About
The Playfair 2012 campaign wants the organisers of the London Olympics and companies to aim for gold and ensure that workers producing sportswear and goods with the Olympic logo have their rights respected.
Millions of people are employed in the global supply chains that produce kits for Olympic teams, and the sportswear and Olympic souvenirs available on our high streets. These mainly women workers, not just the athletes, help to make the Olympics possible.
But, evidence shows that the sportswear industry and Olympic movement have a poor track record on workers’ rights. Playfair 2008 research found workers employed by Adidas suppliers in China earning £20 per month for glueing sports shoes that sell for £50 plus, and others working 80 hours a week stitching footballs. Adidas is one of London 2012’s main sponsors and licensees. In another factory producing stationery, children as young as 12 years old were being forced to work 15 hours a day.
The ideal…
“Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on … respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
(The Olympic Charter, 2007)
The reality…
“We are so exhausted trying to get the Olympic bags done in time! Every one of us works till very late. And the following day we still go to work at 7.30am! What sort of life it this?”
(Worker at a factory producing merchandise for the 2008 Olympics.)
There is no excuse for this. The Olympics is a multi – million pound industry. Adidas’ £100m sponsorship fee for the London games would pay over 400,000 Chinese sportswear workers’ wages for a year. An Indian football stitcher would have to sew 13 million balls a year to earn the same as Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer – that’s almost 100 per minute.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Together we can demand an ethical Olympics providing Decent Work. London can learn from the successes and failures of previous Games. This means taking a firm approach with companies and sponsors supplying the 2012 Games, and being transparent about the supply chains that produce sportswear and Olympic goods. The Games organisers have engaged with Playfair 2012 and committed to taking some steps, but we need them to go much further.