Clean Up Fashion - Take action

There are a number of ways to get high street companies to make sure their clothing is made in decent conditions. These include writing letters, sending postcards and taking part in our urgent appeal e-actions. You can also use the information to inform your friends and family, do a talk at your school, college, university, church group, trade union or community group, write an article for newsletters or local media, organise a stall in your local high street or hold an action in front of the shop you want to raise attention about.

Contacting the companies

Taking the time to write your own letter to companies can be more effective than sending a postcard or a standard letter as it shos you care enough to take the time to write individually. It is also a change to ask them questions about the issues that really matter to you.

Responding to urgent appeals either through an e-action or a letter to the companies is also really effective. It is also a great way to show your solidarity with the workers making your clothes.

If you don't have the time to write your own letter then send a postcard to let the companies know that you care about these issues. LBL has produced the Take a Stand postcard to send to the companies you shop, asking them what they are doing about wages and freedom of association. The more of these cards companies receive the more effective this will be so why not order loads and get you friends, family and colleagues to send them too? Click here to order postcards and other resources from Labour Behind the Label.

Writing a letter or email

Each company page will have contact details for the person at the company you can send letters or emails to. Write to them, tell them it is important to you that the clothes you buy are produced under decent conditions. Ask them what they are doing to clean up fashion. Some questions you could ask are...

where do they source their clothes from and how often do they change their suppliers?
are they committed to making sure workers are paid a living, not just minimum wage? How do they go about making sure this happens? Do they pay enough to their suppliers to allow minimum wage to be paid?
do their workers have the right to join trade unions and bargain collectively? What steps are they taking to make sure that workers know this? Do all of their suppliers know that their buyers support these rights and expect them to be available to their workers? Do they talk to trade unions or other local groups when they are auditing a factory?
What about their own buying policies? Are they forcing suppliers to give them discounts? How much time do they give to factories to produce their orders? Are they paying a fair price for the goods they buy?
How do they check their factories adhere to both their own code and local, national and international labour law? How much of their supply chain do they audit? How long do they spend on audits and what kinds of questions do they ask? Do they talk to workers away from the factory and factory management?
Ask them what action they are taking on other important issues such as health and safety, child labour, overtime and benefits?
Are they a member of a multistakeholder initiative - if so what kind of things do they do as part of that initiative. If not, why not and ask if they will condier joining.

Urgent appeals

Labour Behind the Label has found that by focusing on one case through an urgent appeal we can also push companies to change their policies and actions on workers rights both in the factory concerned and more generally.

Ideas and tips for taking action

Contacting the companies

Writing a letter or email

Urgent appeals