Press Release
No Trade Union - No Fair-Trade Certificate for Producers Says GMB
8 November 2005
GMB Full Time Official, Bert Schouwenburg has become the first trade unionist appointed to the board of the Fairtrade Foundation.
He has been a full time GMB official since 1993 after holding many lay offices since he joined GMB in 1985. Mr Schouwenburg is also the GMB's Director on the board of Ethical Threads the clean clothes company.
The Foundation awards its independent certification label - the Fairtrade Mark - to products as a guarantee that producers in the developing world have received a better deal than they would have in the open market. In order to put the Mark onto their product, producers and companies must comply with the standards and terms of trade set by the international Fairtrade system. They include social and environmental standards for the producers as well as agreed price structures and trading rules for companies.
Mr Schouwenburg said that,
"Where producers are employing waged labour, it is essential that the employees have the opportunity and the right to join an independent, free trade union for the protection of their interests. Where this is not the case the producer, in my view, should not be awarded a Fairtrade certificate. That is the line I shall be pursuing at the Foundation where I shall not just be representing the GMB but the interests of the wider trade union movement as a whole."
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