Tell your MP you want a fair olympics

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 19:26

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In three easy steps

Labour Behind the Label and the TUC are calling on the organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games to make sure that workers producing merchandise for the Games have their rights respected. The organisers have made some commitments, but we are not yet sure that this will translate into really raising the bar on workers' rights.

You can ask your MP to sign an Early Day Motion (EDM) in parliament to show support for our campaign, using a website called 'Write to Them'. Here's how:

  1. Type your postcode into the box at writetothem.com (this link opens in a new window so you can still see these instructions).
  2. Click on your MP's name - it's the third column.
  3. Now type them a message. The background information below should help. The EDM is number 1309, Ethical Trading and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

What's the campaign about?

Sponsorship and merchandise for the Olympic Games is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Meanwhile, workers who produce sportswear and merchandise, wherever they are, are denied their basic rights. LBL, as part of the global Playfair campaign, wants London 2012 to raise the bar on ethical trading for all goods bearing the Olympic logo, ensuring that workers' rights are respected throughout Olympic supply chains.

Here's some further reading:

What should my MP do?

Please ask him or her to sign EDM 1309, which is the equivalent of a parliamentary petition, in support of our campaign. It's a good idea to check to see if your MP has signed it already, in which case you can still ask her or him to contact the Olympic Minster, Tessa Jowell, to show support.

What does the Early Day Motion say?

The motion is as follows:

That this House recognises the importance of taking a stand against abuses of workers' rights;

believes that all who work to make London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games a success should have the right to decent work, living wages, and all provisions of the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) core conventions;

appreciates the opportunity the Games present to set an example of ethical trading;

welcomes the progress made by the organisers of the Games so far, their statement that suppliers and licensees will be required to comply with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) base code, and their involvement with the Suppliers Ethical Data Exchange;

notes that similar such commitments at previous Olympic Games have not been particularly successful due to a lack of effective monitoring and remediation measures;

and consequently urges the Government to use its influence within the Olympic Board to ensure that contractual arrangements are in place that hold all manufacturers of official merchandise, equipment and clothing for the Games to account for the conditions in which they are produced, according to the standards of the ETI base code.

There's more background on what this means in our briefing.