Index
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NEWSLETTER 24,
Oct 2007
Beijing Olympics
Here we come
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Lee Cheuk Yan, general secretary of
the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade
Unions being interviewd at an action
at the Hong Kong Olympic Committee headquarters.
June 2007 |
Play
Fair 2008 is the campaign that will see
"clean clothes" supporters around
the world focus on the sportswear worn by
the world's top athletes as they compete
for gold at the next Olympic Games - or
rather on the rights of the workers that
made it. The Games will be held in Beijing,
China, in August 2008.
PF08, as it is known for short,
is the follow-up to the highly successful
"Play Fair at the Olympics" campaign
that focussed on the Athens games in 2004.
Launched on June 11, 2007, PF08 is being
coordinated by the CCC, the International
Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the
International Textile, Garment and Leather
Worker's Federation (ITGLWF). CCC partners
Centre for Education and Communication (India),
IHLO (Hong Kong) and FNV (the Netherlands)
are also active in the working group that
guides the campaign internationally.
A wide range of organisations
from 28 countries have already signed up
as supporters of the PF08 campaign, including
national trade unions, workers' rights groups,
women workers' support groups, and "no
sweat" campaigns.
Obviously, we are hoping that
more and more organisations will join in
along the way. Play Fair aims to involve
as many members of the public, athletes,
teams, athletic coordinating bodies, sports
fans and consumers as possible. The campaign
is just getting going, and much more is
to come.
As before, our aim is to put
pressure on the sporting industry to extend
the Olympic ethos of "fair play"
to the workers who make the clothing and
shoes worn by all who take part in sports.
The ongoing need for improvements in the
sector is highlighted by the fact that these
games are being held in China, the world's
larger producer of sportswear and a country
that refuses to recognise and respect workers'
right to freedom of association.
We know that exploitation
and abuse in the sportswear and athletic
footwear industries can only really be brought
to an end when governments take up their
responsibilities, nationally and internationally,
to protect workers' rights and to hold business
accountable for labour practices. Fundamentally,
it will only happen when workers are able
to organise to advance their own interests.
Still, sporting bodies such
as the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
have a responsibility to play a much more
constructive role, especially through their
licensing arrangements. So could the National
Olympics Committees (NOCs) in each country.
Plus all the companies which market or produce
sportswear, athletic footwear and other
sporting goods - and profit from the Olympics
- can take far greater responsibility for
labour practices than they do as yet. Some
of the demands Play Fair is making regarding
these responsibilities are summarised at
the botom of this message.
PF08 kicks
off
The PF08 campaign kicked off
on June 11, 2007 with the launch of the
report "No Medal for the Olympics on
Labour Rights", which documented working
conditions at four factories in China that
produce Olympic-licensed goods. The report
reveals appalling disregard for workers
and for local labour laws on working hours,
pay, child labour, and health and safety
conditions. Play Fair activists in the Netherlands
and Hong Kong held actions to draw attention
to the report findings and the need for
follow up.
The report generated a great
deal of media coverage worldwide, including
radio and TV coverage and hundreds of newspaper
articles. The Beijing Olympics' Organizing
Committee (BOCOG) responded within weeks.
In fact, they confirmed widespread use of
overtime at three of the suppliers, and
the use of underage workers at the fourth,
the Lekit factory in Dongguan.
Unfortunately, BOCOG then
suspended contracts with the three, saying
they must "rectify their operations
in accordance with the Labour Bureau's requirements",
without saying what these are, or how workers
can participate and benefit from the action
being taken on their behalf. As for Lekit,
BOCOG decided to cut ties altogether instead
of working with the company and PF08 to
improve the situation there. PF08 is making
it clear that the IOC and BOCOG must not
"cut and run" from these factories,
but take positive action to improve conditions
and involve stakeholders, including labour
support groups.
As for the other problems
identified in the report, BOCOG seems to
be ignoring them. In any case, we believe
these four factories to be the rule not
just for other Olympics licensees but the
sector as a whole. Our follow-up research
suggests that Lekit's employment of children
is just the tip of the iceberg in China.
In the coming months expect
more PF08 campaigning materials (including
more research) and possibilities to directly
engage in meaningful action to push for
respect for workers' rights in the sportswear
industry. Organisations can join the campaign
as "Play Fair Supporters" (see
www.playfair2008.org
to sign up). To learn more about how you
can become involved in PF08 activities,
please see the website.
What did we
achieve in Athens?
The "Play Fair at the
Olympics" campaign in 2004 (PFOC) saw
unprecedented levels of collaboration between
NGOs and trade unions in many countries,
North and South. The campaign also received
positive responses from several National
Olympics Committees (NOCs).
Organising committees of future
Olympic games also felt the impact of increased
pressure to take responsibility for supply
chain conditions. The Vancouver Organizing
Committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
expressed a commitment to include workers'
rights issues in its contracts with suppliers.
In the UK, the British Olympics Association
originally refused to meet with Play Fair
but later agreed to "look at contracts
and at what needs to be changed to improve
the conditions (of workers)". The 'London
Bid', the organisation that won Britain's
right to host the Olympic Games in 2012,
met with the UK CCC, the trade union federation
TUC, and Oxfam and committed itself to including
workers' rights issues in its contracts
with suppliers. The CCC and partners in
Canada and the UK continue to monitor progress
on how the organising committees make good
on these promises. Meanwhile, dialogue between
the CCC and NOCs in various other countries
is also ongoing to ensure that as much as
possible the entire "Olympic family"
lives up to its responsibility to see that
conditions in their supply chains meet international
standards.
The IOC, on the other hand,
categorically refused to take any responsibility
for workers' rights in the Olympics sponsorship
and licensing programmes. The IOC did accept
that the campaign's aims are in the spirit
of the Olympic ideals of fair play and ethics,
but wouldn't take any action themselves.
The campaign helped put more
pressure on leading sportswear brands such
as Nike and adidas/Reebok, but it also powerfully
conveyed to some of the lesser-known brands
that they could no longer ignore the issue
of workers' rights. Asics, Mizuno, Puma,
and Umbro responded seriously. However,
some - notably Fila, Kappa, and Lotto -
failed to engage with us in any meaningful
way.
Stories, photos, and analysis - country-by-country
- of the "Play Fair at the Olympics"
campaign in 2004 can be found at: www.fairolympics.org
Key PF08 Campaign
Demands
To read the full set of demands
see the Play Fair 2008 Campaign Statement
at www.playfair2008.org
International Olympics Committee
(IOC):
- Make it a condition for future Olympic
Games that the host country must have
ratified, implemented and respected
the core ILO Conventions.
- Put a contractual condition in IOC
licensing, sponsorship and marketing
agreements that labour practices and
working conditions in the production
of IOC branded goods comply with international
labour standards.
- Investigate working conditions in
IOC and NOC supply chains, and set up
mechanisms for ending any exploitation
found.
- Publicly promote the need to end
exploitation in the sportswear industries.
- Make respect for workers' rights
an integral part of the Olympic Charter
and the IOC Code of Ethics.
- Support efforts to ensure respect
for workers' rights in other aspects
of Games-related employment.
National Olympics Committees
(NOCs) and Organising Committees of the
Olympic Games (OCOGs):
- Work through the IOC to put in place
mechanisms for ending exploitative labour
practices in the sporting goods industries.
- Publicly disclose companies with
which they have licensing, sponsorship
and marketing agreements.
- Make it a contractual condition in
their licensing, sponsorship and marketing
agreements with companies that they
publicly disclose their production locations,
and ensure that labour practices and
working conditions involved in producing
their branded goods comply with internationally
recognized labour standards.
Sportswear brands and other
companies seeking financial gains from the
Games:
- Adopt sourcing policies that require
suppliers and sub- contractors to respect
internationally recognized labour standards.
- Address, as an integral part of their
sourcing policy, the negative impacts
that their purchasing practices can
have on working conditions in their
supply chains.
- Take immediate and positive steps
to ensure specifically that the right
of workers to form and join trade unions
and to collectively bargain is respected
throughout their supply chains.
- Maintain production in unionised
facilities and, when expanding production,
give preference to locations where trade
union rights are respected in law and
practice.
- Take concrete steps to address the
living wage issue.
- Disclose the identity, location and
country details of all their supplier
factories.
Companies supplying sportswear,
athletic footwear and Olympic logo goods:
- Engage in proper industrial relations
and ensure working conditions that comply
with international labour standards
and national labour legislation.
- Make sure that all workers in their
supply chains are protected by having
a proper employment relationship and
their rights respected.
- When goods are sourced from homeworkers,
ensure respect for their basic rights
as provided in the ILO Convention on
Homeworking (C177).
Governments:
- Facilitate the right of workers to
form and join independent trade unions
and engage in collective bargaining
by immediately ratifying (if they have
not already) and applying ILO Conventions.
- Implement policies that promote socially
responsible behaviour in international
business activity, including the ILO
Tripartite Declaration of Principles
concerning Multinational Enterprises
and Social Policy.
- Promote respect for workers' rights
in international and bilateral treaties
and trade agreements.
- Promote a role for the ILO in making
codes of labour practice more effective.
- Adopt a procurement policy that guarantees
respect for workers' rights.
Chinese Government, as the
host country:
- Live up to the "promise"
made on securing the Olympics to improve
human rights.
- Ratify and fully implement ILO Conventions
87 and 98.
- End labour rights abuses such as
harassment, dismissal or detention of
labour activists; release all detained
labour activists.
- End the culture of impunity for companies
that violate labour laws and for government
officials who are complicit in this.
- Commit to serious improvement in
health and safety at work.
- End the systematic discrimination
of domestic migrant workers.
Campaign Resources
"No Medal for the Olympics
on Labour Rights"
Play Fair 2008, June 2007
www.playfair2008.org/docs/playfair_2008-report.pdf
"Child Labour, Forced
Labour and 'Work Experience' in China -
The blurred lines of illegality"
ITUC/GUF/HKCTU/HKTUC Hong Kong Liaison Office
(IHLO), August 2, 2007
www.playfair2008.org/docs/Child_labour_July_2007.pdf
For the latest news and more
information on the Play Fair 2008 campaign,
see www.playfair2008.org
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