Answer: Gucci is owned by Pinault-Printemps-Redoute
(PPR), a French multinational corporation that produces
its goods in workplaces around the world where workers'
rights are routinely violated. Gucci might make beautiful
clothes, but it's part of PPR's ugly empire.
Thursday,
October 31st 20 labor rights activists, posing as Gucci
models, staged a mock fashion show in front of Gucci's Amsterdam
store to draw attention to PPR's bad labor rights record
and demand improvements. The action, organized by the Dutch
Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), took place on Amsterdam's
chic PC Hoofstraat. CCC activists, demanding that Gucci
parent company PPR face up to its responsibilities in relation
to workers rights, gathered signatures from shoppers and
handed out postcards to be sent to Gucci CEO Domenico de
Sole demanding that he contact PPR Chairman Serge Weinberg
regarding these issues. Pictures of the action made it in
two major daily newspaper, and the action was reported on
regional radio and television.
On the same day CCC activists in Austria also took to the
streets to protest PPR's role in labor rights violations,
in front of the Gucci store in Kohlmarkt, in the heart of
Vienna. They distributed leaflets and postcards, and a "one
woman theatre" act called "the two sides of the
fashion industry" was performed. About 800 leaflets
and postcards were distributed.
In Sweden the Clean Clothes Campaign also launched a postcard
campaign to pressure PPR via its Gucci subsidiary. The Swedish
cards, featuring a "TamaGucci" are a play on the
"electronic pet" Tamagochi.
Background
The Clean Clothes Campaign first contacted PPR in April
2002 regarding the anti-union campaign being waged at PPR's
U.S. subsidiary Brylane. Since then the CCC has received
various reports of violations of workers' rights at PPR
contract facilities in a number of countries. Reports from
various trade unions and NGOs cite numerous violations at
facilities producing for PPR, including: violations of minimum
wage laws (Philippines, India, Romania); failure to comply
with laws regarding social security payments (Philippines);
verbal and sexual harassment (India); illegal deductions
from wages (Thailand); 14-hour work days (Indonesia); seven-day
work weeks (Indonesia, Pakistan); unhealthy working conditions
(Indonesia and Pakistan); unpaid overtime (Romania); and
violations of the legal minimum age of employment (Pakistan).
When PPR was publicly confronted with this miserable record
of rights violations, their response was to deny responsibility
and cut their contracts with several of the facilities in
question. The CCC finds this to
be an unacceptable response, one that does not deal with
the problems at hand. Cutting contracts when faced with
rights violations causes job losses and does nothing to
address the important issues of low wages, unsafe working
conditions, union repression and other serious rights violations.
The CCC has called upon PPR to investigate working conditions
at all its supplier facilities and take steps to correct
any abuses that are found. The CCC believes that PPR and
all its subsidiaries should adopt a policy of working with
local management, buying agents, and suppliers to correct
workplace problems, rather then responding to abuses by
cutting orders and shifting operations to other facilities.
The CCC is also requesting that PPR adopt a good code of
conduct for its workplaces -- one which is based on and
makes reference to ILO conventions, and includes a system
for implementation of the code, as well as ongoing monitoring
and independent verification of code compliance. The standards
in the codes must cover all workers producing foods for
the company.
So far, Gucci and PPR have not responded to the CCC's demands.
Gucci staff at the Amsterdam shop responded to the October
action by locking the door and turning off the lights. It
seems, with the lack of action at their corporate headquarters,
PPR executives are also in the dark in relation to how to
move forward in relation to responsible corporate behavior.
In order to give them a push in the right direction, the
CCC plans to continue its Gucci/PPR campaign. The postcard
action continues throughout the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden,
the UK, and in other countries where the CCC is active.
For more on this campaign, or to send a postcard to Gucci,
please see the CCC website: www.cleanclothes.org, or contact
the CCC International Secretariat.
