DON'T LET CCC & ICN ACTIVISTS GO TO JAIL!

On December 1, the Bangalore magistrate court ordered the arrest of seven Dutch human rights activists from the Clean Clothes Campaign and the India Committee of the Netherlands. Please take action now and write to G-star today.

Take action now at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/07-12-04.htm#action

Join the International G-Star action day on December 17

G-Star is the major long-term buyer at FFI. To date, G-Star has failed to make its supplier comply with the international human right standards regarding freedom of association and freedom of speech. G-Star should speak out clearly against FFI's behaviour. As long as FFI does not stop the (judicial) harassment of labour rights organisations locally and internationally, and continues to refuse a mediated dialogue with the involved organisations, G-Star should suspend its orders at FFI.

It is time for G-Star to stop ducking and diving and to take responsibility for its suppliers’ behaviour.

G-star stop being a Gag-star! Labour rights activists won't be silenced!

Therefore, we call upon you to join the

INTERNATIONAL G-STAR ACTION DAY on DECEMBER 17*,

and join the protest against violations of the right to speech and the right to organise:

- Do an action at G-Star shops and points of sale, and tell =customers that G-Star should take responsibility now (find the location of G-star stores at http://storelocator.g-star.com).
- Target G-Star advertisements, stick messages to billboards.
- Organise a debating contest with one participant physically restrained from speaking.
- Place a public sweatshop with gagged workers in front of G-Star shops/points of sale.
- Hand-out action cards to people wearing G-Star.
- Send a letter to a newspaper (preferably with more people and
organisations) about the flagrant violations at FFI/JKPL.
- Mobilize other human and labour rights organisations.
- Organise a press conference in support of the labour organisations being sued (and let people join who are physically restrained from speaking).
- Impersonate a G-Star sales representative and explain store staff why G-Star can no longer be sold in your country.
- Do an action at a G-Star office in your country.
- Start an email action in your network.
- And of course other brilliant actions we didn't think of...

TO INSPIRE YOU, WE HAVE ALREADY ORGANISED OUR FIRST ACTION TO TELL G-STAR TO STOP BEING A GAG-STAR, GO TO: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/07-11-30.htm

*If you can’t organise an action on December 17, but can do one before or after, please go ahead. The more G-Star gets the message that the entire globe is watching its behaviour the better.

PLEASE INFORM US OF THE ACTION(S) YOU'RE ORGANISING - THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Background

The labour rights violations reported by workers in 2005 and 2006 included high workload, forced overtime, physical and psychological abuse, non-payment of overtime, and the non-issuance of identity cards and contracts. Since then FFI/JKPL has dealt with a number of serious violations including physical abuse and non-payment of overtime, but systematic changes are still needed. On top of this FFI/JKPL is now sueing various individuals and organisations who keep publicly denouncing FFI/JKPL’s refusal to comply with the right to organize and freedom of speech.

G-Star, major buyer at FFI, has already been alerted to the labour rights violations in 2005. At that time G-Star refused to take responsibility, and only after a public campaign was launched by the CCC and ICN in 2006, G-Star has reluctantly taken up the case. To date G-Star has not succeeded in making FFI engage in a dialogue with the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) and other local labour rights organisations to resolve the outstanding labour issues nor in making FFI withdraw the courtcases. Instead G-Star is now telling the world that FFI has moved towards compliance with the right to organize, while workers' organizations are still gagged and there is every reason to believe that workers are intimidated and unable to speak out.

For more background information on the FFI case see: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/ffi.htm

Full demands to G-Star:

- Make placement of all future orders at FFI/JKPL, including those
in the pipeline, conditional on the withdrawal of all legal cases against local and international organizations and individuals related to this case; and on the start of a dialogue to normalize industrial relations and address outstanding labour issues.

- To prevent potential negative consequences for workers, G-Star should develop a coherent exit strategy which includes placing the orders concerned in units geographically close to FFI/JKPL and ensuring they provide employment opportunities to the FFI/JKPL workers. Such an exit strategy also includes publicly communicating that the decision to suspend future orders results directly from the actions of FFI/JKPL.

- Immediately and transparently convey the above to FFI/JKPL underlining that they should immediately engage in a broad sustained dialogue including GATWU, Cividep, Munnade and NTUI, in order to normalize industrial relations, and address possible outstanding labour issues as well as issues that might come up in the future.

- Transparently convey to FFI/JKPL that there can only be compliance with G-Star's code of conduct when freedom of association is truly implemented. Implementation of freedom of association includes that all unions are able to organize at FFI/JKPL regardless whether the company prefers certain unions over others, and that FFI/JKPL refrain from any action that might inhibit duly union activities. For freedom of association to be truly implemented at FFI/JKPL this means in practice that FFI/JKPL should withdraw the complaint against GATWU, NTUI, Cividep, Munnade and CCC Task Force Tamil Nadu.

- Make a public statement that suing unions or labour rights organizations for circulating information on labour rights’ violations, thereby restraining their right to Freedom of Speech, is incompatible with their expectations of their suppliers’ implementation of Freedom of Association.

- Do not conduct social audits at FFI/JKPL as long as FFI/JKPL through legal action is preventing GATWU, Cividep, Munnade and NTUI from being consulted