In June 2000 the European Football Championship, better known
as the Euro2000, was played in the Netherlands and Belgium. Football,
considered to be the most exciting sport in Europe according to
the millions that watch it, is a highly visible media event for
sportswear producers. And indeed, they took this opportunity to
publicize their image to boost European sales. Therefore, this
seemed like an excellent time for the Clean Clothes Campaign to
draw the crowds' attention to the world behind the corporate images
and behind the football field; to the workers that actually make
the balls that are kicked around the field, the shoes that score
the points, and the clothes that carry the big brand names.
These brand names sponsor not only the entire Euro2000 tournament,
but also the individual teams that participate. Adidas was the official
supplier to the Euro2000 and their image was hard to miss in the
stadiums, on the streets, and on TV. Not only adidas was highly
visible, Nike also joined in, competing to be the one brand name
that would be most associated with football during the month of
June. Nike, adidas and other brand names threw millions of dollars
at the football teams. Extra millions rained down upon the heads
of football stars like Patrick Kluivert of the Netherlands and Zinedine
Zidane of France. These huge sums of money stood in stark contrast
to the excessively low payment that the workers receive for making
the balls, shoes, and shirts that bear the expensive brand names.
Throughout the last year, the Clean Clothes Campaign organised
various activities as part of a Euro2000 campaign. Thousands of
people supported the appeal for improved working conditions in the
sportswear industry. And the CCC did manage to score a few points.
The director of the Euro2000, Alain Courtois, said he would make
sure that a code of conduct would be included in the contracts with
sponsors, suppliers, and licensees. References to different codes
of conduct, and especially compliance with the World Federation
of Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) code of conduct made it into
the licensee agreements. Although this can be seen as a step forwards,
this is still a long way from a good code of conduct and actual
implementation and improvement. It remains unclear how the production
is going to be monitored and how compliance with a code of conduct
will be verified.
To draw more attention to the working conditions in the sportswear
industry the Clean Clothes Campaigns in several European countries
organised events, card actions, photo shoots, press conferences
in May and June 2000. Junya Yimprasert, from the Thai Labour Campaign
and Suthasinee Kawleklai, formerly a worker at Par Garment, a Thai
sportswear factory, visited Europe at that time to speak about the
labour conditions in the sportswear industry in Thailand. The campaign
produced a 30-second video clip which was broadcast on several television
stations throughout Europe. A documentary on labour conditions in
Thailand, with input from the CCC, was shown on Belgium television.
A special newsletter about the Euro2000 was published in three different
languages and distributed via all the European Clean Clothes Campaigns.
The Netherlands
The Clean Clothes Campaign in the Netherlands organised several
events and actions focused not only on Nike and adidas, but also
the Euro2000 organizing committee and the Football Association of
the Netherlands (KNVB).
Consumers were asked to show, both before and during the tournament,
how important it is that the sportswear products that they use are
made under good labour conditions. A lot of different materials
were distributed by the organisations participating in the Dutch
Campaign. 140,000 "Play Fair" cards -- small folders with
the Euro2000 match schedule along with information on labour conditions
-- were distributed. Over 6000 consumers signed up to be Euro2000
Clean Clothes Supporters.
A fax action was organised by the India Committee of the Netherlands.
Faxes were sent to the Euro2000 committee to ask that FIFA (the
Federation of International Football Associations) implement a good
code of conduct in the production of footballs and sportswear. Over
a 1000 people participated.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, together with the Federation of Dutch
Trade Unions (FNV) toured the four cities in the Netherlands where
the Euro2000 games were played. They took pictures of sports fans
and other consumers drawing red cards to protest violation of labour
rights or photos in which they scored a goal for better labour conditions.
The last day of the tour was spent in The Hague, where the Dutch
parliament is located. Photos of MPs and ministers requesting that
the big companies, the Euro2000 committee and the KNVB improve labour
conditions were taken. In total, more than 2000 people had their
photos taken.
A coalition of 15 organisations, including Novib, the FNV, and
Amnesty International produced a poster calling for a living wage
in the sportswear industry. Approximately 180,000 posters were distributed.
The text on the poster asked the public to donate a small sum (less
than one dollar) and with this to show the importance attached to
increasing the wages of the workers in the sportswear industry to
an acceptable level. The contribution of a small amount was meant
as a symbolic gesture, in that it showed the small amount of money
needed to substantially increase the wages workers receive. A symbolic
check was given to Nike and adidas and they were asked to guarantee
that this money was actually given to the workers that were making
their products. Of course the money would only be given to them
if they could convince the public of their intentions to improve
labour conditions. Nike and adidas were told they would only get
the money when they would sign a statement together with the organisations
and trade union that organised the poster campaign before the end
of September. By signing this they would agree to implement a good
code of conduct (such as the FIFA code) and independent monitoring
and verification for all their products, within a certain timeframe.
By mid-October no response came from adidas and Nike has informed
the CCC that they will not accept the cheque.
All these examples of consumer opinion (photos and signatures)
were handed over to representatives of the Euro2000 committee, the
KNVB, Nike and adidas on July 11th, 2000.
On June 4th a football match was organised in the Amsterdam woods.
Junya Yimprasert commented: "Finally we came to Amsterdam on
the morning of 4 June. We went straight away to the football field.
This football charity event is organized to collect money to give
to the workers who have a court case in Thailand. Almost everyone
in the Clean Clothes Campaign Amsterdam was on one of the teams.
After 40 km bicycle ride in Germany the day before, we could only
make it onto the field for a few minutes. Though our team had the
worst record, we manage to collect NLD 1,080 to donate to Thai workers."
Belgium
In the tournament 'Injustice scores badly,' held in May, 48 teams
participated in football matches. The final match was held between
politicians, artists, and athletes. This tournament got very good
regional press coverage and involved a lot of new, especially young,
people, in the Belgian campaign.
Wereldsolidariteit, together with many other organisations in the
Flemish-speaking Belgian CCC, gathered signatures and pictures of
50,000 supporters asking for a living wage in the sportswear industry.
The supporters came mainly from different youth organisations, athletic
teams, the Christian Trade union, womens' organisations and retired
peoples associations. The pictures that were gathered were posted
on a large wall during a massive event May 6th, as part of the Worldshake
campaign. Some 15,000 -- mainly young -- people participated in
the event. Although David Husselbee, adidas global director of social
and environmental affairs, was invited to the event, he failed to
show up. To show their discontent, adidas was catcalled by a large
crowd during the final show. A delegation took the pictures collected
over a two month period to the "Fit for Fair" action day
held in Germany (more on that below) and handed them over to Husselbee
along with a list of demands.
This action was supported by several Belgian top sportsmen, including
Filip De Wilde, goalkeeper of the Belgian national football team.
First division club AA Gent played a match in a special shirt with
the CCC logo "Living wages. Make clothes clean!" The sponsors
of the club offered to drop their logos in support of the action.
The club they played against, Aalst wore labels that also showed
support for the campaign. The match was broadcast on television.
In the French-speaking part of Belgium postcards were sent to adidas
and Nike regarding working conditions in the sportswear industry.
The campaign was given free advertising space on public busses.
A tournament called "Footballeurs, fous de valeurs" was
organized to increase awareness of working conditions. The tournament,
which took place from the end of January up until mid-May, consisted
of 160 matches in schools and youth associations.
On June 13th on a public field in the center of Brussels government
ministers and members of the parliament participated in a match
organised to show their support for fair labour conditions. Participants
signed an appeal and all wore campaign T-shirts. As if they wanted
to show that nobody should lose, the match ended in a two-all draw.
On June 18th a barge for workers rights circulated on the stream
along the Sunday market in Liege, to publicize the campaign's message.
People from several organisations were at the market to invite the
public to sign postcards supporting the campaign. Live music drew
even more attention to the whole circus and over 1,500 people signed
postcards. In the afternoon the barge continued floating downstream,
on toward the stadium. Attempts were made to go ashore at the VIP
platform, during a special meeting. This, however, did not
Germany
After adidas broke off the negotiations in El Salvador on April
13th 2000 , the German CCC intensified its "Fit for Fair"
publicity and mobilisation work. In addition to other campaign materials,
35,000 copies of a "Red card for adidas" were printed.
Sympathizers were asked to protest at the adidas headquarters about
the termination of the negotiations in El Salvador. In the "Fit
for Fair - Back To Producer" actions sportswear was sent back
to adidas, Puma, Nike, and others for their failure to ensure that
production was clean. Adidas refused the sportswear and returned
them to the senders. Quite successful actions were organised in
Chemnitz and Cologne, but in Wuppertal activists were prevented
from doing an action in front of a sports shop. With all these activities
the German campaign generated a lot of media attention in May and
June.
At a national day of action on May 27th groups in 20 Germam cities
organised information stands, theater, demonstrations, and pickets.
Sonia Lara Campos, a former worker at an adidas supplier factory
in El Salvador, who was involved in doing research on the Formosa
factory, participated in some of these actions. Her statements on
labour rights violations at Formosa refuted adidas' allegations
of major improvements there. Sonia had worked in two maquiladoras
in El Salvador. She was fired from both factories for her intentions
to organize a union. Sonia reported about the situation at the adidas
suppliers: forced overtime, pregnancy tests, and the de facto prohibition
of free unions are all still common characteristics of the workplace.
Though her public statements undoubtedly contributed to the pressure
on adidas not to break off business relations with the notorious
Formosa plant, the latest news however is that adidas has cut their
ties with the factory. In a press release sent out by the German
Clean Clothes Campaign in September 2000, this move was condemned
as it " puts the jobs of the workers at Formosa at risk, since
its [two] factories supply 50% and 25% of their overall output to
the company adidas." The CCC believes that pulling contracts
from factories in the face of bad working conditions should be a
last resort, after careful consideration of all the possibilities
for improvement, in consultation with workers, trade unions, and
NGOs. In the case of Formosa "although adidas had made certain
steps towards transparency, the Clean Clothes Campaign cannot assess
if there were alternatives to the termination of business…."
On June 2nd the German CCC organised a workshop. Junya Yimprasert
wrote about this: "Sonya and Suthasinee reflected on similar
working conditions in Adidas factories. How the workers have been
working long hours, working under bad conditions, and not informed
about codes of conduct. Both Sonya and Suthasinee were dismissed
for conducting union activities. Sonya reported that in El Salvador,
12-year-old children were working in Adidas factories, they were
working very long hours and they had to sleep on the floor of the
factory to wait to work in the morning. The workers were not allowed
to take sick leave and there is a strong suppression policy against
workers organizing unions. Suthasinee reported that in the event
of customer visits to the factory, if the workers talk to the customer
and discuss any problems they would be called to the management
and under threat of dismissal for telling the truth. This exposes
how monitoring can lead to the dismissal of those workers who are
interviewed. She also told us that the medical cabinet is fully
equipped in the first aid room during visits, while normally there
are only painkillers provided to workers."
The next day live internet chats on topics related to the clean
production of clothes took place between Catholic youth organistions
at the huge "Catholic Forum" in Hamburg and adidas/Puma
in Herzogenaurach. About 50 people from the different Clean Clothes
Campaigns in Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, and Germany as well as
Sonia Lara Campos, Junya Yimprasert, and Suthasinee Kawleklai participated
in the bicycle tour from Erlangen to Herzogenaurach and demonstrated
in front of an adidas factory outlet. Two delegations, with the
representatives from El Salvador and Thailand, the European CCCs
and the European Parliamentarian Lissy Gröner visited adidas
and Puma.
UK
In the UK 15,000 postcard strips (containing multiple postcards)
were printed, each targeting Umbro, the sponsor of the national
football team of the UK, and the UK Football Association. The cards
were distributed via unions, the Football Supporters Association,
youth groups, and other organizations. With the cards supporters
voiced their concern that football shirts, boots and footballs are
being produced without respect for the human rights of the workers
who make them. They urged the companies to uphold good labour standards
and the Football Association and the English team to include the
FIFA code in sponsor and supplier contracts.
The UK Campaign was endorsed by the Football Supporters Association.
The results so far have been a positive response from the Football
Association to include "some" code in contracts. Also
some initial contacts have been made with Umbro.
The campaign organised many activities around the visit of Suthasinee
Kawleklai and Junya Yimpresert, including a living wage event. Juya
reports: "We then traveled two hours north to Norwich and joined
NEAD for their living wage campaign at the village of Swaffham.
It is interesting to see so many people wearing brand name products
like Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma. The response from people ranged
from apathy to sympathy. Many people were not aware of the problems
in countries like Thailand, but were very interested to learn more."
And in the rest of Europe…
In Spain most of the sportswear campaign activities took place
at the beginning of 2000. 80,000 postcards were distributed, a large
amount of used shoes were collected and returned to the companies
to protest bad working conditions. The Austrian contribution to
the Euro2000 campaign revolved largely around the Vienna City Marathon
on May 21st (see related article). In June a public plenary discussion
with Thai researcher Junya Yimprasert and garment worker Suthasinee
Kawleklai proved to be an excellent addition to the discussion on
codes of conduct that is going on in Austria.
The Swedish campaign continued its work on sportswear retailers
such as Intersport, with the sending of post cards, school presentations,
and the collection of footprints. The Swedish leg of the tour made
by Junya Yimprasert and Suthasinee Kawleklai from Thailand was centered
around a fashion show in Stockholm's central square and a soccer
match between two local teams refereed by a famous football star.
p.s. the sportswear campaigning continues
After the Euro2000 the campaign torch was passed on to Australia,
host to another large sports -- the Olympic games. The campaign
in Australia included a variety of events, including an alternative
opening ceremony which featured performances by the combined Trade
Union choir and a "march past by workers" pulling a giant
Nike shoe the size of a small car, urged on by a whip-wielding character
representing Nike who rode the shoe like a chariot. The shoe was
chased by FairWear's Giant Pink Pencils, challenging Nike to sign
the Homeworkers' Code of Practice (see related article). An Indonesian
worker and former US soccer player/coach Jim Keady spoke about what
it is like trying to live on the wages paid to workers making Nikes
in Indonesia (see related article).
|
