January 11, 2010

In the run-up to the February Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, an international coalition of worker rights organizations is releasing its rating of commitments made by major sportswear brands to eliminate sweatshop abuses in their global supply chains.

The ratings are based on the responses of the sportswear companies, including Nike, adidas, Puma and others, to a series of demands put forward by the coalition on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The demands were conceived to overcome four major hurdles to ending labour rights violations in sportswear supply chains: anti-union environment, poverty wages, precarious work, and factory closures.

 

The ratings are being released on the newly launched Clearing the Hurdles website. The new website will allow users to see how each brand has responded to 12 key demands that brands should commit to in order to overcome the four hurdles. Users will also be able to compare the various brands at a glance based on their commitments to overcome these hurdles.

 

The coalition releasing the ratings, which includes Canada’s Maquila Solidarity Network, the International Trades Union Confederation, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation, the European Clean Clothes Campaign is also posting a series of web ads accusing the brands that profit off the Olympics of engaging in a “race to the bottom” on wages and working conditions.

You can help the campaign by sending an email to the brands and by hosting the video ads on your own website or facebook page.

For more information and to take action please visit the Clearing the Hurdles website.

The Clearing the Hurdles website is also available in french or Spanish