Station „My clothes are international“

Title: „My clothes are international“ /
Topic:
_Production(guidelines) of clothes
_Trading and working conditions
Station: any clothes shop,if possible an international acting label, which is well known in all countries to establish a relationship to the consumption habits of youngsters (like Esprit, H&M, Adidas…)
Material: printed cards from the attachment, we recommend to print them on strong paper or to laminate them
Implementation:
The group stops close to a well-known clothes shop. At the beginning the participants get the task to check their own clothes and to find out in what countries they have been produced; which countries are mainly named? Are some clothes produced in Europe/in the EU?
Now the teamer hands out the cards to the participants (1 card per person). One half of the cards is describing different chapters of the production of a T-shirt (Group A), the other half of the cards is showing pictures of the production with the countries names (group B). The participants now have the task to find the partner to their cards, so that every description (A) belongs to one country (B). Afterwards all couples have to work together to serialize in the order of production chapters.
When they are standing in a line, the teamer is solving the right order and discussing the single steps and background information with the group.
Evaluation:
Helpful Questions forthe reflection: Why are my clothes produced in several countries, what does the European legislation say about it? Is the system of production transparent? How can I, as a European citizen act responsibly and how can I influence the conditions of production (without being a professional politician?)
Possible examples:
_Reduce your own consumption: wear your clothes longer, buy second hand, trade your clothes with friends
_Inform yourself about the ways the companies are producing their products
_Inform your politicians about drawbacks
_Request the companies to improve their production conditions and claim more transparency
_ Buy „Fair trade“ clothes
_Buy local/national produced clothes
NOTE: it´s not about converting youngsters to change their consumption habits totally or to give them a bad conscience, but to sensitise them for the global context and their own role in it!
Way of production with background information forthe teamer:
Exampleofthe steps of a production of a T-shirt, which is sold in Europe afterwards
  1. Trend scouts/Product managers of the company XYZ are in London to discover new fashion trends.Here decisions about the upcoming products on offer are made.
  2. Design: first design ofthe T-shirt in Germany (in this example Ratingen in Germany is the European registered office of Esprit). The order is sent to the factory in Asia.
  3. Raw cotton is plucked inKazakhstan (currently, 250g of raw cotton on the global marketcost about 0,25-0,60Euro), often by using pesticides, which are dangerous to the health of the workers.
  4. Spinning of the wool to yarn in Bangladesh.
  5. Weaving the yarn to cloth in Taiwan(5. und 7. are convertible in their order, either the cloth is dyed or already the yarn).
  6. Production of thecolourin Poland.
  7. Dyeing in Turkey,use of bleacher also for clothes for children. Used chemicals are partial carcinogenicand the use of it is unhealthy for the workers and consumers.
  8. Sewingof the T-Shirt in India: the factories there are external subcontractors. Usually they are producing for different companies under the same conditions at once from the big expensive brands to the cheap labels. 1 working hour costs about 0,30Euro per worker, often already the label and price tag are placed on the clothes. Other popular countries for the production are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China and newlythe trends goes to African countries. Ennoblement (Used look is made by using sandpaper, the use of sandblasting [officially forbidden] for the Used Look is fine sand dust, which is attacking the lungs of the workers. In most cases the workers don´t use masks for protection, because they would have to buy it from their own money. So they risk the death by silicosis).
Afterwards the cloth is washed several times to delete the proof of chemicals in the material. There exists almost no environmental awareness in developing countries. All kind of waste is disposed together, which is affecting the nature and living conditions of the local community.
  1. Transport per ship or air cargoto Europe (the transport per ship costs about 0,10Euro for 1 T-shirt).
  2. Sale in a clothes shop in Liechtenstein (or the city where the method takes place).
(The cards and pictures for the single steps can be found in the attachment)
Background information for the teamer:
Labour Law:
The European Community has worked towards achieving a high level of employment and social protection, improved living and working conditions and economic and social cohesion.
In this framework, the role of the European Community (EC) is to support and complement the activities of the Member States in the area of social policy, in line with the provisions of the EC Treaty, particularly Articles 136-139.
To this aim, the EC adopts legislation defining minimum requirements at EU level in the fields of working and employment conditions and the information and consultation of workers. The Member States then transpose the Community law into their national law and implement it, guaranteeing a similar level of protection of rights and obligations throughout the EU.
National authorities, including courts, are responsible for the enforcement of the national transposition measures. The Commission controls the transposition of EU law and ensures through systematic monitoring that it is correctly implemented. The European Court of Justice plays an important role in settling disputes and providing legal advice to questions formulated by national courts on the interpretation of the law.
One of the main areas covered by EU labour law is working conditions. This includes provisions on working time, part-time, and fixed-term work, temporary workers, and the posting of workers. All of these areas are key to ensuring high levels of employment and social protection throughout the EU.
Examples:
_EU-Directive 91/533/EEC:The aim of the Directive is to provide employees with improved protection, to avoid uncertainty and insecurity about the terms of the employment relationship and to create greater transparency on the labour market. To this end, the Directive states that every employee must be provided with a document containing information on the essential elements of his contract or employment relationship.
_Directive about young people at work - 94/33/EC: The EU has adopted minimum requirements for the protection of young workers (under 18 years of age) and their health and safety at work. It also outlaws child labour.
_Working Time Directive- 2003/88/EC:To protect workers’ health and safety, minimum rules are needed on working time in all EU Member States. For example each Member State must ensure that every worker is entitled to a limit to weekly working time, which must not exceed 48 hours on average, including any overtime.
_Framework for informing and consulting employees - directive 2002/14/EC: Social dialogue helps to improve risk anticipation and make work organisation more flexible. The EU Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees plays a key role in promoting social dialogue.It sets minimum principles, definitions and arrangements for information and consultation of employees at the enterprise level within each country.
Environment
Since the early 1970s Europe has been firmly committed to the environment: protection of air and water quality, conservation of resources and protection of biodiversity, waste management and control of activities which have an adverse environmental impact are just some of the areas in which the EU is active, at both Member State level and internationally.
Examples:
_The Directive 2008/98/EC:This Directive establishes a legal framework for the treatment of waste within the Community. It aims at protecting the environment and human health through the prevention of the harmful effects of waste generation and waste management:
_Waste hierarchy: In order to better protect the environment, the Member States should take measures for the treatment of their waste in line with the following hierarchy which is listed in order of priority: 1. prevention; 2. preparing for reuse; 3. recycling; 4. other recovery, notably energy; 5. Recovery disposal.
_Basel convention: The EEC approves the Convention on the control of trans boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The Convention came into force for the EEC on 7thFebruary 1994. The Convention aims, in installing a system for controlling the export, import and disposal of hazardous wastes and their disposal, to reduce the volume of such exchanges so as to protect human health and the environment.
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