Helsinki (04.11.2002 - Juhani Artto) Questions of ethical production and consumption have received increasing attention in the Finnish trade union movement over the last few years.
Recently a new phrase "corporate responsibility" has been added to the vocabulary of union leaders, activists and some leaders of the business community. However, ethical issues still play only a marginal role in the trade union movement at large.
The campaign against child labour has focused on awareness raising. This has involved publishing articles and reports in the trade union press and supplying the other media with materials on child labour.
Thanks to this campaigning, the main points of the child labour problem are now familiar not only to activists and experts, but also to a much larger audience. One concrete achievement of the trade union child labour campaign has been a limited but successful elementary school project in Pakistan.
The child labour campaign has avoided targeting specific products marketed in Finland, and so there have been no boycotts of products produced by child labour. An international campaign against child labour in the South Asian carpet industry a few years ago may have caused a tiny temporary dip in oriental carpet sales in Finland.
NGOs and religious organisations have been active partners in the trade union campaign against child labour.
At an ethical production seminar organised in Helsinki in September of this year Auli Korhonen, President of the Finnish Textile and Garment Workers’ Union Teva, offered a new initiative for tackling the global child labour problem. Ms Korhonen urged international sports federations to follow the example set by the international football federation FIFA and begin serious work to oppose child labour in the sporting goods industry.
The initiative was supported by Des Farrell, national secretary of the British trade union GMB and Vice President of the European Trade Union Committee of Textiles, Clothing and Leather ETUC/TCL.
"In our opinion it is not enough for agents and intermediaries merely to report that producers have promised not to use child labour. We want them to provide certificates showing that no child labour has been used, and together with local unions we want the right to monitor the concrete situation."
One major Finnish enterprise trading in this sector, the leading marketing and logistics company Kesko, has secured the SA 8000 certificate. This has not solved all the problems, however, as Kesko Development Manager Jouko Kuisma – himself a pioneer of ethical issues in the Finnish business world – openly admits. Kesko's sporting goods chain Intersport alone offers a range of 15,000 to 20,000 items, and not all production sites have been audited.
"Our role is to be a partner and motivator, not a police force," Kuisma comments. Although Kesko has given training in ethical issues to buyers working in risk countries, language barriers alone limit the prospects for conducting interviews at shop floor level.
Kesko has earned a good reputation in Finland for its efforts to follow an ethical path in selecting suppliers. The company’s openness in reporting both progress and setbacks in supplier chain auditing has also convinced many Finns of its seriousness in tackling ethical issues.
The global sportswear corporation Nike is one of the main targets of the global campaign against unethical production. This company was invited to the seminar to present its approach to the child labour issue, but declined to participate in the event.
Read more:
Auditing system under construction: Kesko comes to grips with the child labour problem (18.02.1999)
Openly defying ILO recommendations: Amer Group continues marketing sporting goods in Burma (04.11.2002)
FinnWatch monitors operations of Finnish enterprises abroad (04.11.2002)