies. On the one hand, they control
the implementation of workers' rights by
the licensees. On the other hand, controls
are carried out in the factories themselves
and, if need be, correcting measures are
recommended. Max Havelaar is further planning
to carry out random checks in the whole
production chain.
Max Havelaar partially uses so-called SA8000
certificates in their controls. Organisations
from the South regularly criticise the quality
of these type of controls. In order to secure
the credibility of this textile label in
the long-term, Max Havelaar licensees should
therefore participate in the creation of
a verification authority. However, up to
the present, only Migros and Switcher have
committed themselves to this end.
What impact does
the label have on factory work?
This question cannot be answered
yet. A possible general improvement for
seamstresses/seamsters in clothes factories
as a result of the Max Havelaar label will
depend on the required social standards
and on the procedures applied during the
monitoring process.
Unfortunately, Max Havelaar France already
accepted a freeloader (La Redoute) as an
Max Havelaar licensee. Such companies only
use this seal of approval as a fig leaf
behind which they hide bad procurement practices.
These double standards contradict the spirit
of fair trade and are counter productive.
Instead of creating synergies, this practice
creates contradictions in the implementation
and new conflicts during monitoring. Further,
it bewilders consumers.
Should seamstresses/seamsters
also receive a fair trade premium?
The Max Havelaar cotton label grants
higher prices, a so-called fair trade premium,
only to farmers. This is a good solution
for the rural population and the producers'
cooperatives. Communal projects are supported
with the help of the FT premium. On top
of this, joint bodies are created which
decide over how the money is spent.
However, in the industrial sector employees
have less of a local basis. Because of the
higher division of labour, production is
much more decentralised. Trade union rights
and social partnerships are therefore far
more important in the textile industry.
In the industrial sector, it is therefore
the freedom of organisation and the right
to collective bargaining that should be
promoted instead of communal projects. Employees
thereby have the possibility to negotiate
fairer working conditions and higher wages.
As an alternative to the FT premium, all
Max Havelaar licensees should therefore
be required to demand and monitor their
suppliers' adherence to minimum social standards.
In doing so, the differences between the
Max Havelaar product label and the CCC's
model code approach would become irrelevant
and the mutual benefit of these projects
could thereby be enhanced.
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