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PrintReports on conditions facing sportswear workers
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Links to reports are provided for your information. Oxfam Australia does not necessarily endorse all of these reports.
- May 2006 – Offside! Labour Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia (pdf 3.95mb)
This Oxfam International report finds that sportswear workers in Asia are struggling to earn a living and many face dismissal or threats of violence if they try to form unions. Find out more - January 2006 – New Balance Goes to China (pdf 920kb)
This special joint report by China Labor Watch and the National Labor Committee reports on wages and conditions in factories producing for New Balance in China. - April 2005 – Assessment of PT Busana Gunung Putri, Bogor Indonesia
An independent report into the strike by workers in July 2003 and the conditions surrounding it at the Busana Prima Global (BPG) factory, in Bogor, Indonesia. Read the full report (pdf 152k). BPG owns a number of factories in Indonesia and produces sportswear for Le Coq Sportif, Bear USA, Converse, Ecko Red, Hummel, Maui, Penn, Ping and Prostar. - September 2004 – Worker Rights Consortium Assessment re PT Panarub (Indonesia)
At the joint request of Adidas and Oxfam Australia, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) agreed to examine the situation at the sportshoe factory PT Panarub and to assist efforts to address worker rights problems. Oxfam Australia welcomes this summary of findings and recommendations which indicates that although there are still serious labour problems in the factory both Adidas and PT Panarub are responding positively to the great majority of the WRC's recommendations. - August 2004 – Play Fair at the Olympics: the Tae Hwa Indonesia factory
Workers making Fila sportshoes at the Tae Hwa factory face serious problems including sexual harassment, low wages and discrimination against workers who stand up for their rights. -
August 2004 – Fair Labour Association (FLA) Year 2 Annual Public Report
Results of FLA investigations in factories producing for FLA member companies including Nike, Reebok and Adidas. While it is positive that monitors conduct surprise factory visits and are not selected by the companies, it is important to note that the FLA does not assess whether workers are being paid a living wage. The FLA also itself admits that "it is apparent that FLA findings related to Code provisions, such as Freedom of Association, Harassment or Abuse, and Discrimination, do not mirror the realities on the ground" and that improvements in monitoring methodology are needed. -
March 2004 – Play Fair
At The Olympics
This joint report by Oxfams, Global Unions and the Clean Clothes Campaign provides an overview of labour rights conditions in the sportswear industry and outlines the steps that sportswear brands and the Olympics movement can take to ensure that workers' human rights are respected. - August 2003 –
Industrial Embroidery
The National Labor Committee describes conditions in this factory, which is in the Inhdelua Free Trade Zone in Honduras. They report that it produces for a number of labels including Nike, Gap, Old Navy and Polo Jeans. -
May 2003 – Ida's Story
Ida made Nikes in the Doson factory in Indonesia for nine years. She couldn't afford to pay for child-care and had to send her children to a distant village to be cared for by grandparents... - November 2002 – Nike in Thailand: Lern's Story
A case-study of the experience of one woman (Lern) working in a Thai factory which supplied major brands including Nike, Adidas and Fila. - July 2002 – Labour Standards in the Sports Goods Industry in India
This report is by the India Committee of the Netherlands. - March 2002 – We are Not Machines
This Oxfam Australia report finds that the right of Nike and Adidas workers in Indonesia to form and freely participate in unions is not being properly respected. Workers' wages are so low that they cannot afford to support their children and many are forced to send them to live with relatives in distant villages. - July 2001 –
La Lucha Sigue – stories from the people of the Kuk Dong factory
This report by Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador and the Collegiate Apparel Research Initiative is a collection of interviews on the life, work and struggle of workers at the Kuk Dong Factory – a Reebok and Nike supplier in Puebla in South Mexico. - December 2000 –
Can Corporate Codes of Conduct Promote Labor Standards? Evidence from the Thai Footwear and Apparel Industries
This report by Junya Yimprasert of the Thai Labour Campaign and Christopher Candland of Wellesley College investigates conditions in Thai factories producing for Nike and Reebok and Adidas and compares conditions with the companies' codes of conduct. - December 2000 – Nike and the Par Garment factory, Evading Responsibility
When it becomes publicly known that a particular factory is operating under sweatshop conditions then the worst possible outcome for workers is to see the brand cancel orders and move production to other factories which are out of the media spotlight... - October 2000 –
Gap and Nike: No Sweat?
The BBC's flagship documentary program Panorama went to Cambodia to investigate conditions in factories producing for Nike and the GAP. They found sweatshop conditions, including forced overtime and full-time wages which are too low to meet workers' basic needs. - September 2000 – Julianto's Story
Julianto worked in an Indonesian factory producing for Nike and Adidas. Then he helped organise a strike for better wages and conditions... -
September 2000 – Like Cutting Bamboo
Oxfam Australia report on workers' right to freedom of association in Nike supplier factories in Indonesia. This report is no longer online, but on request we can email you a full copy of the NikeWatch web-pages as at October 2003, including this report. Note that the zip file is 1.2MB so don't request it unless your email connection can handle relatively big files. - September 2000 –
Monitoring the Monitors: A Critique of PriceWaterhouseCoopers's Labor Monitoring.
Nike claims that monitoring by PriceWaterhouseCoopers ensures that labour standards are respected in Nike contract factories. In this report MIT Professor Dara O'Rourke concludes that PwC's monitoring methods are significantly flawed and that they paint a false impression of labour conditions. - June 2000 – The Dark Side of Football
Child and adult labour in India's football industry and the role of FIFA by the India Committee of the Netherlands. - January 2000 – Haryanto's Story
Haryanto lost some of his fingers in dangerous machinery and then he lost his job for participating in a union... - December 1999 – Profile of the Savina factory in Bulgaria
The Clean Clothes Campaign prepared this report based on research visits in April and November 1999. The Savina factory produces for Nike and Adidas. - March 1999 –
'Beginning to Just Do It'
Follow up report on health and safety conditions in the Tae Kwang Vina factory in Vietnam (see 'Smoke from a Hired Gun' below). - October 1998 –
Solvents used in production of footwear
Maquila Solidarity Network report on the dangers posed to workers by the use of toxic chemicals in sportshoe factories. - September 1998 –
Expenses for Nike Workers in Indonesia
Global Exchange Report on the drastic impact of the economic crisis on workers in Nike factories in Indonesia. - November 1997 – Smoke From A Hired Gun
A Critique by Dara O'Rourke of Nike's Labor and Environmental Auditing in Vietnam as Performed by Ernst & Young, report published by the Transnational Resource and Action Center: San Francisco Corporate Watch report on health and safety in the Tae Kwang Vina factory in Vietnam. - April 1997 – Nike in Vietnam
Vietnam Labor Watch report. - November 1996 – Sweating for Nike Oxfam Australia's first report on Nike contract factories in Indonesia. This report is no longer online, but on request we can email you a full copy of the NikeWatch web-pages as at October 2003, including this report. Note that the zip file is 1.2MB so don't request it unless your email connection can handle relatively big files.
- December 1995 – The Globe Trotting Sports Shoe
Christian Aid report on the international sportshoe industry.