Thai study reveals workers at football factories don’t earn enough to live in dignity

For immediate release
Amsterdam, June 30, 2006

While sportswear companies rake in their profits and World Cup players and fans enjoy the matches in Germany, the Thai women who put together footballs for major brands such as adidas earn so little they can do little more than buy food.

A report released today by the Thai Labour Campaign (TLC) shows that workers at Molten (Thailand), a Japanese/Thai joint venture company producing the adidas Teamgeist (team spirit) football, in use during the current World Cup matches, earn as little as 173 baht per day (3.6 euros). Just three basic meals per day comprise 77% of their wages. barely get by: a 41-year-old woman working at the factory for 18 years told researchers she works fulltime and earns 9.700 baht (201 euros) per month. Absolute basic needs (food, transport, shared accommodation, personal care and care of one child) comes to around 8000 baht per month (166 euros). The Teamgeist ball retails for approximately 100 euros.

The TLC report entitled The Life of Football Factory Workers in Thailand http://www.cleanclothes.org/documents/Life_football_workers_of_thailand.pdf
also reports on wages at the Mikasa Industries factory, where workers producing Mikasa (Japanese) footballs also earn poverty wages.

The report echoes the findings of other recent research studies into the failure of the sports goods industry to ensure a decent living for the mainly women workers who make the products that are the foundation of the industry's huge profits. [For example, Adidas Group, having pumped 142 million euros into marketing around the World Cup, estimates a 30% leap in football merchandise, with sales on football products alone projected at 1.2 billion euros this year (adidas spokesperson Anne Putz cited in Just-style.com, June 5, 2006)].

Oxfam International (OI) recently released Offside! Labour rights and sportswear production in Asia, http://www.oxfam.org/en/files/offside_labor_report/download which also reported that poverty wages were prevalent in the sportswear industry in such countries as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, taking to task brand leaders, including the main sponsors of World Cup teams, for failing to raise industry standards.

New research published by the Christian Initiative Romero (CIR), a member of the CCC coalition in Germany, also found that wages at factories producing for brands including Nike, Reebok, and adidas in El Salvador and Honduras are also abysmally low. An additional study commissioned by German CCC member Südwind Institute für Ökumene in Indonesia found that in four out of five sportswear factories researched, workers said they could not live off of their wages.

"Having a child, getting sick or buying a TV - these are all luxury items that for many of the football factory workers we spoke with, things they can only dream about," noted Junya Lek Yimprasert, of the TLC. "Workers who organize to push for better wages are aggressively harassed. Companies sourcing at these factories have a lot to do to improve the situation."

The CCC calls upon the global sportswear industry to pay workers a wage that allows them to live in dignity, and take positive action to ensure respect for trade union rights.

"The evidence is overwhelming - the lives of workers in the industry and their families are very negatively shaped by the poverty wages they're paid," noted CCC researchers Jeroen Merk. "These people work hard and have to take out loans to cover their basic needs, while millions are spent on sponsoring and advertisements. Companies can and should organize their supply chains differently, and exhibit true Teamgeist. We are convinced football fans throughout the world also support this."

For more information on The Life of Football Factory Workers in Thailand, contact the TLC (e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Tel. +66 16175491.

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The Clean Clothes Campaign is an international network of trade unions and NGOs that aims to improve conditions and empower workers in the global garment industry.

More info:Download the report here

Jan 2007, 31kb) Mikasa response to "The Life of Football Factory Workers in Thailand"
Mikassa responded to the TLC report – read here for the Mikasa response plus comments from the TLC and CCC.

July 25, 2006 Adidas' response to “The Life of Football Factory Workers in Thailand”
adidas responded to the TLC report – read here for the adidas response plus comments from the TLC and CCC.