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‘How do we connect?’ makeITfair and GoodElectronics Round Table report on-line

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The report of the makeITfair and GoodElectronics may 2009 Round Table is now available on-line. The report gives a summary of the presentations that were made and the topics that were discussed during the meeting, as well as a list of proposals for follow up actions.

On 7 and 8 May 2009, about 25 corporate participants representing a host of different electronics companies and as many as 35 representatives of civil society organisations gathered in Amsterdam for a round table meeting. The Round Table was organised by makeITfair and GoodElectronics. Different branches of the electronics industry were present, such as brand name companies, manufacturers and telecom providers, as well as business’ CSR initiatives Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). Civil society was represented by organisations as diverse as Southern trade unions, the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF), the European Metalworkers Federation (EMF), European campaigning organisations, shareholder activists and many other NGOs. The objective of the round table was to provide information on the current labour issues in the global electronics industry in order to enable a better understanding of these issues. Also, the round table aimed to find common ground between the industry and civil society organisations for effective strategies that bring about lasting improvements of labour conditions in this sector. It was quite a unique gathering. Not often before were these topics discussed this openly by as many different participants, all of them bringing their own – often diverging – interests and analyses to the table.

Possible next steps

It is good to realise that the electronics sector is not starting from scratch. The EICC started five years ago. Years of working with codes of conduct and social auditing have yielded important insights in the occurrence of labour issues and how to solve them. There are lessons to be learned from initiatives developed in other sectors. Despite fundamental differences of opinion between the industry and civil society, there is also common ground. All agree on the need of labour issues to be addressed in times of prosperity as well as in times of economic recession. The current crisis can not be an excuse to neglect workers’ rights, although the margins to operate for companies may be smaller.

Concrete proposals

Time frame

Resources and capacities are limited, so hard choices have to be made where to focus the efforts. NGOs and trade unions hold on to the ILO standards, emphasizing that these are agreed upon by labour, governments and business. Flexibility must thus be applied to the time span, bearing in mind that changes will not happen overnight. Experiences in the garment industry point in the same direction. On the one hand, a company confirms the impossibility of achieving massive changes, and emphasizes the need to take ‘baby steps’ – to realise small changes before big changes can be achieved. Civil society on the other hand stress that the great challenge is to set up a realistic, viable process, whilst not forgetting the serious problems that workers face. For the workers, these are very urgent matters. One NGO points out that at this point in time workers are radicalising, fed up and frustrated with the enormity of the problems they are facing. Taking ‘baby steps’ may go too slow.

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