World Cup: sweatshop child labour fuels profits
Workers Power Global, London: 02 June 2002

The World Cup 2002 is upon us. People will be eating, drinking and breathing football for the next few weeks and the big sporting companies hope to clean up.

Both Nike and adidas have launched a marketing offensive on a grand scale. It is a multi-million pound media extravaganza. adidas is spending over £24 million on the tournament, including sponsoring 10 out of the 32 teams.

Nike is going hell for leather. They have spent £50 million to get the rights to the Elvis song A Little Less Conversation, remixing it for a global TV campaign worth over £90 million. They have employed the hottest football stars - who wonât scratch their arse for less than £10,000 - to push their goods. The Secret Tournament is spearheading the campaign, starring the likes of Arsenal striker, Henry, Brazilian wunderkind, Ronaldo and Eric Cantona.

And they are targeting youth more than ever. Nike is sponsoring a three-a-side football match in the Millennium Dome for young up-and-coming football stars between the ages 11-16. You, too, could become the next Michael Owen ö if you wear Nike gear.

All over Britain, you canât make a move without seeing a poster, a billboard, a neon sign that is advertising the Nike scorpion, " a symbol for stinging play."

As Nike PR machine also says, "Before the ad, there is always a product." Behind the glitz and the glamour, behind the slick advertising campaigns, there are millions of people all over the world that wonât have the time or opportunity to even watch the World Cup even though they are directly linked to adidas and Nike.

These are the young workers that are employed in the sweatshop factories of sporting goods companies like Nike and adidas across the globe. They donât have the opportunity to play sport; their life is ground down by slave labour. Behind the "stinging play" there is the stingy pay.

In April 2002, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee published an independent investigation which exposed the working conditions in two factories in the Guandong province of mainland China that produced footballs for adidas.

The findings revealed there is minimal labour protection for such workers. There were wage violations, working hours of up to 14 hours a day, bad living conditions and restrictions on their personal freedom. The conditions these workers are forced to work under are illegal, but normal in the region.

Unique to the production of quality footballs, a lot of the manufacturing process requires high labour intensity and hand sewing.

Chemicals and intensive heat are used in processing genuine leather and yet workers are not provided with appropriate health and safety equipment, resulting in workers being exposed to industrial and health hazards. Mechanical injuries are commonly found in the cutting department. Medical care is often not available.

There is now a new term in the Chinese language ö "guolasi" which has originated from the Guandong Province and means "death from overwork". Young workers, as young as 19, are suddenly collapsing and dying after working exceedingly long hours, day after day.

Children as young as six years old are being used to make footballs for the World Cup 2002. Researchers for the Global March against Child Labour found more than 50 children working up to 14 hours a day producing Fifa-branded footballs in the Sialkot and Sangla Hill districts of Pakistan. The children told the researchers that they received 13 rupees (18p) per ball and stitched an average of four to five per day. Fifa sells officially branded balls on its website for £64.

"I have been stitching footballs for as long as I can remember,â said Geeta, a young girl from Jalandhar, Punjab, who was about 12-years-old. ÎMy hands are constantly in pain. It feels like they are burning. There is nothing I can do ö I have to help my older sister complete the order."

According to industryâs own research, 20% of the balls brought to the US are stitched by children under the age of 14. Most children are forced into labour to help their families earn enough money to survive. Football stitching becomes home-based family work where a middleman acts on behalf of the sporting goods manufacturer.

In 1996 Fifa and international unions agreed on a Code of Labour Practice for the production of footballs carrying the Fifa authorised trademarks. In the "spirit of fair play", Fifa recognised its and its licensees responsibility to ensure ethical production of footballs and other World Cup accessories.

The Fifa code of conduct included:
ð a living wage for all workers
ð no forced overtime: a maximum 48 hour week
ð at least one day off in seven
ð a safe and hygienic working environment
ð the right to an independent trade union
ð no child labour: pay for their education

After child labour became a big scandal for Fifa in 1998, it said it would ensure that it was not used in products bearing its logo. Yet in the past six years since the code of practice was agreed, Fifa has made no attempt to ensure that these codes were adhered to even though the code contained provisions for effective monitoring.

As a "proud" sponsor of the World Cup, adidas has pledged that it will adhere to the code of conduct. Nike, itself, has had a code of conduct in place for years. Yet neither company has made any serious attempt to monitor these factories and enforce the code of conduct.

Activists from around the world have been putting pressure on Fifa and national football teams to make this championship the first international sporting event free of child labour and in compliance with fair labour standards.

In Britain, NO SWEAT! activists have been taking the protest onto the streets and naming and shaming the multinational companies.

We are fighting for the code of conduct to be enforced in factories worldwide and monitored by independent labour organisations. We are fighting for the code to become reality, not just a charade manipulated by the multinationals. We are fighting for workersâ rights: the right to a decent life.

Homepage | Feedback