Exploitation of workers in Olympics products plants slammed

International trade unions slammed Sunday what they said was the abuse of workers in Chinese factories producing goods such as bags and caps for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.
A report from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) condemned "severe workers' rights violations," "abuses in Chinese Olympic suppliers" and "gross violations of basic labour standards... including adult wages at half the legal minimum, employment of workers as young as 12 years old."
The report, entitled "No medal for the Olympics on labour rights," also reveals labour rights violations such as forced overtime, workers being instructed to lie about wages and conditions to outside inspectors and poor health and safety conditions.
It was published ahead of a meeting in London Tuesday of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC said Sunday it was committed to being a socially responsible leader of the Olympic Movement that took care of the Olympic brand in the best way possible. It mattered to it that souring was done ethically. That was done by the IOC leading by example as regards its direct supply chain of branded products.
"The IOC does not directly manage and control the production of Olympic-related products across the world. It has to do this by influence, and by creating standards and policies that are an important part of the process and agreed on by everyone involved in staging the Olympic Games," a statement said.
The ITUC, which has as members 304 unions in 153 countries, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes campaign, made up of non-governmental organisations and unions fighting for better conditions in the clothing and footwear sectors, joined forces in the Playfair 2008 campaign to produce the report.
Last winter investigators collected evidence from four factories licensed by the IOC to produce Olympics-related goods such as bags, caps and paper articles with the Olympic logo: Lekit Stationery Co, Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd, Eagle Leather Products and Yue Wing Cheong Light Products.