Adidas Sued by Chinese Inmates

Chinese dissidents are sueing the US subsidiary of Adidas, accusing the company of using prison labour to produce footballs (among which were balls used at the recent World Cup). Bao Ge, a famous Chinese dissident says that during his imprisonment between 1994 and 1997, he was forced to work on producing balls by the prison guards. He, together with other former political prisoners, is demanding compensation from Adidas for all the prisoners involved. The prisoners used to work seven days a week, 15 hours a day, stitching the balls. Adidas has stopped orders for footballs made in China while investigating the allegations. A spokesmen of Adidas stated: "We don't tolerate prison labour and all agreements with our suppliers contain a provision against prison labour." Adidas is obviously very worried about the publicity. They have spent a fortune sponsoring the World Cup.

Read, print and send Adidas a protestletter concerning their working conditions.

LETTER TO ADIDAS:

Adidas AG

Adi-Dassler- Strasse 2

91074 Herzogenaurach

Germany

Dear Robert Louis-Dreyfus,

I have recently received information about the labour practices of Adidas AG. Four cases of Adidas' malpractice were described by the Clean Clothes Campaign.

One case in China, at the Tung Tat Garment factory, where compulsory overtime and wrongful payment of overtime are daily practice, and a violation of ILO conventions and Chinese labour laws.

The second case involves two Adidas subcontractors in Bulgaria namely Orfei Ltd. and the Nistra company. At Orfei, workers are paid approximately 14% of the cost of living for a 4 person household. With this wage the Adidas subcontractor violates ILO conventions No. 26 and 131, which state that a minimum wage should cover the necessary cost of living for a worker and his/her dependants. The Nistra company violates Bulgarian law and ILO convention No. 98 (Right to Organize and Collective bargaining) by surpressing trade unions.

The third case is about a lawsuit against Adidas for using prison labour in China. A former political prisoner in China is suing the company, saying inmates at his labor camp were forced to make promotional footballs. Inmates stitched together thousands of footballs, sitting in a hot sweathop as long as 15 hour at a stretch, for the subcontractor Shanghai Union Ball Enterprise corp. The inmates worked for virtually nothing. The Adidas subcontractor violates ILO conventions 29 and 105, which state that there shall be no use of forced labour including prison labour.

The fourth case is the dismissal of 6 union leaders at the Yota Megah company in Indonesia. None of the demands of the workers, including the reinstatement of the six workers, medical allowances, and no forced overtime work, have been improved so far.

I want to stress that consumers worldwide are becoming more and more aware of the bad working conditions at subcontractors of their favorite brand.

Therefore I urge you to:

- sign a Code of Labour Practices, that includes: working time and working conditions with an observance of all the core standards of the International Labour Organisation and that these responsibilities extend to all workers, whether or not they are employees. And more specific, that: employment is freely chosen, there is no discrimination in employment, child labour is not used, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected, living wages are paid, hours of work are not excessive, working conditions are decent and the employment relationship is established.

- In order to make sure that the labour code is implemented, Adidas should allow independent monitoring.

I look forward to hearing from you what steps you have undertaken to improve the situations described in the four cases and what you will do to be able to give consumers a true guarantee that Adidas' sporting goods are made under decent conditions.

Yours sincerely,