Sweatshops

Olympics: the dirty games

By Mick Duncan The International Olympics Committee (IOC) is turning a blind eye to the super-exploitation of workers producing sportswear marketed around the Athens Olympic Games, and to the mistreatment of workers at the games venues. Olympics: workers pay the price (1) A protest took place in Athens on Sunday 6 June to highlight the health and safety violations being made as construction bosses cut corners in the rush to complete Athens' Olympic facilities. The need to have everything ready so that the corporate sport machine can make its millions has already led to the needless deaths of...

Olympics Committee ignores sweatshop labour

By Mick Duncan The International Olympics Committee (IOC) is turning a blind eye to the super-exploitation of workers producing sportswear marketed around the Athens Olympic Games. The IOC ducks responsibility by stating that control over standards in this area lies with the National Olympic Committees, while the National Committees refer back to the IOC. But the Olympics Charter states that "all rights to the Olympic Symbol, Flag, and Motto belong exclusively to the IOC', giving them authority over licensing of National Committees and companies producing Olympics branded goods. Oxfam and the...

Haitian trade union says: Against Aristide and the Opposition: support the worke

A statement from the militant union organisation, Batay Ouvriye , on the current political situation in Haiti Already, before Aristide's departure, the political crisis had shifted up a gear. As of January 2004, the mandates of a number of Parliamentarians expired, creating a big vacuum. With the opposition's anti-Aristide, anti-Lavalas [Aristide's Party] offensive, the situation became more extreme: numerous officials abandoned their posts. The power vacuum increased. With the departure of the president, it was like an explosion: The state is in real crisis. This crisis is clear for all to...

Disney sells poisonous pyjamas

Greenpeace is targeting Disney. On 15 April Greenpeace activists dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse climbed the UK headquarters of Disney and unfurled a massive banner highlighting the company's contempt for its customers. Despite being told six months ago that tests showed that Disney-branded pyjamas contain toxic chemicals, the company has refused to remove the affected products from sale. In tests on five pairs of pyjamas available at Disney, a toxic chemical called nonylphenol, that can interfere with human DNA and affect sperm production in mammals, was found. Also present in the children...

Unions Call for UN Sanctions against Nike

Four unions representing over three million workers in the US and Canada have called on the United Nations to review Nike's affiliation with the UN Global Compact because Nike systematically violates workers' rights. The UN Global Compact is an initiative that corporations seeking to cast themselves as socially responsible affiliate to. In doing so, they commit to the nine Compact principles on human rights, labour rights and the environment. Nike affiliated itself to Compact in 2000. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Presidents of the four unions claim that Nike systematically...

The fruit of order 39

By Mick Duncan Between 26-28 April, a business conference entitled "Iraq Procurement 2004: Meet the Buyers" - sponsored by Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and Raytheon - will be taking place in central London. In attendance will be Iraqi ministers, a representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and Tony Blair's Special Representative on Trade and Reconstruction, Brian Wilson. Over 300 international corporate delegates are expected to attend looking to grab a share of the estimated $100bn re-building budget. There's a lot of money to be made. Halliburton, for example...

Play Fair at the Olympics

In the lead-up to the Athens Olympic Games in August, the Clean Clothes Campaign, Oxfam and trade unions across the world will be campaigning for sportswear workers' rights. The campaign was launched on 4 March with events in more than 25 countries. In Canada, Bruce Kidd, a Canadian athlete, raised a clothes-line of brand name sportswear with statistics highlighting the abuse of workers' rights. In Austria, the federation of trade unions launched the campaign with an action in front of the office of the Austrian Olympic Committee. In Thailand, workers' unions gathered at the Thai National...

Maquila news - Mexican workers organise

In December LG Electronics, an $18 billion Korean company, transferred 350 components workers at their Reynosa TV plant to an abandoned warehouse. The workers first had to suffer rats and snakes while production was set up. They are exposed to the fumes from soldering and numerous chemicals with little or no protective equipment. They earn $43-$58 US per week. The workers went to their company-dominated CTM union and were told there was nothing to be done. On Saturday, February 21st they met and decided to file charges at the labour board. They found the State Governor touring nearby and asked...

Pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap... and flog the workers

The Oxfam report Trading away our rights: women working in global supply chains was published to coincide with 'Fair Trade Fortnight'. Matt Cooper gives his view. Walk into any supermarket in Britain and look at the fruit and veg - it's grown in Kenya, South Africa or Honduras. The jeans in the clothes shops and the supermarkets are made in Romania, Taiwan or Cambodia. The cut-throat nature of modern retail means that the clothes are constantly discounted in a culture of the year-round sale, the fruit in two-for-one promotions. Now consider the case of Rokeya in Bangladesh, who worked sewing...

Haiti: civil war and a glimpse of a third power

By Dan Katz The crisis facing the Haitian government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide continued on Sunday 15 February with a mass demonstration in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Thousands of demonstrators - who blame the president for rigging elections in 2000 - demanded Aristide's resignation. Aristide faces both these large-scale mobilisations and the armed groups which have seized a number of areas in the north of Haiti. These armed gangs seem to have been reinforced by some supporters of the old Haitian dictatorship who have entered Haiti from the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Fighters...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.