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Play Fair at the Olympics
The Olympic movement has been strangely silent about sweatshop abuse, despite its close dependence upon the sporting goods industry for uniforms and equipment, the showcase the Games provide for the display of corporate logos, and the revenue it gains in sponsorships.
The Olympic charter emphasizes respect for human ethical principles. As the custodian of the Olympic logo in Canada, the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee can and must enforce changes. It must build into sportswear licenses and sponsorship contracts commitments to respect internationally recognized labour standards. The entire Olympic movement, including the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, must use its influence to ensure that workers in the sportswear industry are employed under fair, dignified and safe conditions.
Just as you will not see the Olympic movement signing a sponsorship deal with tobacco firms, similarly no deals should be signed with companies which ignore and abuse the rights of workers. It's time for the Olympic movement to support fair play for sportswear workers.
A sportswear working group involving the Maquila Solidarity Network, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the International Trade Union Confederation has set out steps sportswear brands need to take to begin to overcome four hurdles that have hindered progress on worker rights in the industry.
On July 10, 2008, following the Ethical Trading Forum in Vancouver at which transparency and Olympic licensing was debated with companies, trade unions, NGOs and Olympic organizers, Nike publicly released the full list of factories that produced its products for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
As the clock ticks down to the Beijing Olympics, international sportswear companies are amassing huge profits and arranging multi-million dollar sponsorship deals with the Games, Olympic athletes and national teams.
Meanwhile, workers producing their goods are still living in poverty. In a new report, “Clearing the Hurdles: Steps to improving working conditions in the global sportswear industry”, Play Fair 2008 calls upon brands, manufacturers, and multi-stakeholder initiatives to overcome four major hurdles to make real, measurable progress on wages and working conditions in the global sportswear industry.
While the official 2008 Olympic torch relay ducks to evade the scrutiny of human rights activists, an unofficial Olympic torch relay for human rights journeys across Canada this week.
So far, nearly 9000 people around the world have carried the torch in support of the rights of workers making Olympics-branded merchandise. This week, it's Canada's turn. The flame is only in Canada until the end of the week (Friday, April 18) – so join the relay now!
A new report released by Play Fair 2008 looks at some of the root issues underlying child labour in China, and focuses on the reasons why so many school-going children end up working in factories or on farms.
On July 31, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced the results of its investigation into Play Fair's findings of child labour and gross violations of adult workers' rights in certain factories producing licensed goods for the 2008 Olympics. While BOCOG confirmed some of Play Fair's findings, it neglected others and failed to commit to acting positively to improve workers' conditions, choosing instead to cut and run from factories implicated in Play Fair's original report.
A new report released today by the Play Fair 2008 Campaign exposes gross violations of workers’ rights by several Chinese factories supplying goods under license for the Beijing Olympics, including employment of children, adults being paid half the legal minimum wage, and employees forced to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) has developed an initial program to require environmental, labour rights and aboriginal employment standards for its purchasing and licensing. MSN and its Canadian partners are now consulting with VANOC to improve their initial program by making it more comprehensive, effective and transparent.
A list of actions you can take to support the Play Fair campaign
The "Play Fair at the Olympics" campaign was one of the biggest ever mobilisations against abusive labour conditions. Read more about the international campaign
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