Three German brands sign up for Fairtrade textile standard
28/06/2016
Organiser Fairtrade International has said its approach is the first of its kind to cover “people working throughout the supply chain, from seed cotton to finished textile products”. Its new textile programme will help factories and workers improve their social and environmental impacts, it said.
German brands 3Freunde, Shirts for Life and Melawear are the first companies to partner with Fairtrade. “These first partners take on an important pioneering role and serve as role models,” said Dieter Overath, chief executive of Fairtrade Germany on making the announcement. “Such courageous commitment is precisely what we need to finally drive change in the textile industry.”
Based in Rheinfelden, close to the German-Swiss border, 3Freunde has been producing T-shirts made from Fairtrade cotton for several years. On announcing its commitment to the new Fairtrade textile standard requirements, founder, Stefan Niethammer, said: “We want to take the next step and go from certifying our raw materials to also certifying our supply chains against Fairtrade standards. We are a shareholder in a factory in India where we will start implementing these requirements.”
Melawear, another long-term Fairtrade cotton partner, is planning to implement the textile programme and has already conducted a first assessment of a production site in India. It said afterwards that the issues that had come to light related mostly to wages and contract workers. Company director Henning Siedentopp has said Melawear’s first goals will be a rise in wages and “improvement of the precarious employment conditions for contract workers”.
Like Melawear, the brand Shirts for Life is already a member of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles run by the German Development Ministry, but the company’s founder, Dr Ulrich Hofmann, said the new Fairtrade programme constitutes a hands-on tool for improvements on the ground. He said the brand wants to contribute to a change in consumers’ awareness of issues such as Fairtrade.
The Fairtrade textile standard, launched in March this year, focuses on working conditions, wages, and workers’ rights. It aims to empower factory workers and enable them to improve their working conditions. The standard requires wage levels to rise steadily and to reach living wage levels within six years. Companies signing up also have to commit to fair and long-term sourcing practices to make these wage increases feasible.
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