Our Global Strategic Framework

CCC Network Vision

The CCC Network’s vision is that all people working in the global garment and sportswear industries enjoy and exercise their labour and human rights at work and in the community and are able to defend and improve the implementation of those rights.

CCC Network Mission

The Clean Clothes Campaign Network works to structurally improve working conditions and support the empowerment of manufacturing workers in global garment and sportswear supply chains so that governments protect employment rights and human rights, companies respect these rights and workers have access to remedy for violations of these rights. To achieve our vision, we:

• Work in solidarity with workers, trade unions, civil society and labour rights organisations throughout global garment and sportswear supply chains;
• Lobby and advocate for governments to strengthen and implement legislation, regulation and judicial mechanisms to uphold workers’ rights;
• Put pressure on companies to respect workers’ rights and use responsible purchasing practices;
• Take up specific cases of violations of the rights of workers and activists in support of workers’ demands upon their request, and integrate learning from these cases into our strategy;
• Raise awareness, campaign and mobilise people to undertake individual and collective action linked to their role as consumers, citizens, investors, workers or in other areas of life;
• Use judicial mechanisms, lobby for legislation and regulation, and call for binding mechanisms for corporate accountability to protect workers’ rights;
• Promote public and private procurement that ensures workers’ rights are respected;
• Work together to strengthen the CCC Network;
• Develop alliances, including those with workers throughout the global garment and sportswear supply chain, to transform the business model and strengthen the global movement for workers’ rights, human rights and gender, economic, social and environmental justice.

The Principles Behind Our Work

We believe that:

1. Workers and their organisations

• All workers—regardless of gender, age, country of origin, legal status, employment status, location, or any other basis—have a right to decent work, including good, safe, healthy working conditions and social protection, to exercise their fundamental rights to associate freely and bargain collectively, and to earn a living wage which allows them and their families to live in dignity.
• Workers have a right to know about their rights under national and international law and agreements. They are entitled to education and training in relation to these rights and to be informed about the supply chain they are part of.
• Workers can and should take the lead in their own organising and empowerment. The Network supports freedom of association and collective bargaining as enabling rights and sees CCC work on cases of specific violations of workers’ rights as an essential tool in supporting worker solidarity and organising.
• Workers can best assess their needs and the risks they take when asserting their rights. Public campaigns and other initiatives to take action in cases of rights violations and the development of strategies to address these issues must be done in consultation with workers or their representatives.
• In order to achieve and maintain women workers' rights, the gender issues underlying or facilitating rights violations and all forms of gender-based violence must be addressed. The Network supports and promotes the empowerment of women within their collective organisations as a powerful agent of change. It advocates innovative forms of organising that accommodate the distinctive needs of women and their inclusion at all levels of membership to this end.
• The Network supports workers employed on non-standard contracts, informal workers, migrants, home-based workers and other workers facing precarious work arrangements to organise, mobilise, lobby and bargain.

2. Public

• The public has a right to know where and how their garments and sportswear are produced and can and should take action to ensure that workers' rights are respected. CCC encourages the public to be involved in their campaigns but does not generally endorse or promote boycotts.

3. Governments

• Governments have a duty to protect workers’ rights in their own jurisdictions. This means governments must respect, protect and regulate all forms of employment relationships in line with ILO standards to ensure all workers have access to decent work. Governments have a duty to ensure that workers have easy and effective access to remedy where these rights are infringed.
• Governments have a duty to protect workers’ rights, to hold companies accountable for their business practices worldwide through legal and regulatory instruments and policies to ensure workers’ rights are respected, and to provide access to remedy and redress to workers in cases of violations of their right
• Governments have a responsibility to protect the rights of trade unions and civil society organisations to operate freely and independently. They must prevent companies from abusing those rights and hold them accountable in cases where such rights are not respected.
• Public procurement policies by public authorities should ensure that workers’ rights are promoted and respected.

4. Companies

• Companies have a responsibility to carry out human rights due diligence and ensure that workers’ rights are respected over and above national laws and regulations, regardless of states’ inability, unwillingness or failure to fulfil their own obligations. Human rights due diligence means companies must assess their supply chain, identify, stop, prevent, or mitigate any human rights risks or violations, remediate any remaining harm, and monitor and report on progress.
• Companies must collaborate with trade unions, civil society organisations, governmental actors and other companies in order to ensure respect for workers’ rights in the garment and sportswear industries. As a matter of principle, we believe this is best done through legislation and/or legally binding agreements.
• Companies must actively promote freedom of association, create an enabling environment and engage in industrial relations through collective bargaining with trade unions. This includes negotiating agreements with trade unions for their direct employees as well as negotiating binding and enforceable agreements covering workers in their supply chains.
• Companies must be transparent. This means they must regularly and publicly report on the risks of labour abuses in their supply chains, the efforts they have made to mitigate and address them, and how effective these efforts have been. They must also publish standardised information about their supply chains that enables workers to know what supply chains they are part of, enables the public to carry out solidarity actions and enables companies to be held accountable.
• Companies must engage in responsible purchasing practices and ensure that pricing, terms of trade and other practices do not undermine workers’ rights. This means they must pay prices that enable a living wage, decent work and social security and contribute to cost-sharing mechanisms for social protection and remediation of labour rights violations.

5. Civil Society

• Trade unions and NGOs working to support garment and sportswear manufacturing workers should cooperate and show mutual respect for each other’s different roles and methods, and engage in open and active communication, participatory consensus building and constructive criticism.