June 2000, German CCC at headquarters of adidas and puma

00-06-03, German CCC at headquarters of adidas and Puma

Last saturday (june 3), the German CCC within the framework of the Fit for Fair campaign organized an action day in Herzogenaurach, headquarters of Adidas and Puma. A bike marathon to the headoffices was one activity, in which also our guests from Thailand and representatives of the dutch, belgian (flemish) and UK CCC's took part.

The Flemish delegation had a special reason to come, as explained below in their statemetn.

Brussels, June 1st 2000

Adidas Salomon Mr. David Husselbee World Director for Social and Environmental Affairs

Adi-Dassler-Strasse 1-2 91074 Herzogenaurach Germany Dear Mr. Husselbee,

Wereldsolidariteit (*) is running an action on the working conditions in the sportswear industry. In this statement we will give you an overview of our action. We will repeat our demands towards Adidas concerning the issue of living wages, monitoring and independent verification. We will give a short report of recent findings relating to the working conditions in Indonesian plants producing for Adidas. And we have some questions about the commercial contracts between Adidas and the EURO 2000 Foundation. Most of the information Mr Husselbee has received already through a letter dated May 5th. For a clear understanding I repeat this and I will give some additional remarks taking into account the statement we received from Mr. Husselbee on May 5th.

(*) Wereldsolidariteit is an active member organisation of the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Worldshake Campaign in Flanders - Belgium. As a NGO acting in the framework of the christian workers movement Wereldsolidariteit supports also 150 social movements in the Third World like trade unions, youth- and women organisations.

50 000 SUPPORTERS IN FAVOUR OF LIVING WAGES IN THE SPORTSWEAR INDUSTRY
Wereldsolidariteit, together with many other organisations, managed to gather in two months time signatures and pictures of 50.000 supporters asking for living wages in the sportswear industry. The people came mainly out of different youth organisations (running the Worldshake campaign), sport teams, the christian trade union, women organisations and associations of retired people. These pictures were posted on a big wall during a huge happening of the Worldshake-campaign on May 6th. Some 15 000 -mainly young - people participated in the event. We invited Mr Husselbee of Adidas too. We regret he didn't participate. As could have been expected the absence of Adidas was met with discontent. Adidas was catcalled by a large crowd during the final show. We're convinced that there would have been a better understanding of your position if you had taken the opportunity to explain personally the positive steps Adidas has been taken recently.

Our action has the support of several Belgian top sportsmen: Joël Smets (world champion 500 cc motocross), Filip De Wilde (keeper of the Belgian national footballteam). A team of our national football league, played a match in a special shirt with our logo "Living wages. Make clothes clean!". This match was shown on 2 canals of the Belgian television.

OUR DEMANDS

LIVING WAGES It's up to Adidas to take the responsibility for paying living wages to the workers on every level in the production chain, including homework. Therefore it's necessary that Adidas pays his suppliers a price which enables them to pay a living wage to the worker. A living wage earned in regular working hours, 60 hours a week is not regular!

Regarding the Adidas Standards of Engagement, we want you to review its contents and include among the standards 'living wages' instead of 'minimum wages'. Nowadays reference codes of conduct (Clean Clothes Campaign, ICFTU, FIFA, ETI) all include 'living wages'. We recognize that there's no internationally recognized definition of living wage. But still there's a lot of research done in many countries and by many bodies to determine a living wage, based on the needs of the local people. In these matters also, the local involvement of the workers and their organisations is necessary to determine the contents of living wage.

INDONESIA
In april 2000 a representative of Wereldsolidariteit visited together with our partner-organisation the independent trade union SBSI-Indonesia 3 Adidas-suppliers: Nikomas Gemilang (Serang), PT Bintang Adibusang and PT Bintang Busana Jaya (KBN). Adidas' head office facilitated a visit to the factories inside and to have a meeting with the management.

Findings

There is intimidation and suppression of independent union activities. The paternalist attitude of the management prevents a genuine social dialogue.
Wages are insufficient to cover basic needs (food, housing, clothes, education, health)
There is a lot of pressure on workers to fulfill quotas which are extremely high. There is permanent overtime.

Our demands

Ensure that workers understand the Adidas Standards of Engagement
Develop strategies for workers to communicate violations without the fear of being fired
Allow workers the freedom to join together in unions and negotiate for their own welfare
Recognise SBSI and other unions, and develop a real social dialogue
Pay workers a living wage covering needs of food, housing, clothes, education and health costs, and present transparency about the salary composition
Set production goals that can be reached during regular work hours.

SBSI from their side also handled over their conclusions and proposals to Adidas Jakarta and Adidas Singapore: document in annex 1.

MONITORING AND INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION
If the Adidas Standards of Engagement claim to support Adidas workers, these workers must not only be heard but also actively involved in a system of monitoring and independent verification. Therefore Adidas should involve workers' organisations f.e. SBSI-Indonesia to build up such a system. In many countries there are strong, representative workers organisations whom Adidas can work with. To that extent monitoring pilots should be set up in several parts of the world. And it should be made clear that these pilots are steps in a long-term process.

EURO 2000
adidas is one of the main suppliers of the EURO 2000. Last year the Clean Clothes Campaign discussed its concerns and demands with Alain Courtois, director of the EURO 2000 Foundation. In December '99 Alain Courtois announced that the FIFA code of conduct had been included in all commercial contracts signed with the sponsors and suppliers of EURO 2000. We want Adidas to assess whether the actions of its suppliers respect the social standards set in the EURO 2000 contract. Untill now we have not seen a proof of this step. We would like to have a copy of the contract. In case of violations what are the steps that Adidas and EURO 2000 will take? How will the code included in the contract be implemented and monitored?

We call on Adidas to bring about a real change in respecting the human rights of workers who make your products. We do appreciate the steps Adidas has taken already. But on the issue of living wages there's a long way to go. In exchange for 50 000 signatures and pictures of people asking for living wages, we would have a clear answer on all questions listed above. Besides our demands we would offer you the experience and the network which the Clean Clothes Campaign has been building up for years.

With kind regards,

Jaklien Broekx Wereldsolidariteit Haachtsesteenweg 579 1031 Brussel ph: 00 32 2 246 36 85 fax: 00 32 2 246 38 85 e-mail: jaklien.broekx@acw.be

ANNEX 1

SBSI Conclusions and proposals to Adidas Jakarta and Adidas Singapore after visiting Adidas suppliers in April 2000: Nikomas Gemilang(Serang), PT Bintang Adibusang and PT Bintang Busana Jaya (KBN)

1. Nikomas Gemilang

The reception and information given by management and SPTSK was very positive and we actually believe this plant offers rather good working conditions, particularly when compared to other situations in garment industry in Indonesia and other East-Asian countries. We appreciated that initiatives in social policy go effectively beyond minimum regulations set by the authorities. Nevertheless, we had the impression these initiatives came rather and in the first place from management, and are strongly stimulated by Adidas/Nike respectively, instead of coming from direct workers' demands. In that sense, and as to other information we had from workers directly, we have our doubts on the nature of social dialogue in this factory:

on the representation capacity of the majority union
on the rather paternalist attitude of management instead of a real
interest-discussion between equal partners
on different working conditions in Adidas and in Nike-production
on the non-recognition of other unions that are existing in the factory

So, in the aim of keep on constructing the existing dialogue, we think further information might be required on:

the definition and composition of salaries based on the financial possibilities of the company
relations between Adidas and Nikomas Gemilang: which items are included in the dialogue on code of conduct; which contacts are there with workers'representatives
the policy of union representation (of management and of Adidas): real options and practice
possibilities on structural reform of industrial relations as a sector leader

2/3 PT Bintang Adibusang and PT Bintang Busana Jaya

Although working conditions in the factory we visited were quite good, we felt from both management teams that the presence of a union was experienced rather as a burden instead of a chance for more productivity. We feel that from both parties the question has to be faced on how real social dialogue can be used in their advantage. In these factories the social policy was rather adjusted to legal minimum standards instead of to extra-advantages. We had the impression here as well of a management lead social policy:

In the factory we visited the in-house union is clearly organized by management
the salary-policy recognizes explicitly the structural deficit of the basic salary for a normal hours working day The working conditions were all right, but the overall working burden is felt too high by the workers: permanent overtime, deficient housing and long transport make that workers can nor do anything but work, and the salary id not sufficient to compensate for this overall investment. The high rotation of personnel might be analyzed to its cost-efficiency and compared to alternatives of investing that money in better organizational conditions.

In this case, a serious discussion would require more information on:

the role of the Adidas orders in the price
setting and financial maneuver space for management
the specific investment conditions in KBN
salary setting to be considered in the context of the low-wage-attraction of Indonesia, the practices of minimum wages set by government instead of collective agreements
Adidas's attitude towards sector organization of employers
Promotion of active unionism (pluralist) by e.g. a gradual approach of agreement-contents and assistance by external union-officers

From our point of view, a dialogue can and should be set up without any preliminary constraints, involving Adidas, the local suppliers, and in this case SBSI as the union who has taken the initiative and commits itself to open discussion . This dialogue does not necessarily includes all the parties from the beginning, a gradual strategy can be elaborated, and may be the starting point should be limited to the plants. The discussion can include:

the recognition of SBSI (and other unions)
the construction of real social dialogue and representation of all workers
a similar union policy to be followed in all the involved plants, to be co-ordinated and guaranteed by Garteks-SBSI
a commitment to inform on all the steps taken and to discuss any conflict
a long-term structural approach to salary-composition and definition. In our view this approach should be taken to the sectoral level to avoid competition interference amongst the different plants in the country.
A promotion of social dialogue by training of management and union-leaders

An inclusion in the code of conduct of:

recognition of all unions
strive to basic salary covering needs of food, housing, clothes, education and health costs