Empowering workers’ rights and visibility in mega-sports events

Rationale

Many have written about the social costs of spectacular sports events but few have highlighted the human and labour costs in preparation for these events. A decade passed when international trade unions and a few global civil society groups launched the “Play Fair” campaign at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The major objective of this coalition campaign is to unmask the dark side of global sports events where sportswear workers in developing countries work in low wages, sweatshop conditions, and are denied labour rights. From this on forward, the trade union and civil society campaign coalition on mega‐sports events have continued onto the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Vancouver Olympics winning some promises from famous sportswear brand names to agree on corporate social responsibility.

The framing of the sports event campaigns broadened to highlight for example the unsafe working conditions and low wages of construction workers while building massive structures for the 2010 South Africa World Cup. The campaign on workers’ rights for garment workers for sportswear in developing countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines came into full force during the 2012 London Olympics. The campaign was the outcome of a research report by the Playfair alliance for the Playfair 2012 Olympics campaign entitled “Fair Games? Human rights of workers in Olympic 2012 supplier factories” (see Playfair website). The campaign on workers’ rights for garment workers for sportswear in developing countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines came into full force during the 2012 London Olympics. 

The campaign was the outcome of a research report by the Playfair alliance for the Playfair 2012 Olympics campaign entitled “Fair Games? Human rights of workers in Olympic 2012 supplier factories” (see Playfair website). The campaign on workers’ rights for garment workers for sportswear in developing countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines came into full force during the 2012 London Olympics. The campaign was the outcome of a research report by the Playfair alliance for the Playfair 2012 Olympics campaign entitled “Fair Games? Human rights of workers in Olympic 2012 supplier factories” (see Playfair website).

A decade hence, trade union and civil society campaigns for social and labour rights come into a full circle in the eruption of social protests leading up to the 2014 Brazil World Cup. Now more than ever, there is an urgent need for social movements to critically engage the key players in mega‐sports events such as the regulatory bodies (ie FIFA, IOC), governments of host countries/cities, media and corporations who benefit from the expense of workers’ rights. After labour exploitation scandals were exposed in the construction industry in Qatar and garment sportswear factories in Indonesia, Bangladesh, etc., there is a growing interest to examine the past and current labour campaigns on sports events, gather lessons from campaign experiences and propose avenues on how these can be strengthened for future campaigns.

Research objectives

Examine past and present labour campaign strategies in the construction and textile/garment industries around the major sports events; Produce a manual that draws lessons from past campaigns and provides alternative analyzes and strategies to strengthen future labour campaigns around mega-sports events; and disseminate the manual/toolkit in cooperation with global and local trade union movements.

Significance and research gap

Much of the media critique on global sports events has focused on the lavish lifestyles and bribery scandals of sports executives in international sports governing bodies. Studies on the social costs of hosting global sports events are fortunately being undertaken (see Cottle, 2011, “A legacy for Whom?). Most often than not, critiquing sports events can be alienating if not risky to go against society’s sports pride. At the risk of being branded as ‘killjoys’ and ‘naysayers’, engaging critically the mega‐sports events involve appreciating the importance of global sports and critiquing the context around these events.
The combined initiatives of international trade unions and international civil society groups under the Play Fair campaign produced quality reports namely: “Clearing the Hurdles: Steps in Improving Wages and Working Conditions in Global Sportswear Industry”; “Toying with Workers’ Rights: A Report on Producing Merchandise for the London 2012 Olympic Games”; and “Fair Games?: Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 supplier factories”. Studies on South Africa, Brazil, Germany and the UK examined the stakeholders in global sports events such as FIFA/IOC and its corporate partners; the host nations, and the role of trade unions in ensuring workers’ rights in industries affected during these events.