Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including Adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a new report.
The Fair Games? report investigated working conditions in 10 sportswear factories in China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines where they produced sportswear that will be bought by consumers and used by athletes and volunteers at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Read more…
May 7th, 2012
Anna
A recent investigation by The Independent reveals workers at nine Indonesian factories contracted to produce Olympic shoes and clothing for Adidas are working up to 65-hour weeks and earning as little as 34p an hour. Read more…
April 16th, 2012
Anna
Following some months of collecting cards and petitions from supporters around the country, Playfair campaign representatives held an awareness raising action in Covent Garden last Wednesday (4th April). Over 6000 signed postcards and petitions were delivered to adidas, Nike and Speedo shops in the vicinity calling on brands to: pay workers a living wage, take a positive approach to trade union rights, and ensure workers have job security. Thank you to everyone who signed cards and petitions. We hope to hear a response from brands soon.
While sportswear brands adidas, Nike and Speedo make hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, workers producing their gear are struggling to survive on the poverty pennies they are paid. © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
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April 13th, 2012
Anna
Olympic sponsor Adidas, and Sportswear brands Nike and Puma, have been put under pressure to take a stand on labour rights after a new report was published showing their workers in Bangladesh are beaten, verbally abused, underpaid and overworked. Read more…
March 5th, 2012
Anna
In January, 2,800 workers sewing apparel for Adidas and NIKE at the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia were laid off after their factory shut down abruptly. Nearly half a year’s wages were left unpaid, amounting to around $3.3 million in legally owed severance pay. Read more…
December 5th, 2011
Anna
The images below are taken from a series of images shot in Phnom Penh in Cambodia in September 2011. These document the lives of a group of women garment workers who are employed in the Shen Zhou garment factory, a supplier for Adidas’s 2012 Olympics range.
Prem Sreyroth (right), a 24-year-old worker has been working at the Shen Zhou factory since 2005. Every six months she receives a new short-term contract. “Before I could earn around £95-£130 pounds, but now I earn less” she says. “Before there were only two buildings of contract workers but now there are four, so the amount of work is less. I earned only £80 pounds last month,” she explains. |
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November 7th, 2011
Anna
In October, Turkish trade union activist Asalettin Arslanoglu will be touring UK universities to share first hand stories of life in the Turkish textile sector and workers’ struggles to win decent working conditions.
Asalettin is Director of Organising, at the Textile Knitting and Clothing Workers’ Union of Turkey and has regular contact with workers making merchandise for the London 2012 Olympics and leading sportswear brands including Adidas and Nike.
Touring with the speaker will be a photo exhibition detailing the daily lives and experiences of workers in Cambodia producing Adidas goods for the Olympics, by the photo journalist Will Baxter.
You are invited to come to join us.
Events will take place at: UCL, ULU, LSE, University of Newcastle (TBC) and UEA. There will also be a public meeting in London. Read more…
October 3rd, 2011
Anna
The Playfair 2012 campaign previously wrote to Stella McCartney, who has been commissioned to design a range of Adidas clothing for London 2012, with a request to meet her to discuss our campaign and work with Adidas to improve working conditions in their supply chains. After receiving no reply, Playfair 2012 passed the letter to Adidas with a request to pass it onto Stella McCartney. This is the response we received. Playfair’s comments are below. Read more…
September 5th, 2011
Anna
For many workers producing clothing such as that that will be worn by athletes competing in the Olympic Games, the right to stand together with other workers and demand a fairer deal is crucial. Yet this is a right that is systematically denied to workers across the board. Read more…
June 22nd, 2011
Anna
