Take action during Olympics!

A ticket to the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony costs 5,000 yuan (EUR 468). A worker making sports shoes in China would have to work more than four months just to earn that much. Upcoming Olympics is an unique opportunity to bring to light alarming working conditions that leave much to be desired in production of shoes, clothes and other sports accessories. Worker’s rights are being violated even in the production of International Olympic Committee (ICO) licensed accessories.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with Play Fair 2008 flier. Attached to it, is an appeal directed to ICO’s CEO - J. Rogge - calling the organization to take responsibility for violation of workers’ rights. All you need to do is sign it and send it!

You can do it alsoon-line

As a start for the "Play Fair 2008" campaign and its initiative "Catch The Flame" the Berlin NGO of INKOTA organized a flashmob at the adidas store in Berlin on April, 4th which was quite a big success. About 20 people joined the mob and were accompanied by half a dozen of journalists. After everyone had entered the store separately and at first pretended to be a customer, all fell asleep for two minutes. Then someone blew a whistle. Everyone woke up and held up the protest card "adidas stop!" The cards were then given to the cashier. The sleepers were not really disturbed during the two minutes. The sales assistants were quite confused and one of them tried to prevent the photographers from taking pictures. The press echo the day after was quite enormous. Most local and some other newspapers had an article or photo, internet providers posted articles and a radio report was broadcasted.

Play Fair Launches Alternative Olympic Flame Relay With the start of the official Olympic Torch Relay for the Beijing Olympics only a few days away, Play Fair 2008 launched “Catch the Flame”, an electronic relay race to bring public attention to the need for the Olympics movement to stamp out abuses of labour standards in workplaces making Olympics goods.

Get involved at: www.catchtheflame.org

The report “Fair Play always in fashion - consumer’s awareness and working conditions of women in sporting goods industry” examines the working conditions of women employed in the sporting goods industry in Poland. In the report you can find:

• interviews with women working in the clothing industry in Poland
• manufacturers speaking of how they deal with Asian competition
• results of the survey carried out among consumers of sporting goods

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At the beginning of 2008, Clean Clothes Campaign and India Committee of the Netherlands (CCC and ICN), and Fiber & Fabrics International along with its subsidiary Jeans Knit Private Limited (FFI/JKPL), have resolved their differences as to labour conditions at the Indian clothing production facilities of FFI/JKPL. In consultation with local organisations and unions in Bangalore, an Ombudsperson in Bangalore will be appointed to resolve future problems. Should employees, local organisations, CCC or ICN have any complaints concerning labour conditions, they can submit these to the Ombudsperson, who will attempt to resolve them. Employees will be free to organise themselves in a union of their choice. On the basis of this agreement, CCC and ICN are confident that any violations of labour rights will be reported in a timely fashion and will be resolved in a correct manner. Parties therefore no longer require the courts to provide judgement on the difference of opinion as to the allegations put forward by local Indian organisations, and disputed by FFI/JKPL, as to events lying in the past (2005/2006). Therefore, the Indian company withdraws all legal proceedings, and CCC and ICN bring to an end all campaigns against FFI/JKPL and the Dutch jeans brand G-Star. CCC and ICN applaud the fact that G-Star, as the most important former client of FFI/JKPL restores their commercial relationship with FFI/JKPL."

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KARAT has started a research within the "Fair Play in sporting goods production" project. We intent to view Polish "sports sector" by analyzing available data, conducting interviews with the producers, workers and consumers. We act in the international context, considering globalization, development, CSR and conscious consumption aspects. One of the main research areas is a study of Polish consumers' attitudes to sporting goods – their knowledge, preferences, motivations. We have started this part of the research in June 2007 with pollsters training. The pollsters conduct interviews with consumers and in future will engage themselves in other actions in the project.
Research results, including interviews, will be published in a Report and will become a basis for further actions of KARAT and Clean Clothes Campaign.

PlayFair2008 Campaign, calling for Olympic rules obedience, especially the fair Play rule, also in sporting goods production, has issued a "No medal for Olympics on labor rights" Report. It shows serious violations of basic working norms in a few Chinese factories producing licensed products for Beijing Olympics. The violations are, among other: paying half a minimum salary, employing 12 year olds, forced over hours work – 12 hour a day, seven days a week in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. There were also some cases of workers being forced not to tell truth to external working conditions inspectors and to put false data into employment questioners. China workers are not allowed to organize, so they have no means to defend their rights. The report was based on results of a research and factory workers interviews led by PlayFair2008 Campaign activists in the beginning of 2007 in four factories producing bags, head covers and other gadgets for 2008 Olympics in Beijing.