Play Fair
Sports-fans, workers, activists and consumers worldwide have united in a campaign to make sure that sports events will be fair for workers making sporting goods and building venues as well as fair for athletes – no matter whether it’s the Olympics, UEFA, FIFA, the Commonwealth Games or any other sports event. Internationally agreed upon standards should be respected in the workplace as well as in the stadium.
Play Fair 2008 is a global campaign that involves different international trade union federations and NGOs, such as the ITUC, the Global Union Federation for the Textiles, Leather and Garment industry (ITGLWF), the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), and the Clean Clothes Campaign, which is an international alliance of NGOs and trade unions working to improve workers’ rights and working conditions in the industry. Labour rights groups and trade unions from many countries in the developing and transition countries, including from Hong Kong, are supporting and participating in the campaign.
Huge profits are made by the Olympics organisations and the companies which have Olympics licenses and sponsorship. We want the workers to get a fair deal. Meeting the enormous demand for Olympics products is putting great pressure on the workers who make them – they should be treated like human beings with rights, not robots.
Play Fair wants IOC (the International Olympic Committee) to commit to supporting fundamental workers’ rights in the Olympic Charter, to require that all companies which have Olympics licenses respect these rights, and also to have a mechanism to receive information and complaints about exploitation and to fix the problems that arise.
For the 2010 Soccer World Cup and 2012 Eurocup, Play Fair will promote decent work for workers in the construction industry.
Web sites connected to Play Fair:
Olympics and brands’ responsibility: www.clearingthehurdles.org
Olympics in Athens 2004: http://www.fairolympics.org/
Olympics in Beijing 2008: http://www.playfair2008.org
Olympics in Vancouver 2010: http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/currentcampaigns/Olympics/2010
Olympics in London 2012: www.playfair2012.org.uk
Campaigning on UEFA: http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?issue=Search&Language=EN&subj=ec12
Campaigning on FIFA: http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?issue=Search&Language=EN&subj=wc20