Oxfam Australia is calling on as many individuals and organisations, as possible to fax letters to G-Star, Australia this week (19th-21st December). G-Star is the principle client of FFI/JKPL, who is suing human rights activists from the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN), and internet service provider Antenna for disseminating information about labour rights violations.
Please find a sample letter at the link below. To complete this urgent action cut and paste the letter into a word document, add the date, sign the letter, then fax to the number provided at the top of the sample letter. Please feel free to adapt the letter. If you wear G-Star be sure to let the company know you are a customer. We ask you to send a fax because we believe is more likely to be received and read by G-Star than an email. Please let us know when you have sent the fax – by e-mail is fine.
In new developments on December 1 an Indian court ordered the arrest of the activists from CCC, ICN and Antenna. On December 6, G-Star finally joined other brands in severing its business relationship with FFI/JKPL however it is important G-Star find work for the affected workers. Write to G-Star and tell them to make good on their promise to treat workers ethically. More info can be found on the Clean Clothes website.
This is an important, high profile case that has at its heart the right of freedom of expression and the right of workers to organise and speak out about violations and abuses all over the world.
- Insert Date -
Mr Piet Poellman
Sales Manager
G-Star Australia Pty Ltd
3B Victoria St
Paddington 2021
NSW
(+61) 02 9357 7937 (fax)
- BY FASCIMILIE -
Dear Mr Poellman,
I write to you regarding the situation in India of which you may already be aware. My concern is with the arrest warrant ordered by an Indian court against 7 human rights activists from the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN), as well as the director of Internet service provider Antenna.
The activists and the internet provider are the targets of legal harassment by G-Star supplier, Fibres and Fabrics International Pvt. Ltd. (FFI) and its subsidiary Jeans Knit Pvt. Ltd. (JKPL), in retaliation for disseminating information about labour rights violations.
I am pleased that G-Star has announced its intention to sever its business relationship with the Indian manufacturer Fibres and Fabrics International (FFI) and its subsidiary Jeans Knits Pvt. Ltd (JKPL), thereby joining other brands who have taken this decision. I am writing today to ask that you ensure that the workers at FFI/JKPL do not suffer additional harm.
G-Star can make good on its promise of ethical treatment of workers by developing a responsible exit strategy that makes the employment of FFI/JKPL employees its top priority. This could be achieved by diverting FFI/JKPL orders to factories in the immediate vicinity that are willing to engage in socially responsible production and give priority hiring to FFI/JKPL workers.
By suppressing the dissemination of information about working conditions, FFI/JKPL's legal case renders it fundamentally impossible to implement socially responsible sourcing policies in India. As a major brand doing business in India, G-Star has the power to publicly and unequivocally state to FFI/JKPL that suing unions or labour rights organisations for circulating information on labour rights' violations, is incompatible with your expectations of suppliers'. You can be clear that suing workers’ organisations is an over-reaction which compromises the right to freedom of speech and the right of workers to organise and join unions to be able to address labour rights violations.
Finally, G-Star can make it clear to FFI/JKPL that new orders can be negotiated if, and only if, FFI/JKPL withdraws the court cases and enters into a good faith dialogue with the local organisations involved to normalise industrial relations and address outstanding labour issues.
I respectfully request you convey my concern and the concern voiced by other Australians to G-Stars Board and Head Office in the Netherlands.
I look forward to hearing back from you on: the positive steps G-Star Australia has been able to take to ensure workers from FFI/JKPL have been relocated to jobs in other nearby responsible G-Star suppliers; and to hearing a public commitment from G-Star of its respect for the right to freedom of speech, the right to speak out against labour rights violations, and the right to organise.
Sincerely,
- Insert name or organisation -
