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may 26, 2005
Offside!
Oxfam publishes report
on labour rights and sportswear production
in Asia
Dear friends
The Clean Clothes Campaign welcomes the
report brought out by Oxfam on labour rights
and sportswear production in Asia, “Offside!”.
The report concludes that sportswear companies
are failing to ensure that workers making
their products have the right to freedom
of association. Although some companies
are involved with positive initiatives which
have led to improved conditions in some
factories, still their overall approach
to trade union rights has been inconsistent
and at times contradictory.
In August of 2004, just before the Olympic
Games started in Athens the Play
Fair Alliance – Clean Clothes Campaign,
Oxfam and the Global Unions – concluded
that although several steps where taken
by individual companies to improve labour
conditions in their supply chain, they need
to go a lot further to lead to real sustainable
progress on the ground.
Taking stock almost 2 years later, the
report addresses the further positive steps
taken by the companies but finds: “sadly
little has changed. Workers’ rights
to form union is crucial to achieving the
big improvements needed on the factory floor
but many brands are still not willing to
play ball, “ according to one of the
co-authors of the report Kelly Dent.
The Oxfam report follows the implementation
of the Programme of Work - that was proposed
in 2004 by the Play Fair Alliance towards
the sports companies and the WFSGI, and
looks at the at the targeted companies (Puma,
Asics, Lotto, Kappa, Umbro, Fila, Mizuno,
New Balance) and adidas, Nike, Reebok and
Speedo. The report is therefore an excellent
source of information on what has happened
since.
While the research for this report has
noted some improvements, the authors have
consistently found that sportswear workers
work under high pressure for very long hours;
that they often face difficult and dangerous
working conditions, including verbal and
sexual harassment; that their trade union
rights are rarely respected and are sometimes
violently rejected; and that their wages
for a standard working week are too low
to meet the basic needs of their families.
Attempts to improve these wages and conditions
are unlikely to bring about sustainable
change unless they allow workers space to
form their own organisations and bargain
collectively.
Fila can still be found at the bottom of
the ladder, and their refusal to take on
labour rights issues is condemned by the
Oxfam report. The Tae Hwa factory, a FILA
sport shoe supplier in Indonesia with an
appalling record of worker abuse closed
suddenly and without warning. A year later,
none of its 3,500 workers have received
any back-pay or severance pay. FILA refuses
to reveal its role in the closure or take
responsibility for the workers.
Being brought out just before the Word
Cup Football in Germany the report shows,
once again, the harsh contrast between the
workers making the sport shoes and garments
and the athletes on the green fields. Sportswear
is big business and brands like Nike, Reebok,
adidas, Puma, ASICS and FILA make big profits
and spend hundreds of millions of Euro on
marketing and sponsorship of big-name athletes.
Meanwhile, the Asian workers who make the
sneakers and sports gear are doing it tough.
They struggle to meet their families’
basic needs and many are unable to form
or join unions without discrimination, dismissal
or violence.
The Panarub factory near Jakarta makes
the adidas' Predator Pulse boots promoted
by England’s David Beckham and Frank
Lampard, France’s Zinedine Zidane and
Patrick Viera, Spain’s Raul and Brazil’s
Kaka, as well as the +F50.6 Tunit boots
promoted by Holland’s Arjen Robben,
Germany’s Kevin Kuranyi and Brazil’s
Ze Roberto in the lead up to the FIFA World
Cup. However, adidas has refused to help
the 30 sacked workers get their jobs back.
The press release and the Oxfam report
which includes factory case-studies, reports
on individual sports brands and possible
solutions can be found on http://www.oxfam.org/en/news/pressreleases2006/pr060524_labor
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