Sportswear Industry Still Not Playing Fair
The
2002 World Football Championship is over and Brazil won
the trophy. However, the workers involved in the production
of sporting goods used during these World Cup matches, will
receive no trophy. They won't even be getting a fair wage
that enables them to support their families. Therefore,
the Championship, which took place in Korea and Japan in
July 2002, was also the focus for a large campaign organized
by the Clean Clothes Campaign and its partner organizations.
While the players were battling it out for the trophy, campaigners
encouraged football fans to think about what was happening
behind the scenes where workers put in long hours to stitch
football shoes, balls, and garments for an industry that
denies them a living wage and the right to organize.
Several national Clean Clothes Campaigns joined the Global
March against Child Labour in an international e-mail campaign
asking organizations and individuals to sign a petition
to be sent to the Fédération Internationale
de Football Association (FIFA) and various sportswear companies
to demand, once again, that they make good on their promises
of fair play in the production of sportswear.
Japan and South Korea
In the World Cup host countries Japan and South Korea
organizations and trade unions joined in the campaign actions.
Shocked and angered by the living conditions of the children
involved in the sporting goods industry, young people and
children in Japan voiced their concerns on June 22. While
others cheered at the World Cup matches taking place that
day, they took to the streets, marching through the center
of Tokyo, chanting "Red card to child labor!"
"We have to let people know that children are working."
In South Korea, workers from different sportswear-producing
countries in Asia went on a speaking tour to coincide with
the beginning of the World Cup to inform South Koreans of
what is happening on the sporting good production lines.
These workers joined representatives from the Global March
against Child Labour, as well as regional and local organizations
in a street action, a public forum, and a press conference.
The aim of the program in South Korea was to raise awareness
among the Korean public of labor conditions in the sportswear
industry and also to raise awareness among Korean workers
on the labor conditions faced by workers at Korean-owned
companies in other Asian countries. In the context of this
program, workers representatives from Sri Lanka and Indonesia
met with Korean workers and trade unions, which was fruitful
for both sides.
"We must work hard to arrange meetings of workers
from different countries and let them exchange their experiences
and views and build solidarity" commented participants
from Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zone Workers Union (FTZWU).
The program received a lot of media attention, both in Korea
and internationally. Fifteen thousand signatures (separate
from the e-mail action mentioned above) were collected to
support the Global March against Child Labour campaign during
actions in Seoul and Suwon City.
Europe
In Europe a variety of actions in different countries
succeeded in drawing consumer attention to the ongoing problem
of terrible working conditions in the sportswear industry.
The Netherlands: Athletes join campaigners in two-day
relay race
The Dutch Clean Clothes Campaign organized a 48-hour relay
race across the Netherlands in an attempt to draw nationwide
attention to the issue of working conditions for sportswear
workers. Local organizations and sporting clubs biked, ran,
sailed, and rode scooters during the continuous two-day
CCC event. Participants carried with them a declaration
asking the sportswear companies and FIFA to make sure that
their garments were produced under good labor conditions,
by workers that have the right to organize, and earn a wage
that they and their families can actually live off of. This
declaration was signed by Ajax, the Netherlands' most famous
football team, as well as by all the athletic participants
and local authorities that supported the relay race. The
last leg of the relay race involved 140 young people walking
5 km to a large multicultural festival in Tilburg, in the
south of the Netherlands. All the relay-racers were met
at the finish line by the mayor of Tilburg and Lodewijk
de Waal, the president of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation
FNV.
Together with the FNV and the India Committee of the Netherlands,
the Clean Clothes Campaign sent 400,000 protest cards to
the 3,000 amateur football clubs in the Netherlands, requesting
that their members support demands for improved labor conditions
in the sportswear/sporting goods industry. This leaflet
was translated by the Bulgarian campaign, which distributed
4,000 leaflets in schools, universities, and betting offices.
UK: Thousands of leaflets distributed
The UK Clean Clothes Campaign (Labour Behind the Label)
produced 40,000 leaflets and a special World Cup edition
of their bulletin that featured details on working conditions
in Indonesia, China, and India and a section on "what
you can do" to improve the situation for workers. The
leaflets were distributed with the bulletin, via supporters,
through unions and youth groups, and at the Glastonbury
music festival. Lots of new support was generated for the
CCC as a result of this campaign.
Switzerland: Giving FIFA 4000+ suggestions on how to
improve
The Swiss CCC distributed 60,000 leaflets and the Swiss
campaign collected 4,381 signatures of people asking FIFA
to accept a complete code of conduct and independent verification
of code compliance. Those who signed onto the petition were
asked to give FIFA suggestions on how to demonstrate their
commitment to cleaning up the industry. Among the 4,381
suggestions collected were "Two percent of sponsoring
money for the workers," "$10 for each FIFA goal
for better labor standards," and "[FIFA President]
Sepp Blatter should work for one day at a factory under
local conditions and salary."
Massimo Ceccaroni, the well-know football player from FC
Basel (Swiss Champions in 2002) became an active supporter
of the CCC campaign after he stopped playing football in
2002.
"I would have liked to be able to play in shirts that
have been produced under decent labor conditions. Therefore
I hope that FIFA will listen to the many good suggestions
from these thousands of people," said Ceccaroni.
Belgium: CCC video broadcast on national TV
In the French-speaking part of Belgium CCC World Cup campaign
activities were focused on getting media attention with
the distribution of 50,000 brochures, a calendar of the
World Cup, and a new version of the video clip that was
used during the Euro2000 campaign. The clip was shown on
seven regional television stations and the Internet. The
campaign held a press conference on June 12th which received
good coverage in the main French-language newspapers and
the television news program on the Belgian national channel.
Because the national TV channel refused to broadcast the
clip, claiming that it was too negative towards Nike, the
campaign published an ad in three major newspapers on June
3rd. an. The ad for "the clip that will not be shown
on TV" called upon readers to view the clip on the
campaign's website. Finally, the national TV channel agreed
to show the clip (but without the Nike logo), and also broadcast
an interview with a campaigner during the channel's daily
coverage of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, the Flemish Belgian CCC published an electronic
calendar with the "naked truth about the World Cup."
A group of young activists presented the research report
"We are not machines" on working conditions faced
by sportswear workers in Indonesia to Nike at their European
distribution center in Laakdal.
Italy: BasicNet/Kappa says it's not the job of companies
to have morals
As part of the CCC's World Football Championship activities,
the Italian network Rete di Lilliput launched a campaign
in June 2002 targeting BasicNet/Kappa, the brand sponsoring
the Italian football team. Postcards were sent asking the
Italian sportswear company to stop sourcing from Burma and
urging them to adopt a good code of conduct. Although the
campaign received little press coverage, the response from
consumers was good. BasicNet/ Kappa reacted almost immediately.
In a very polite letter sent to all participants in the
campaign, Marco Boglione, the president of the sportswear
company, rejected the idea of cutting ties with Burma.
"Judging whether a government is good or bad and deciding
whether to produce in that country or not, I really don't
think this is our responsibility," he wrote. "Moral
political actions are tasks of governments or world institutions
vested with this duty."
A second letter was sent to BasicNet/Kappa to remind them
of, among other issues, the ILO resolution in 2000 calling
on its members to review their relations with Burma due
to the widespread use of forced labor, including the construction
of garment factories. The Italian union also sent a very
detailed letter in this regard asking the company for a
meeting. So far there has been no reaction from BasicNet/
Kappa. In the meantime, the campaign is receiving support
from the international campaigns fighting for democracy
in Burma.
Marco Boglione founded the BasicNet group, which includes
Kappa, Robe di Kappa, and Jesus Jeans brand names, in 1999.
Benetton is one of its major shareholders. The company has
grown big in the sports merchandising sector (they sell
retail copies of football uniforms) and sportswear production
with 36 licensing companies selling goods in 70 countries.
Football teams sponsored by Kappa include the Italian Roma,
the Belgian Genk, the Dutch Feyenoord, the German Werder
Bremen and the Major soccer league in the United States.
In 1999, following a worldwide publicity campaign, Kappa
had to cancel their plans to have their sportswear produced
at Matperat Barkan, a factory located at the Israeli settlement
of Barkan on the occupied West Bank.
Germany: Sports conference in Cologne a big success
Just before the start of the 2002 World Cup the German
CCC, along with the Students' Council of the Sports University
of Cologne, organized the conference "Fit for Fair:
Towards humane working conditions in the global sportswear
industry."
During two panel presentations and in four workshops various
stakeholders concerned with labor rights in the sportswear
industry met for discussions. This included athletes, representatives
of Nike, adidas, Puma, the World Federation of Sporting
Goods Industries (WFSGI), the German Sports Association,
members of parliament, Attac, United Students Against Sweatshops
(USAS) from the United States, the NikeWatch Campaign from
Australia, as well as representatives of garment workers,
NGOs, and trade union representatives from Indonesia, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, and Romania, and others. The Federal
Minister for Consumer Affairs was the patroness of the event,
which drew approximately 200 participants. Meanwhile, the
combination of representatives of industry, sports(wo)men,
a well known TV moderator and labor rights activists and
the upcoming football championships created a great deal
of interest in the event among the media, especially radio
and newspapers.
During the conference, the world champion in unicycle presented
the sportswear companies and sports federations with a long
line of postcards with consumer's demands. In response the
German Sports Association promised to support the CCC and
Puma announced it would start a pilot project with the CCC
in 2002.
