Play fair at the Olympics
|
COMMENTS 
As athletes perform swifter, higher and stronger at the Athens Olympics, millions of sweatshop workers have been working faster, longer and cheaper to make the fashionable sportswear. International coalitions are working to draw attention to the exploitation of these workers. In India, an alternative Olympic torch was carried from Tirupur to Ludhiana and other major Indian garment-producing centres
As medals are hung around the necks of victors at the ongoing Olympic Games, spare a thought for the workers who have sewn the sweatshirts and jackets upon which the medals glint. As athletes perform swifter, higher and stronger, millions of women workers have been working faster, longer and cheaper to make the fashionable sportswear
In what's probably the biggest anti-sweatshop mobilisation ever, the Clean Clothes Campaign, Global Unions and Oxfam are challenging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sportswear companies to accept their responsibility to stop the exploitation of workers producing sportswear that is being marketed through the Olympic Games.
On August 10, a group of masked activists working at sewing machines on a rooftop in the centre of Athens, with the Acropolis as the backdrop, drew attention to the plight of the exploited faceless workers -- a large majority of them women in developing countries.
In March this year, the coalition launched a campaign on the abuse and exploitation of sportswear workers and released a report entitled 'Play Fair at the Olympics'. The report, researched by Oxfam GB, TUC and Labor behind the Label, highlights the working conditions and experiences of workers producing sportswear in Thailand, Indonesia, China, Bulgaria, Cambodia and Turkey. Research revealed inadequate wages, impossibly high work targets, denial of workers' rights, sexual harassment and verbal abuse in the sportswear industry worldwide. According to the report, workers are sometimes forced to put in 16-hour days, are fired for refusing overtime and are intimidated for attempting to form unions. In general, these sweatshop workers earn about 1% or 2% of the retail value of the goods they produce.
The campaign highlights the fact that giant sportswear brands have violated the rights of millions of workers around the world in order to fill shops with the latest and cheapest sports shoes, clothes and accessories, in time for the Athens Olympics. In order to deliver, suppliers are forcing their employees to work longer and harder, denying them their fundamental rights as workers. The campaign calls on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and companies like Fila, Puma, Umbro, Asics, Mizuno and others to clean up their act.
Hundreds of organisations have participated in the campaign, in over 35 countries around the world. More than 500 local events have been held, and over half-a-million signatures collected in support of the campaign. Supporters include Olympians like Spanish cyclist Miquel Indurain, Canadian middle-distance runner Bruce Kidd, US hammer thrower Kevin McMahon, Spanish synchronised swimmer Gemma Mengual, Australian swimmer Sarah Houbolt, Dutch long-distance runner Kamiel Maase and French World Cup soccer player Didier Deschamps.
With over 3.5 million workers in the garment industry in India -- most of them badly exploited -- major Indian trade unions and labour rights groups have joined in the campaign. In Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, one of the largest centres of the garment industry, a local human rights organisation (SAVE) organised a campaign workshop, on July 10, that was attended by 25 women athletes from colleges and universities across Tamil Nadu. The young athletes were shocked to learn how women in the local sportswear industry work upto 16 hours a day under constant pressure to work faster, longer and cheaper. The athletes passed resolutions demanding that sportswear brands and the International Olympic Committee take responsibility for improving the working conditions of these workers.
An All India Rally of garment and sportswear workers, which started in Tirupur on July 19, will conclude in New Delhi on August 24. An alternative Olympic torch has been passing through the major Indian garment-producing centres of Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Surat, Kolkata and Ludhiana. In each city, mass meetings of workers were arranged. The organising committee in India comprises trade unions -- AITUC, AICCTU, CITU, HMS, INTUC, NTUI, UTUC -- and the non-governmental organisations CEC and SAVE.
The IOC has an obligation to challenge the abusive business practices of its sponsors and licensees. The industry needs to make prices fairer and deadlines more appropriate, and treat labour standards as being equally important as cost, time and quality. The IOC, however, is refusing either to take any moral leadership on the issue or take on any responsibility for workers' rights in Olympic sponsorship and licensing programmes at the global, national and games level.
Meanwhile, a number of sports brands (Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Puma) have responded to campaign proposals to end labour abuse in the sportswear sector. They confirm the importance of respecting workers' rights and have shown a willingness to work on several areas outlined in the proposals. Other highlighted companies and the industry association representing sporting goods companies globally have been slower to respond.
The campaign says that change would be in the industry's own interest. Some companies acknowledge that the way the industry works is not sustainable and that they have a responsibility in helping solve the problem. But, according to activists, the industry has not done enough to address the sector's widespread problems. 'Play Fair at the Olympics' says the entire industry must work together to change its sourcing practices to begin making a difference. Governments must also work together and resist pressure to sacrifice labour standards. And, local factory owners need to accept responsibility, respect workers' rights and pay a living wage.
In what seems like a success for the campaign, on August 2, the Play Fair at the Olympics Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. The Play Fair at the Olympics Act will instruct the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to require companies that obtain Olympics licences to observe international labour standards.
The Olympics charter states: "The goal of Olympism is to place everywhere sport at the service of harmonious development ...with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity." One hopes that sportswear manufacturers pursue these ideals, rather than betray the Olympic spirit of fair play.
For more information on the Clean Clothes campaign see www.fairolympics.org/en/
(Laxmi Murthy is a Delhi-based journalist)
InfoChange News & Features, August 2004