by James Parks
With the 2008 Olympics being held later this year in Beijing, working people around the world are focusing on the lack of workers’ rights and human rights in China. Now Play Fair 2008 has launched “Catch the Flame,” a unique way for workers everywhere to send a message to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Olympic products must be made in safe conditions and workers must be paid a fair wage.
“Catch the Flame” is an electronic relay race to bring public attention to the need for the Olympics movement to stamp out abuses of workers’ rights in workplaces making Olympics goods. Each person who signs up online is able to help move an electronic torch toward Beijing and add comments supporting workers’ rights. With a wave of Bluetooth, SMS and e-mail messages, “Catch the Flame” forwards Play Fair’s version of the Olympic flame to Beijing. Click here to join the electronic relay race.
Play Fair is an international campaign seeking respect for workers’ rights in the production of Olympics-licensed products, and its members include the Clean Clothes Campaign, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF).
Says Esther de Haan, coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign:
By joining this alternative torch relay, people around the world can send a clear message that for the Olympics to really be fair, working conditions for those who produce Olympic goods have to be fair as well.
A new report by Play Fair found massive violations of workers’ rights in four Chinese factories making products under license to the Beijing Olympics. No Medal for the Olympics on Labor Rights reveals that plants use child labor, make workers labor for long hours and blatantly disregard international workers’ rights standards and Chinese labor laws. Click here to read the report.
But the problem is not limited to China. Previous Play Fair studies have documented workers’ rights violations in sports merchandise production in a range of other countries.
Play Fair has been talking to IOC officials for five years to ensure decent conditions for those workers who make Olympic products. ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder says:
While we remain hopeful that the world’s peak sporting body is prepared to take concrete action to put an end to maltreatment of workers who make the products which bring important revenue to the Olympics, there has been little if any actual progress, and this new initiative gives people the chance to join in the call for action.
ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney adds:
It is now time for the IOC to recognize that as the owner of a global brand, it has a duty to ensure that a uniform and robust approach is taken by host cities to ensure that those goods that they procure bearing the Olympics logo have been made in workplaces that meet the highest employment standards.