News for May 2010

Playfair 2012 is campaigning for the London Olympic Games to raise the bar on workers’ rights.

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.

Now the Playfair campaign has announced a national speaker tour. The string of events will raise awareness about the real conditions workers in sportswear supply chains face, and inspire campaigners to join with workers to challenge these conditions and fight for change.

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Turkish unions had something to celebrate this May Day as they were finally allowed to demonstrate legally in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.

For thirty years, the Turkish government had banned demonstrations there following a massacre in which 37 people were killed on May Day 1977.

Efforts by unions in recent years to demonstrate in Taksim Square on May Day were always thwarted.  As recently as 2008, when trade unionists attempted to assemble there they were met with tear gas and mass arrests.

This year, their campaign for the right to assemble to Taksim Square was finally successful. On May 1st, over 150,000 workers peacefully demonstrated in Taksim Square for the first time in a generation. This was a great victory for the Turkish labour movement.

Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions spoke: ‘We remember the friends we lost from the depths of our hearts. We rejoice in the fact that Taksim Square has been opened, and we thank our friends who struggled for this cause.’

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After years of campaigning hopes are high that the ILO could adopt a Convention on Domestic Work in 2011.

Domestic workers - who cook, clean, garden and provide childcare in their employer’s homes - are often excluded from formal labour laws. This means that they are vulnerable to exploitation by their employers, often poorly paid, given little or no time off and frequently subject to abuse.  Migrant domestic workers can be even more vulnerable when their employers confiscate their passports, and in some cases they are not allowed to leave their employer’s house unaccompanied.

A Convention on Domestic Work, which will begin being debated by the ILO this year, would be an important recognition of the rights of domestic workers and can be used to push for practical changes.

The Convention on HomeWork was adopted by the ILO in 1996, and is an important campaign tool for homeworkers around the world, giving them official recognition as workers with rights. We hope the domestic workers will also be successful in their battle for recognition and respect.

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BOND has published a ‘Vote Global’ manifesto calling on all parties in the UK General Election to take important steps to support international development.

BOND is the organisation for British NGOs working in international development, and HWW is one of the many organisations who have signed up to support the manifesto.

The Vote Global manifesto calls on all political parties to make a number of important commitments. These include upholding the rights of women and promoting gender equality, and supporting the decent work agenda by encouraging more countries to ratify and implement the core labour conventions of the ILO (International Labour Organisation).

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