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00-09-07, Press release concerning adidas and FORMOSA
from the German Clean Clothes Campaign
Adidas drops supplier FORMOSA in El Salvador Threat to jobs
of needle workers
The German TV broadcast "Monitor" dated August 13th 1998
had brought the
adidas supplier FORMOSA in El Salvador into disrepute. Serious labour
rights violations were a matter of daily practice there. About 1000
women
produced sports garment in a working week of 60-70 hours for a monthly
wage
of 240 DM. Women were sacked if they were found to be pregnant.
There was
sexual harassment.
In a recent letter to the German Clean Clothes Campaign Mr. David
Husselbee, adidas Global Director of Social and Environmental Affairs,
stated that as from September 2000 FORMOSA has stopped to be a supplier
of
the sporting goods producer. Formosa, the letter said, had refused
to let
auditors from adidas and a US-American audit company do inspections
on the
spot. Therefore adidas would have been left with no other option
than to
terminate business relations with FORMOSA.
Since the 90ies the Clean Clothes Campaigns in various European
countries
as well as US-American groups have called on transnational corporations
like Nike, adidas and C&A to do all in their power to improve
the working
conditions of employees in supplier factories and not to shy away
from
their social responsibility by cutting business relations. The recent
decision of adidas, however, to a large extent puts the jobs of
the workers
at FORMOSA at risk, since its factories supply 50% vs. 25% of their
overall
output to the company adidas.
It is true that in the case of repeated labour rights violations
the code
of conduct of the Clean Clothes Campaign also foresees the possibility
of a
termination of business relations. However, contrary to the corrective
action mechanism which according to this code must be based on a
common
procedure by companies, unions and non-governmental organisations,
the
company adidas now decided on its own - against the warnings with
regard to
the consequences for the workers and against cooperation offers
by the
German Clean Clothes Campaign. Although adidas had made certain
steps
towards transparency, the Clean Clothes Campaign cannot assess if
there
were alternatives to the termination of business relations with
FORMOSA or
not. There are doubts in so far as it is not known if adidas had
offered
material support for the improvement of labour conditions or if
it had
limited itself to drawing up action plans. According to the Clean
Clothes
Campaign adidas should also take a material responsibililty with
regard to
corrective actions.
(Contact: Renate Huppertz, coordination office of the German Clean
Clothes Campaign, phone: 0211/4301317, e-mail ccc-d@dgb-bildungswerk.de)
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