Green Cotton

The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is an international campaign focused on improving working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries and on empowering workers, most of whom are women. There are CCC coalitions in 12 European countries, backed by a broader, international network of trade unions and NGOs in garment producing countries (Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America). The CCC also cooperates with similar campaigns
in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

The Clean Clothes Campaign educates and mobilizes consumers, lobbies companies and governments, and offers direct support to workers as they fight for their rights and demand better working conditions.

According to a new report released by CCC : Major global retailers Carrefour, Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, and Walmart are seeing massive profits and increasing market share in the garment sector, as workers in their supply chains face increasing poverty, appalling conditions, and serious workers rights violations.

The Clean Clothes Campaign insists that companies bear a responsibility and have the power to ensure that workers throughout their supply chains are treated fairly. The CCC has developed a “Code of Labour Practices for the Apparel Industry Including Sportswear” based upon the conventions of the United Nations’ International Labour Organization. The principles set forth in this code include, among others, a minimum employment age, safe working requirements, set working hours and right to a living wage.

So where should we buy our clothes?

Actually this question is difficult to answer, because CCC doesn’t have a list of recommended “clean” companies.
But they do know what companies should be doing to improve working conditions and ensure respect for workers’ human rights.

• They should adopt a comprehensive, credible and transparent code of conduct based on the international labour standards and human rights conventions.
• They must implement the code with provisions for monitoring, verification, remediation, ethical purchasing.
• They should participate in a credible multi-stakeholder initiative that involves companies, unions, NGOs.

For more about CCC recommendations, check out on www.cleanclothes.org