Equal work relations: a question of dignity

Every person participating has the right to decent working conditions and to a wage which ensures her/his and her/his family’s living. In low-wage countries, however, the internationally recognized labour rights – with regard to medical care, wages, access to information, freedom of association, continous education – are barely guaranteed. Bread for All has been engaging for decades for corporate accountability, that is to say for binding environnemental and social norms on  transnational corporations .

Globalization has led to an increased relocation  of workplaces to low-wage countries. In the export processing zones, the working conditions often do not respect international and national labour standards andare hazardous to health.

Bread for all advocates for human rights and environnemental obligations for multinational corporations. Already in 1982, Bread for All negotiated a social clause with the Swiss distributor Migros and its fruit supplier Del Monte. Under much pressure, Migros and Del Monte finally agreed to respect these social clauses in the pineapple production and to amend the respective supply contracts.

The Clean Clothes Campaign, launched in1999 by Bread for All and its partners, had a wide impact in Switzerland. And it lead to a pilot-project of independent monitoring in the textile sector that nowadays continues under the name of “Fair Wear – Swiss Branch”. www.fairwear.org

Since 2007 Bread for All has been campaigning for decent working conditions in the computer manufacturing sector. The campaign has gained much public and media attention. Since the launch of the campaign some corporations have improved their existing code of conduct and some – which were lagging behind and did not have any CSR policy – have adopted a cod of conduct. Hewlett Packard and Bread for all’s chinese partner organisation are conducting a pilot worker’s training project in China.