View the online version  if you are having trouble loading this message
To assist delivery of this message, please put nikewatch@oxfam.org.au in your address book

In this issue: former union leader Hamdani appeals for your support after a five year struggle following his unfair dismissal from an adidas supplier. A story on the ugly side of underwear shows why we must continue to monitor the down-under clothing labels of Pacific Brands.  Learn why Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren are out of fashion on labour rights and find out how a university campus gave Nike the boot.  Also discover fashion industry realitiy TV with popular documentary series, Blood Sweat and T-Shirts.

Hamdani with son, Restu (Tim Herbert/Oxfam AUS)

32-year-old Hamdani made adidas sports shoes for several years before being unfairly dismissed for his participation in a strike for better wages. He has now been without work for almost five years and is struggling to provide for his young son, Restu.  Three years ago adidas promised to help unfairly dismissed workers like Hamdani to secure new employment with adidas suppliers.  However Hamdani has not received any response after sending applications adidas supplier CLI on three occasions.  Hamdani is concerned that former union leaders are being blacklisted.  He asks for your support to help ensure that union leaders are not subject to discrimination in factories producing adidas.

‘I hope that adidas consumers will think more about the issues faced by the people who make the shoes that they wear.  Don’t just be influenced by the sports shoe advertisements that are all about luxury, wealth, strength…. Instead try to look behind the scenes at the workers who make those shoes and see the human face of production.’ 

Support Hamdani, write to adidas to demand fair and transparent recruitment processes at their supply factories.

Support Hamdani and Write to adidas
Read our past discussions with adidas on freedom of association and labour rights

Iconic Bonds moves off-sure (Giulio Saggin/ ABC News)

With Bonds and Holeproof under its belt, Pacific Brands owns some of the biggest trademarks of Australian fashion.  Last year the Pacific Brands closed numerous Australia-based operations, including the iconic Bonds factory, and moved production off-shore.  To add to concerns, Pacific’s major off-shore sourcing agent—Li & Fung—who produce the Sheridan label, has a poor track record on transparency and labour rights monitoring.  Last month Oxfam sent on more than 650 of your letters to let Pacific Brands know that it can’t outsource its responsibility on workers’ rights.  Stay tuned as we wait for their response.

Aussie brands need to monitor labour: Oxfam
Read Oxfam Transparency Report

Hear, speak, see no evil (CCC)

Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger have decided to look the other way as trade union violations continue at an Indonesian factory supplying for the two US fashion labels.  In 2007, workers fed up with unsafe working conditions and inadequate wages decided for form an independent trade union at the PT Mulia Knitting Factory. Since establishing a new union the members have been subject to intimidation by factory management.  They feel pressured to choose between leaving the union… and losing their jobs.

Nike gets the boot (Oxfam AUS)

Last month, as thousand of workers in a Nike shoe factory held strikes in Vietnam for better wages, Nike also got the boot from University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The university will be the first to end its apparel contract with the multinational sportswear brand.   The decision to cut ties with Nike relates to serious concerns about labour rights violations at two Nike supply factories in Honduras.

Participants of Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts

Blood, Sweat and T-shirts is a BBC documentary series in which six British fashionistas trade shopping in London with labouring for the Indian garment industry.  As the Londoners struggle to meet daily targets in cotton fields, factories and Mumbai sweatshops, the documentary also grapples with the realities of low wages, poor working conditions and child labour.