Play Fair: A sporting chance for workers

Abstract

FOCUS □ ORGANISING ANDSUPPLYCHAINS Play Fair: A sporting chance for workers I the to general In suppression join the human widespread trade industry or garment there form union right of in is a industry in generalthereis widespread suppression of the humanright tojoin orforma trade union ASHLING SEELY, Policy Assistant to the General Secretary, ITGLWF With Games opening little preparations over of the ten 2012 months are London well to go underway. Olympic until the openingof the 2012 LondonOlympic Gamespreparations arewellunderway. Athletes arehoning their skills, 3.5million tickets havebeensoldandthetourism andtransport industry isgetting ready toservethe5.3million people who willflockto LondonfortheGames.In the excitement surrounding suchmegasports events theverypeople who allowtheseGamesto take place - theworkers - are often overlooked. Far fromthe glamourof the games,the men and women whomanufacture theclothing andfootwear wornbytheathletes and themascotsand merchandisepublicising theeventsworklonghours for lowwages,often inhazardous conditions and underprecarious working arrangements. Themajority oftheworld'ssportswear productiontakesplace in Southand SouthEastAsia. Workers inthesefactories receiveextremely low wages,sometimes evenlessthanlocalminimum wageswhichthemselves areinadequateto meet basicneeds.Asa result workers producing sports goodsfrequently liveon lessthantheUNpovertythreshold . Recent research bytheglobalunion for textile workers, theITGLWF, revealed that workers in sportswearproducingfactoriesin the Philippines are resorting to pawningtheir ATM cardsin exchangeforadvances.On paydaythe loan amountplusinterest is deductedfrom their accounts bythelender andonlythenareworkers' bankcardsreturned. Ofthe83 factories covered intheITGLWF research notone was reported to paya living wage;that is,a wagesufficient tomeet basic needs and providea smallamountofdiscretionary income.A numberof workerstold researchers howtheir wagesarelinked tounrealistically high, unilaterally imposedproduction targets .Workers whofailtomeetproduction targets earneven less and are oftensubjectto psychological and physicalabuse. In one factory in Indonesia, workers toldresearchers howforty of themhad been lockedin an unventilated room without accesstodrinking waterandtoilet facilitates for three hours as punishment for falling short oftheir targets. Excessive andforced overtime iswidespread in theindustry. Sportswear brands andretailers share responsibility for thisas they often neglect totake account offactory capacity whenplacing orders and impose production deadlines which takemore concern ofconsumer demand than working conditions. Inthegarment industry ingeneral there iswidespreadsuppression ofthehumanright tojoinor form a tradeunion.Unionisation is avoided by meansofharassment, bribes, thefailure torenew short-term contracts, dismissals and evenfactory closure.In Indonesiathemajority oftradeunion officials inthesportswear factories surveyed reportedthat they weredenied thebasicfacilities toenable them toadequately perform their duties. InSri Lanka the Board of Investment promotestheuse of Employee Councils as a form ofworker representation , buttheworkers inthefactories toldITGLWF researchers thattheyhad no wayofraising concerns attheseCouncils andunions expressed frustration that they areusedtoundermine true freedom ofassociation. In Sialkot, thePakistani city whereabout30 percent of2010FIFAWorld Cup footballs wereproduced, "pocket unions"setup with theinvolvement ofmanagement arecommon. PlairFairCampaign In 2003,in therunup to theAthens Olympics, national andinternational trade unionsandNGOs joinedforces to campaignagainst practices such as these.AtthetimethePlayFairCampaign was one ofthebiggestanti-sweatshop mobilisations ever,with500 local campaigneventsorganised across35countries, andcollecting morethanhalf a millionsignatures of support.The Campaign madeitcleartothesportswear industry that consumers andworkers share thesameconcerns about theabuseandexploitation that liebehind thepublicfaceofmanysportswear brands. The PlayFairCampaignis coordinated bythe International TradeUnion Confederation, theClean Clothes Campaign,the International Textile, Garment andLeather Worker's Federation andmore recently also bytheBuilding and Woodworkers International. PlayFair aimstopromote better workingconditions and respect forworkers' rights in themanufacturing ofsports goodsandeventlogo merchandise, andintheconstruction ofthestadia inwhichsports events takeplace. The International OlympicCommittee (IOC) defines itsroleas "Toencourage andsupport the promotion ofethics insport" andclaims that respect anddignity areatthecoreoftheir organisational priorities. Principle 1oftheOlympic charter states "Olympism seekstocreatea wayoflife basedon ... respect foruniversal fundamental ethical principles ."The charter's secondprinciple states that "Thegoal ofOlympism is ... Promoting a peacefulsocietyconcernedwiththepreservation of humandignity". ThePlayFaircampaign haslong demandedthattheIOC liveup to itsrhetoric by making respect for workers' rights anintegral part oftheorganisations' basicprinciples andcode of ethics, andmaking compliance withcoreinternationallabourstandards a contractual condition in all licensing, sponsorship and marketing agreements . The IOC haverefused tomakesignificant movestomeetthesedemands, although they have incorporated a question onethical sourcing inthe candidate city questionnaire for theOlympic Games, effective from 2016 onwards,whichasks "With regard tothesourcing oflicensed products, please INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 8Volume 18Issue 3201 1 FOCUS □ ORGANISING ANDSUPPLYCHAINS demonstrate thestepsthat willbe takentoensure that socialandenvironmental factors (specifically withregardto labourstandards) are takeninto account inmaking selection decisions. Outline the criteria thatwillbe used to assesshow potential licenseesare adhering to standards and specify whatstandards willbe applied- national and/or international". By and large,theIOC refuses to acknowledge itsresponsibilities to thehundreds ofthousands offactory andconstruction workers who contribute to theGames,claiming thatthe bulkofresponsibility lieswith theindividual national organising committees. The London OrganisingCommitteeof the Olympicand ParalympicGames (LOCOG) is responsible forpreparing and stagingthe2012 Games.Under thePlayFairumbrella theTUCand LabourbehindtheLabelarecoordinating a campaign - Playfair 2012- toensurethat theLondon Gamesarenottainted bytheexploitation ofworkers .As...