Clearing the Hurdles:

improving working conditions in

the sportswear industry

Kevin Thomas
Director of Advocacy
Maquila Solidarity Network
(Secretariat, Ethical Trading Action Group)
Opportunities for sportswear brands
• Beijing Olympics cumulative TV audience
of 40 billion
• Olympic sponsorships and licensing are
critical for the brand
• Adidas spent between $80 and $100
million to secure the Beijing sponsorship,
and over $200 million to secure the
London 2012 and British Olympic team
sponsorship
• The Games are credited for major
share price hikes for major
sportswear brands.
Our research
• Interviewed over 320 workers in China,
India, Thailand and Indonesia
• Reviewed published and unpublished
reports, articles, audit reports, factory
advertisements, etc.
• General Findings: after 15 years of “codes
of conduct” and other programs, workers
still face low wages, harassment and
abuse, health and safety threats,
excessive and unpaid overtime.
Our research
• Focused on four core issues of importance
to workers in the sportswear industry:
– Freedom of association & collective
bargaining.
– Precarious employment
– Factory closures
– Living wages
Crushing unions
• Union leaders and members harassed,
dismissed, threatened or murdered
• Management refuses to recognize or
bargain with the union
• Unionized facilities are shut down and
production moved to non-union factories
• Production moved to countries where
unions are legally restricted
• Unelected “worker committees” are
promoted by management as a
substitute for unions
Precarious employment
• Short-term or no employment contracts
• Third-party contracting agencies
• Flexibilization of workforce and of factories
Factory Closures
• Industry restructuring
• Manufacturers fail to meet legal
requirements
• Direct impacts on workers and
communities
• Indirect impacts: threat of relocation as
weapon against worker organizing
Living wages
• Real value of wages in Bangladesh – even
after mass protests won a pay increase
two years ago – is less than the 1995
minimum wage.
• Soccerball stitchers in Pakistan get
between 57 and 65 cents per ball. Hasn’t
changed in 6 years, but cost of living has
gone up by 40%.
• Footwear workers in China get 53 cents an
hour and often less than the
legal minimum wage.
examples from our research
• Workers making (Olympic-sponsor) adidas shoes
report new, higher production targets, leading to:
– working up to 4 hours overtime a day
– Verbal and physical abuse
– They don’t use safety equipment
for fear of slowing production
– Wages lower than the legal minimum
– Loss of production bonuses which results in
even lower wages
• Adidas shoes can cost a month’s
wages for workers making them.
Higher pace, lower pay
• “I am exhausted to death now…. None of
us have time to go to toilet or drink water.
Even so, we are working without rest and
are always afraid of not working fast
enough to supply soles to the next
production line. The supervisors are
pressuring and nagging us all the time. We
are tired and dirty. We work without stop
and we are still reproached by the
supervisors.”
-- Worker making New Balance
shoes, Dongguan, China
Olympic-licensed factories
• A June 2007 Play Fair report found worker
rights abuses at four factories producing
Olympic-licensed products in China.
• One cap factory requires workers to work
13 hours/day, seven days/week, then pays
less than 50% of minimum wage.
• 20 children hired at one factory – the
youngest being 12 years old
• Overtime sometimes as high as 4.5X the
legal maximum per month
• Workers coached to lie to
auditors. Double-bookkeeping
Made in Canada
• 2004 CBC report found apparel workers in
Vancouver making $2/hour
• Had never seen a labour inspector
• Immigrant piece-rate workers in Vancouver
receiving 1 cent per piece, for $10-20 a
day
Olympic movement opportunity
• Universities, municipalities, school boards
and provinces in Canada have set ethical
conditions on purchasing and licensing.
• Olympic Organizing Committees could
refuse to license their brand unless
companies commit to respect labour rights,
disclose factories, and submit to auditing.
Vancouver 2010
• VANOC “BuySmart” program
• Code of Conduct for licensees and
suppliers
• Audits of supplier factories by commercial
auditors
• Higher rating in bidding process for
identifiable labour, Aboriginal or
environmental leadership
Problems with VANOC program
• Transparency: of factory locations, and
factory audits
• Lack of effective complaints mechanism
• Living wage clause in Code of Conduct
• auditing as sole verification of compliance
What’s next
• Improvements to VANOC program
• Adopting similar program at COC level
• Adopting similar program at IOC level
• Adopting similar program for London 2012
More information

www.maquilasolidarity.org/currentcampaigns/Olympics

www.playfair2008.org