The German CCC is currently involved in a variety of activities. This report from the German campaign provides an update on a conference on the sportswear industry that's being organized and CCC campaigning to have German retailer KarstadtQuelle improve working conditions.

Sports Conference
The main action of the German CCC in 2002 will be the Fit for Fair sports conference to be held in Cologne (Köln) on May 3rd and 4th. The idea is to bring together various stakeholders: representatives of the sporting goods industry (such as adidas, Puma, Nike, and the Wrold Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, WFSGI), workers who actually produce sportswear, trade unions, well-known athletes, members of the CCC and similar campaigns (such as United Students Against Sweatshops, in the U.S.), politicians, associations (such as FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association). The program will include a mix of discussions and workshops. Some famous athletes have publically stated their support for the event. Patroness for the conference is Renate Kuenast, federal minister for consumer affairs, food , and agriculture.

With this event, the German CCC aims to provide information about working conditions in the global sportswear industry, to present an overview of initiatives set up to improve these conditions (such as the WFSGI code), to discuss further steps to be taken, and to raise public awareness of these issues. One month before the football world championships interest in topics connected to football will be high. This is what the CCC learned while doing actions during the Euro 2000 football championship.

Since June 2001 a Fit for Fair postcard action has been underway. Those who sign the cards ask the sporting goods producers to meet the ILO standards that are included in the CCC model code and to implement a system of independent verification of those standards. The cards also call upon the sports associations to spread information about working conditions and use their influence to pressure the brands to make improvements. So far, 50,000 postcards have been distributed. Both producers and associations are being encouraged to participate in the Fit for Fair conference. At the conference, the world champion of unicycling will present the signatures collected during the postcard action to representatives of the sportswear companies and their associations.

KarstadtQuelle Shareholders Meeting
Since March 2001 the German CCC has been running a campaign to get KarstadtQuelle, the biggest national garment retailer, to improve the conditions in which their goods are produced. Various groups within the German CCC coalition have done public actions (street theatre, leafleting, panel discussions) in various German cities as part of this campaign.

In July representatives from this groups visited the company's shareholder meeting in Düsseldorf. Outside the meeting activists with banners and leaflets informed the shareholders of their concerns regarding KarstadtQuelle's record on workers rights. Inside the hall, two activists tried to carry a large banner on stage while the company's CEO was presenting his annual report. The activists where thrown out of the hall by security guards. During the meeting one CCC member made a critical speech about working conditions at KarstadtQuelle suppliers and asked the company how they intend to improve these poor conditions. One part of the answer was interesting: KarstadtQuelle said they would accredit independent organisations to monitor their suppliers.

In September the German CCC met with representatives of KarstadtQuelle to discuss several issues. The main issue on the CCC's agenda was the implementation of an independent system to monitor and verify compliance of labor standards in the workplace in cooperation with trade unions and NGOs. KarstadtQuelle and the representative of the Foreign Trade Association (AVE) refused to consider this idea. Regarding the "independent organisations" mentioned at the shareholders meeting, they explained that these would probably be five organizations (such as SGS) which would monitor the implementation of the Code of the Foreign Trade Association (AVE code). The AVE code is similar to the KarstadtQuelle code -- it contains no living wage requirement and the standard on working hours is unclear.