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NEWSLETTER 12, MAY 2000
Switzerland No. 1 retailer accepts entire
ccc-code Successful negotiations lead to a pilot project
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Only in January 1999 the Swiss Clean Clothes Campaign
started with the appeal to consumers, to send postcards to 15
enterprises in Switzerland. With events and school-theatre and
a t-shirt-exhibition the campaign made a splash and was covered
extensively by the media. Till April 2000 there were send more
than 50'000 cards and petitions to 15 companies active in Switzerland.
All enterprises answered to the individuals and to CCC-Switzerland.
Ten Swiss-based retailers (the others like H&M and Adidas are
treated by other CCC-Countries) started a discussion about the code
of conduct. One of the key questions to them were the freedom of
association and the right for collective bargaining. For some retailers
the question was, whether they should choose SA8000 instead of the
Clean Clothes Code. CCC asked them to accept the entire code and
to sign a declaration (letter of intent), in which they get the
obligation for the implementation of the code and where they accept
the introduction of an independent monitoring system.
The very concrete result of these negotiations is, that the three
enterprises Mabrouc SA/Switcher, Migros - the main Swiss retailer
- and Charles Veillon SA took over the entire CCC-Model-Code and
signed a letter of intent. As a first step Migros send their code
to all their 500 suppliers and asked them to co-operate. Till the
end of the year '99 more than half of the suppliers answered. This
is seen as the beginning of the implementation which leads to a
internal control. Following the CCC-Code, there needs to be a full
disclosure and an independent control as well. Relating to these
questions, the letter of intent mentioned a pilot project in the
field of independent monitoring, which will be fully financed by
the retailers.
At the end of February 2000 the Swiss CCC - supported by the Swedish
project co-ordinator - met with the three retailers mentioned above.
There was the decision taken to realise a common pilot project for
the implementation of the code and an independent control. The independent
monitoring system should be tested in two Asian countries and within
4 places of production. For the duration of 18 month (beginning
in summer 2000) a project director will be employed by the common
board (called working group) of representatives of the companies
and of the CC-Campaign. His duties will be the evaluation of the
internal implementation of the code and the establishment of an
independent control which includes a truly empowerment of the factory
workers and the participation of NGO's and/or trade unions.
An internal working-paper in French language (75 pages) can be
downloaded from our web-site: Le monitoring indépendant (ou
vérification indépendante) de Julien Reinhard. It
gives an overview to existing monitoring systems. This study takes
up the theoretical question of monitoring first, then discusses
existing monitoring systems (SA8000 and LINK and AIP-FLA in the
USA) and it gives an overview to CCC-Projects within Europe. Finally
it resumes two fair trade initiatives in Switzerland (STEP and Max
Havelaar) and gives some recommendations for the further CC-Campaign.
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