Exchange Codes of conduct are good, solidarity is better!

Codes of conduct are good, solidarity is better!

Solidarity along the supplychain: from production toretail, workers unite!

NEWSLETTER 1/2005

exCHAINS

Eliza Begum is a 24 year-old semi-skilled seamstress.She has worked at a sewing machine in a garment factoryin Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, for the past 6 years.Eliza sews the seams on the necks of t-shirts and on shirtcollars for Swedish retail company H&M. She sometimesworks 7 days a week and earns a monthly wage of 27euros – without the presence of a trade union in the fac-tory to represent her interests. She is a member of theNGFW (National Garment Workers Federation), a unionthat is trying to organise the workers in Bangladesh’s gar-ment industry.

Katrin Henning has worked for 9 years as a shopassistant at H&M in Berlin. In 2003 she became a memberof the works council in her branch and a member of thenationwide works council of H&M in Germany. H&M is anextremely successful company that is continually expan-ding its operations. Its recipe for success is to offer thelatest in young fashion at very reasonable prices, adver-tised using top models in extravagant advertising cam-paigns, and displayed in smart shops in expensive citycentre locations. H&M sources a large proportion of itsproduct range from Bangladesh.

Agneta Ramberg has been a trade union representa-tive for H&M workers in the Swedish city of Uppsala formany years. One aspect of her work involves being on the

supervisory board of the parent company in Stockholm.Almost 90% of H&M workers in Sweden are organised intrade unions. Co-determination and worker participation arean almost taken for granted part of the company culture.

These three women met one another through theExCHAINS project and shared their experiences and ideason how international solidarity can be made real. »Direct

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All pictures are from the exchange to Bangladesh and the NGWF protests concerning the factory collapse, both reported in this issue.

✓Exchange

Developing and strengthening linksbetween workers from Asia and Euro-pe, working along the subcontractingchain of garment production, is themain objective of the ExCHAINS pro-ject. These links are vital to the globalfight against the exploitation of wor-kers and for the eradication of poverty.

In the ExCHAINS project, TIE (Trans-nationals Information Exchange) iscollaborating with three regional unions:✓ Free Trade Zones and GeneralServices Employees Union (FTZ&GSEU,Sri Lanka)

(former Free Trade Zones WorkersUnion, FTZWU)✓ National Garment Workers Federa-tion (NGWF, Bangladesh)✓ Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerk-schaft (ver.di, Germany)

We want:✓ to raise awareness concerning theinternational production chain in thetextile, garment and retail sector;✓ to establish concrete solidaritybetween workers along the supplychain;✓ to support freedom of associationand the right to organise; ✓ to support concrete campaigns;✓ to pressure big retail companies toname their suppliers and to supportthe right toorganise at their suppliers.

This newsletter is being publishedregularly in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka andGermany, containing informationabout working conditions in the res-pective countries, as well as informa-tion about ongoing campaigns. Wehope this will provide an opportunityfor information exchange and raiseawareness about the connections be-tween the different countries and uniteworkers’ demands.

For more information:

Website E-mailwww.tieasia.org [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

[email protected]

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contacts between workers alongthe production chain of the textileand garment production and theretail trade« – this was the funda-mental idea of the project, and inthe case of H&M it has alreadyproduced some very concreteresults.

One important part of this, ofcourse, is the public pressurethat trade unions and criticalconsumers are able to put onEuropean companies that allowexploitative conditions to exist intheir supplier factories in thedeveloping countries. And this isthe reason why many companieshave now been more or lessforced to set out the principles oftheir »social responsibility« in socalled»codes of conduct« – rules for uphol-ding certain minimum social stan-dards, to which a company’s suppliersare contractually obliged to adhere.However, even the best code of con-duct is useless unless consequentand independent monitoring takesplace to assure that it is continuallyimplemented in the factories.

International Solidarity In ActionOne of the first concrete steps in theExChains project, then, was to find outwhich garment factories in Sri Lankaand Bangladesh were producing gar-ments for which outlets in Germany.This is something that is kept strictlyconfidential by most companies. Ger-man retail workers collected the labelsthat are sewn into the garments. The-se were sent to our partner unions inAsia and shown to the workers in thefactories. This enabled us, as a start,to find 5 suppliers for H&M in Bangla-desh. NGWF activists documented theworking conditions in these factoriesand noted several violations of natio-nal labour law, as well as violations ofthe principles set out in H&M’s code ofconduct.

The workers’ major demands are:✓ implementation of the right to

organise✓ implementation of one day off

every week ✓ employment documents/con-

tracts

At a joint seminar in Germany inNovember 2004 Eliza and twoactivists from the NGWF told their col-leagues from Sweden and Germanyabout the working conditions in Bang-ladesh’s garment factories. After thismeeting the group travelled togetherto Sweden. They met with representa-tives of the CSR (Corporate SocialResponsibility) department of H&M,who are responsible for implementingthe company’s code of conduct. H&Mis very concerned about having apositive public image and so it hasdeveloped a code of conduct thatsets out the rights mentioned above,among others. During the discussionsin Stockholm the company acknow-ledged that problems did exist andpromised to make efforts to clarify thesituation. Specifically, H&M agreed to

✓ open up a channel of informati-on between H&M and the NGWF,

✓ arrange regular meetings bet-ween the NGWF and H&M’s produc-tion office in Bangladesh, and

✓ pursue the cases of code of con-duct violation brought to their attentionand inform the Swedish and Germanunions/workers of the outcomes.

In February 2005 German workersfrom H&M, WalMart and the textilessector travelled to Bangladesh, inorder to put further pressure on thecompany. The delegation visitedseveral garment factories and thenational garment employers’ associa-

tion (BGMEA), held discussions withworkers and were able to learn aboutthe union activists’ work in the resi-dential areas of the workers and theirfamilies. They also visited H&M’s pro-duction office in Dhaka and three sup-plier factories.

One of the most important out-comes of the trip was that H&M agreedto open a line of communication withthe NGWF. The company agreed

✓ that it would follow up on viola-tions of national labour law and of itsown code of conduct at its suppliers,as brought to its attention by theNGWF;

✓ that it would support the unionif workers in supplier factories werediscriminated against or fired becauseof engaging in union organising activi-ties.

Code of conduct alone is not sufficientThe company confirmed some of theviolations found by the union and pre-sented a schedule of measures that ithad agreed with the suppliers concer-ned. Overall, however, it became clearthat making sure the code of conductis implemented is not sufficient.

Although the delegation certainlygot the impression that H&M isseriously concerned about implemen-ting its code of conduct, it is still true,even in the case of complete com-pliance with the code and nationallabour laws, that women and men areworking in the factories for a monthlywage of 12.50 b (unskilled helpers) or28 to 34 b (experienced seamstres-ses). Even in Bangladesh, no one canlead a life in dignity at those wages.The delegation visited a number ofworkers in their residential areas (seepictures). Here they are paying bet-ween 8 and 30 b for a room of 10-15square metres, including cooking faci-lities, a water pump and a toilet sha-red between 150 women and men.

This makes perfectly clear:making sure the code of conduct isupheld is not sufficient. It is necessaryto fight for a living wage that enablesworkers a life in dignity, and to ensurethat union organising can take placefreely. Only then can workers stand up2

Union busting in Sri Lanka

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120 women and 80 men make ener-gy-saving bulbs in the factory of Cey-energy Electronic Company (Pvt) Ltd.in Colombo. In November 2004 four-fifths of the workers turned their backon the company’s union organisation,which was controlled by the manage-ment, and became members of theindependent union FTZ&GSEU.

Since then, the harassment by themanagement never stopped: peoplehave been fired or moved to otherjobs, bonus payments have been cutcompletely, wage adjustments havebeen stopped, and so on. The tragicculmination was a brutal attack car-ried out by hired thugs on several uni-on activists in their boarding house on1st February 2005, where they werejust preparing some banners for aprotest rally. Five of the workers whowere attacked had to be treated inhospital. Those workers at the com-pany who are active in the union nowfear for their lives. Even the chairmanof the new company union doesn’tdare to go into work anymore for fearof further maltreatment.

In March, the factory was sudden-ly closed down for some time, mana-gement claiming they were facing adrop of sales due to unfavourableterms of trade between India and Sri

Lanka. In the meanti-me, the managementapplied to the LabourMinistry for permis-sion to terminate allthose workers whohad started work inthe factory after 2002.This affects 138 wor-kers, 136 of themmembers of theFTZ&GSEU, whichwould mean only 3

union members left in the factory. The union protested strongly

against this crude attempt to breakthe branch union and called on theLabour Ministry to refuse permissionto terminate the union members. Pro-

ceedings continue.The union asks its friends, allies

and all those in solidarity with it to wri-te letters of protest to the chairman ofthe company. The impact of such let-ters could be strong in this case, sin-ce the company’s owner DeshamanyaLalith Kotalawela is a famous busi-nessman in Sri Lanka and is very con-cerned about his image as a humani-tarian and the image of his company –for example, he has done self-promo-tion by placing large advertisementsin the press about his support for tsu-nami victims. ■

For information, contact [email protected]

✓

for their rights themselves and strugg-le to change their situation.

In the ExCHAINS project, solidari-ty is made real. Workers from very dif-ferent countries, such as Sweden,

Germany and Bangladesh, have gotto know one another as equals, as fel-low workers who have had similarexperiences despite the differences intheir living and working conditions:

experiences of humiliation, but also ofthe search for dignity and for the reco-gnition of their rights. Thus, all of themhave already benefited through theproject. ■

SriLanka

Long-term support fortsunami victimsHouse construction project by theFTZ&GSEU and Women’s Centre

Sri Lanka was one of the countries mostseverely affected by the aftermath of theundersea earthquake in the Indian Oce-an in December 2004. As one can imagi-ne, this disaster hit the workers of thegarment industry especially hard, giventhat their livelihoods are already underthreat with the ending of the MultifibreArrangement on 1st January 2005.Many of them and their families havelost family members, their health andeven their possessions.

Since the international community,organisations and governments quicklyprovided considerable sums of moneyfor immediate emergency aid, theFTZ&GSEU and the Women’s Centrejointly decided in January to providelong-term reconstruction support to theworkers affected and their families bybuilding houses and collecting dona-

tions for this purpose. The union askedall its members to support the aid pro-ject in the month of January with aday’s wage, and sent a call for donationsto friends and allies to be disseminatedmore widely.

The original idea was to build 50houses, starting with houses for the fami-lies of two members who were killed inthe disaster who worked at the NationalPaper Mill in Valachenai in the EasternProvince. This plan was quickly adjustedto cope with the immense demand, butalso with the overwhelming generosity ofthe donors: the number of houses to bebuilt was increased to 100. Moreover, inaddition to erecting the basic structure ofthe homes, they can now also be connec-ted to the infrastructure (water supply,drainage system and electricity network).A large part of the funding for this hasalready been secured at this time. Furtherdonations for the »Helping Hands« houseconstruction project, which is aimed atlong term reconstruction, are welcome.

For information, contact [email protected]

From dawn until breakdown....Garment factory collapse

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As widely reported in the mediaworldwide, a 9-storey building contai-ning the garment factory SpectrumSweater Industries Ltd., located nearthe Free Trade Zone Savar just out-side the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka,collapsed during the night of 11thApril 2005. Among other companies,

the German mail order firm Necker-mann (part of the Karstadt/Quellegroup) also sourced garments fromSpectrum.

76 bodies have since been reco-vered, but many people are still mis-sing. It didn’t help that the buildingcollapsed at 1 o’clock in the morning:

as so often happens in Bangladesh’sgarment factories, an order deadlinewas fast approaching and so therewere several hundred workers in thebuilding at the time – despite the factthat, for women at least, night-timework is prohibited by law in Bangla-desh.

After the relevant authorities hadtried to put the disaster down to thetragic consequences of a boiler explo-sion (along the lines of »these kinds ofbad accidents can never be avoidedcompletely«), it turned out that thehuge building had been erected threeyears ago on unsuitable, marshyground and that planning permissionhad been given for a 4-storey buildingand not at all for a building that wasmore than twice as high and had nowcollapsed. It is now obvious thatnobody in the last three years hadcared to notice this simple fact: nei-

Bangla-desh ✓

The struggle continues !

In our last newsletter we reported ontwo labour struggles being fought bythe FTZ&GSEU in Sri Lanka, which see-med to turn out successful for the wor-kers involved – not least on account ofjoint activities and internationalexchanges and pressure on the compa-nies involved in the context of theExCHAINS project.

The garment factory Jaqalanka Ltd.eventually became the first everfactory in Sri Lanka’s Free TradeZones to recognize the union asa partner in collective bargai-ning. In October 2004 the wor-kers were able to celebrate thefirst anniversary of the foundingof their independent union attheir workplace, and messages ofcongratulation were read outfrom friends and supportersthroughout the world who hadshared in and helped to bringabout this success.

The situation is quite different atNorth Sails. As a result of many kindsof activities and massive internationalsupport, the company had come underpressure to negotiate with theFTZ&GSEU and to reach an agreement,which we reported on in detail in thelast newsletter. However, it seems thatthe company’s main concern had onlybeen to get through the period ofintense public interest without toomuch damage, because once things hadcalmed down, it returned to its old stal-

ling tactics. Although North Sails hastaken on more than 90 new workerssince then, for example, the companyhas made no offer to reinstate the uni-on members who had been firedunjustly. Because there has been noindication from the company that itintends to implement the agreementwith the union, the Clean Clothes Cam-paign (CCC¸ see www.cleanclothes.org)has since decided to re-launch thecampaign against the behaviour ofNorth Sails that it had put on hold

when the agreement wassigned.

Both cases illustratethat international solidari-ty is a long-term affair.

Whether a campaignsucceeds or fails, it is onlyan ongoing commitmentto practical solidarity thatenable successes to besecured in the long termand setbacks to be copedwith or even turnedaround. ■

ther the authorities responsible, northe state inspection authorities, northe employers’ association, nor eventhe inspectors employed by the com-panies that ordered the garmentsmanufactured here.

Our partner union in theExCHAINS project, NGWF, had 39members in the factory, of whom 5were killed and 12 injured. Immediate-ly after the disaster occurred, theunion saw to it that the bodies of thedead were handed over to their fami-lies for burial, and that the best pos-sible medical provision was madeavailable for the injured. At the sametime it gave press conferences andorganised demonstrations by way of aspontaneous expression of protest.

NGWF activists have since develo-ped an action plan for placing this pro-test on a more systematic basis. The

plan involves protest actions at all theoffices of those (government, businessassociations, buyers etc.) who couldhave probably prevented the disasterfrom happening by taking more conse-quent action against long known pro-blems and safety violations, instead ofignoring them. Such actions, organisedby the NGWF and allied trade unions,are currently taking place almost dailythroughout the country and includedemonstrations, human chains, block-ades, press conferences and rallies,handing over demands to the bodiesresponsible, and a symbolic one-hourhunger strike.

The fatal downward spiral of inhu-man greed, ruthless pressure on pri-ces and deadlines, and arrogant indif-

ference has alreadycost the lives ofhundreds of Bang-ladeshi garmentworkers and ruinedthe health of thou-sands more, evenbefore this mostrecent disaster.

In order tobreak this deadlyspiral at last, theNGWF, in connec-tion with its activi-ties following theSpectrum disaster, presents the follo-wing demands:

1. The owners of Spectrum Swea-ter Industries Ltd. must be arrestedand held to account for the disaster.

2. A committee of inquiry, includingunion representatives, should be set

up to examine the causes of thecollapse.

3. The families of those killed mustbe adequatelycompensated(according tothe »Fatal Acci-dent Act«).

4. Thoseinjured mustreceive appro-priate medicaltreatment.

5. Anywages stilloutstandingfrom Marchand April mustbe paid, along

with overtime from February, Marchand April.

6. All the workers must be grantedjob security with regular payment, orlegal compensation according to theTermination Law.

7. A committee consisting of repre-sentatives from government, theemployers’ association and the uni-ons must be set up to carry out in-spections in all garment factories, inorder to guarantee the safety of theworkers and to improve workingconditions.

Of these demands, only the first onehas been met so far. The two ownersof Spectrum Sweater Industries Ltd.have so far failed before the court intheir application for release on bail.

This case goes to show onceagain how crucial it is that indepen-dent trade unions such as the NGWF

in Bangladesh support the workersand give them the opportunity to fightfor their own rights. ■

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5Photo: The Independent, Bangladesh, April 12, 2005.

Neckermann: Saving for the "Rescue Plan”

Europe’s largest department store andmail order corporation Karstadt/Quellehas been making headlines for severalmonths due to a financial crisis thatthreatens its very existence. The cor-poration, which has high debts, hasfaced the final curtain more than onceduring this time. Even now there is nocertainty that it will survive.

What is less well known, though,is that the mail order companyNeckermann – itself in quite a»healthy« condition before – will notremain unscathed by the painful con-sequences of the corporation’s crisis.Founded after the Second World Waras a family business (»NeckermannTextil-Versand AG«), the company wasbought by Karstadt in 1977.

In these difficult times that affectthe entire corporation, a »contributiontowards securing the future« is beingasked of the 4,000-odd workers atNeckermann’s main branch in Frank-furt. The union ver.di had been facedwith choosing between two evils atthe end of last year: accept layoffs orelse consent to a new »rescue con-tract«. Since securing jobs was theunion’s top priority, it »chose« nego-tiations about a new contract.

The »rescue contract« at Necker-mann was concluded for a period of 3years (starting from 1st January 2005)and does away completely with someof the »old« gains won by the workers.It contains, among others, the follo-wing arrangements:

✓ Workers will forfeit their right to

a negotiated wage increase for theduration of the agreement (3 years).

✓ Weekly working hours will bereduced from 37.5 to 35 hours andwages will be cut accordingly.

✓ Bonuses will be cut.✓ Overtime can no longer be paid

but only taken as time off.✓ Holiday pay will be cut completely.These measures represent a »con-

tribution« of several millions in savings

from Neckermann workers to the res-cue of Karstadt/Quelle.

Also in the context of the group’s res-cue plan, discussions are being heldabout outsourcing even more workthan has happened already. While anumber of jobs in the logistics andcall centre section have already been

shifted to contracted workers orabroad, new discussions are under-way to expand these shifts. Decisionsare not made yet, but in the mostextreme case this could mean that allNeckermann workers except a mere1,200 would lose their jobs in theparent company.

Since the beginning of the year, aswell, sales at Neckermann have beensomewhat low. Whether this is a

symptom of the bad press in connec-tion with the Karstadt/Quelle crisis, oran expression of a general drop ofsales – the workers’ situation is cha-racterised by constant fear for theirlivelihoods and by the uncertainty ofhow long they will still be able to makea living from their work at Necker-mann. ■

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Germany ✓

Police fire into crowd ofprotesting workers It was an incident that went largely unre-marked, having been overshadowed by thedisaster that happened on 11th April in theimmediate neighbourhood: one day priorto this, a violent confrontation took placebetween locked-out workers of a garmentfactory and the police in the Free TradeZone of Savar near Dhaka. The police firstused batons against the workers and then

proceeded to shoot into the crowd withlive munition. 20 workers were hit by bul-lets. 6 of them were still in a critical condi-tion a day later.

On the morning of 10th April 2005the workers of the company HonorwayTextiles & Apparels (Pvt.) Ltd. came towork and found themselves facing lockedfactory gates. They went to the office ofthe Free Trade Zone authority, BEPZA, inorder to find out why the factory was clo-sed, but were prevented from entering thebuilding by security guards. The scuffle

with the security guards that followedescalated when workers from other facto-ries and the police came to support theirrespective sides. Finally, the police appa-rently found it necessary to fire at randominto the crowd of protesting workers.

The cause of the conflict was mostlikely linked to an ongoing court battlebetween the company and its recentlydismissed managing director. The latterhas been accused of embezzling 30 milli-on Taka (more than 400,000 euros) fromthe workers’ provident fund. ■

Exchange Codes of conduct are good, solidarity is better!

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