What are CCC Urgent Appeals?

The urgent appeals system is one way that the CCC works to support workers in their struggle to improve working conditions and to forge international solidarity links with labor rights organizations. The CCC frequently receives appeals from workers producing garments for multinationals. Generally, these requests come in through the CCC International Secretariat in Amsterdam (info@cleanclothes.org), but there is a CCC Urgent Appeals Working Group with members in each of the European Clean Clothes Campaigns, therefore requests that the CCC become involved in a case can be sent to any of the CCCs and they will follow up. The Urgent Appeals Working Group takes these requests, verifies them and adds to the initial information regarding the case using our local contacts in the country where the rights violation has occurred. A wide appeal for action is then posted to the CCC international network (via email). Using this system, members of the Clean Clothes Campaigns are effectively mobilised to react to requests for action when workers rights are violated.

If your organization would like international support in relation to specific cases of labor rights violations, contact the CCC International Secretariat with the following information:

• Description of the labor rights violation

• Name of the factory/workplace involved

• Summary of the workers demands

• Organisation seeking assistance and connection to the workers involved (the CCC will only take action on cases of rights violations if it is clear that that is what the workers want, in many cases workers do not want their complaints/negotiations to be made public, so their desire to have international solidarity actions in relation to their case must be clearly established)

• Union involved

• Union affiliation

• Companies (brands) that the factory produces for

• Country where goods are exported to

• Owner of factory/contact information

The CCC will gather information on the brand name companies involved in the case and any codes of conduct they might have (in some cases workers and their organizations find that the company codes can provide them with leverage in their negotiations) and send this back to the organization asking for assistance. The CCC also sends the organization copies of any correspondence that takes place in relation to the case.