Sportswear Ethics?
Rob Harrison takes a critical look at the sportswear industry
Sportswear is big business. The high profile of brands like Nike and adidas has led to high profile campaigns drawing consumer attention to the poor wages and conditions at supplier factories in Asia. This report provides information about these campaigns for the 96% of Co-operative Bank customers expressing support for fair labour standards.
A recent Oxfam report explained that whilst some conditions at sports supplier companies in Indonesia had improved as a result of international campaigning, most workers were still not being paid enough to meet their basic needs. "With full time wages as low as $US2 a day, workers live in extreme poverty and those with children must either send them to distant villages to be looked after by relatives or else go into debt to meet their basic needs." (1)
In India, a fire at a factory supplying sportswear to Gola in May last year led
to 43 deaths. Doors had apparently been locked and windows heavily secured
with mesh.(2)
Codes of Conduct
The companies' response to campaigns has been to develop 'Codes of Conduct' which have promised minimum standards at supplier companies. A typical code would address areas like child labour, unsafe working conditions and working hours. In August 2003 we looked at the codes of the companies in this report and displayed the results in the table below.
Adidas, Nike and Reebok were awarded the highest rating because their codes were independently monitored by external organisations. Ellesse, Fila, Hi-Tec, New Balance, Puma, Umbro and Mitre were all next best.
Recent research by the UK Consumers' Association gave adidas, New Balance, Reebok, Nike and Puma their highest rating.(3) In our choice of best buys below, a company's performance under 'Code of Conduct' has been given prominence.
A long way to go
Just because a company gets a good rating in this type of report does not in any way provide a guarantee of responsible behaviour. It is simply a tool to put pressure on the worst performers. The industry is huge and complex and conditions in the vast majority of production sites remain unsatisfactory. This is compounded by the fact that, in many popular manufacturing countries such as China and Vietnam, workers are not permitted to form free trade unions.(4)
Adidas, for example, reported in 2002 that it had carried out working conditions audits at 460 of its 828 supplier factories. It instigated 'engagement training' at 255 sites and severed contracts with 14 following persistent failures to improve.(5)
Recent discussions amongst campaigners have suggested that a workers rights' rating of 2 out of 20 might be awarded to the best performers in the sportswear sector. The others would receive 1 or none out of 20.(6)
Other ethical issues
The table [shown on previous page] shows how the companies perform against 16 broader ethical issues. Nike is the subject of boycott calls by a range of groups because of workers rights issues like those discussed above. Adidas is the subject of a boycott call by animal protection groups (including Viva in the UK) for its use of Kangaroo skin in sports shoes. All the companies receive a mark in the Other Animal Rights column for the use of leather in sports shoes.
Umbro is part of a conglomerate which has other subsidiaries involved in defence, aerospace and food. Pentland receives a mark in the alert column for directors' pay, with one director receiving £3.9m in the year to December 1998.(7)
The details of the rating system used on the table appear
in the Ethical
Consumer website. For details of why each company has received particular
marks on the table please write or email ECRA at the address below asking
for a copy of the Co-operative Bank Sportswear Report Companies Section.
Company Contacts
One of the best ways to help the campaigns for ethics in the sportswear sector is to contact the companies telling them about your concerns. The websites of the companies in this report are as follows:
References
1.'We are not machines', Oxfam Community Aid Abroad March 2002.
2. Clean Clothes Campaign website viewed June 2002.
3. 'The Ethics of the shoemakers.' Which? magazine. Consumers' Association. June 2003 p.21.
4. See e.g. Ethical Consumer magazine Bicycles Report EC85 October, November 2003.
5. Ethical Performance Vol 5 Issue 1 May 2003.
6. Conversation with Maggie Burns, consultant to the UK's Ethical Trading Initiative
4/6/03.
7. Labour Research, September 2000, Labour Research Department
.