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NEWSLETTER 13, NOVEMBER 2000
Just sign it
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As the Olympic torch passed by Melbourne's Nike Town shop Fair
Wear campaigners dressed as giant pink pencils joined in, to draw
attention to the Olympic sponsor's failure to sign the Australian
Homeworkers Code of Practice.
Pamela Curr of Australia's Fair Wear campaign said "Last month
Nike settled the Federal Court case for breach of the Award, admitting
that they needed to clean up their act. Yet, today, they continue
to refuse to sign the Homeworkers Code of Practice."
FairWear and the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia
have been campaigning to persuade companies who have clothes made
in Australia to sign the Homeworkers' Code of Practice, so that
independent monitors can check whether or not their clothes are
being made by homeworkers and, if so, whether those workers are
being paid wages which comply with Australian law. Although 120
other companies (including Nike's major competitors Reebok and Adidas)
have agreed to sign the code, Nike continues to refuse to do so.
"They say they have their own code, and they don't need to
sign the Australian standard. The Australian Homeworkers Code of
Practice is the only code which is administered by equal numbers
of employer and union representatives, and allows the Union to monitor
the entire contracting chain. Nike say that homeworkers don't sew
their clothes, so they don't need the code, but the Textile clothing
and Footwear Union was ready to present evidence to the court that
outworkers sew their garments. These outworkers typically work 12
to 18 hours a day, seven days a week for about a third of the Award
rate of pay, often working for as little as $2 an hour."
Nike Admits Guilt and Pays the Penalty
One month before the Pink Pencils came out onto the streets of
Melbourne Nike appeared in the Federal Court in Melbourne, their
first court appearance anywhere in the world, according to the FairWear
campaign. At that time, the company agreed that they had failed
to comply with the Clothing Trades Award - Australian labour laws
for clothing workers, and had committed breaches and agreed to pay
the penalty of $5000 per breach amounting to $15,000. The Textile
Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, a small union representing
the most vulnerable of Australia's workers brought the case against
Nike.
At that time Pamela Curr of FairWear noted that "This is
a victory for clothing workers. Nike is now on record in the Federal
Court of Australia as being guilty for these Award breaches. All
the PR speak in the world can not change the fact that Nike's admission
of guilt is on record." But, Curr added, " This is only
Round One for FairWear. We will not rest until Nike joins the 120
other companies who have signed the Homeworkers Code of Practice.
These global corporations must be accountable for their labour practices.
Just as the abolitionists fought the long hard fight against slavery
last century, we will continue to fight for the day when the terrible
exploitation of clothing workers around the world is no more."
Meanwhile, the FairWear campaign is busy setting up the FairSchoolWear
Campaign involving students and schools. School uniforms are big
business in Australia, with homeworkers involved producing these
garments. FairWear also reports that they have a unique opportunity
to get legislation which will underpin the Homeworkers Code of Practice.
The new state government in Victoria has initiated. A Task Force
to look at all working conditions. According to Curr, the recommendations
for outworkers/homeworkers were great and now FairWear is leaning
heavily on the government to put them into legislation.
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