On March 20th a virtual torch relay started in the Netherlands and made its way East and West around the world. So far it has reached over 11.000 people in more than 88 countries! The IOC has already received over 134 letters from our page. And still they remain quiet. Let’s see what happens when the voices of tens of thousands people that signed in are added.

On May 1st the Worker Rights Flame reached China, just like the Olympic Flame, challenging the International Olympic Committee to respect worker’s rights. You still have the chance to Catch the Flame now that it has traveled the world by adding your name and put your location on our map. Carry the torch and add your voice to thousands of others demanding a change from the IOC!

Please ask your Family, friends, colleagues and neighbours again by e-mail, sms or by any other means to sign in and CATCH THE FLAME.

To help you with your outreach, see below a sample message that you could cut and paste into an e-mail message to your mailing lists today:

Subject: Have you caught the flame yet?

Dear …,

Have you heard about this unique worldwide alternative torch relay to put pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to play fair by respecting worker’s rights? Visit www.catchtheflame.org, sign in, catch the flame and join the thousands who think the IOC needs to take action to ensure good conditions where their products are made.

The “catch the flame” action is part of the Play Fair campaign, which is calling upon the IOC to face up to its responsibility to ensure decent working conditions where Olympic goods are made. When you sign onto the website you will be sending a message to the IOC: make sure that products that use the Olympic logo are made under fair conditions. Merchandising the Olympic logo is a hundreds of millions dollar business under the control of the IOC. There are many cases of exploitation and abuse where Olympic production takes place, such as prolonged mandatory overtime, income far below minimum wage and bans on forming labour unions [to read more see Play Fair’s research report at http://www.playfair2008.org/docs/playfair_2008-report.pdf ]. But so far the IOC hasn’t even made a commitment to follow up with concrete steps to address this ongoing problem. The IOC can and should ensure that the rights of people making Olympic products are respected.
Catch the Flame and sign your name!
By signing on to the Internet site www.catchtheflame.org you indicate your support for Play Fair’s demand that the IOC take action. By signing on your name will be added to the message that will be presented to the IOC at the end of this action. You can put your “Play Fair flame” on the world map and that way become a “torchbearer” for Play Fair’s labour rights message. On the site you can follow the progress of the flame, its location and how many flames have been sent.
Help us break a record
We want to demonstrate that there is widespread support for an end to workers’ rights violations in Olympic supply chains. We need to gather as many signatures as possible before the real Olympic torch reaches Beijing. Can you help us? After you’ve signed yourself on as a torchbearer, please forward the flame by sending a text message to your friends reading “Join me in the labour rights Olympic torch relay! Pass the Flame! www.catchtheflame.org
Or forward this e-mail to as many people as you know.
And of course, simply ask your friends: “Have you caught the Flame?”

Thanks for your support!

May 1st is traditionally a day for worker rights protesting. Hong Kong is no exception. Play Fair 2008 and Catch the Flame were among the more than a thousand protesters. The next day one of Hong Kong’s leading newspaper featured the following article accompanied by a photo of the protests with the giant alternative worker rights Fuwa in it. More progressive newspapers gave a much larger estimation of the number of participants. Enjoy:

Hundreds of foreign domestic helpers joined local workers in a show of
solidarity yesterday to demand that the government abide by the ideals of
May Day.

But Hong Kong’s two biggest labour unions, which organised two protest
rallies, were still far apart.

About 1,000 workers from the Beijing-loyalist
Federation of Trade Unions marched from Chater Garden to the Government
Offices in Central yesterday morning.

The Confederation of Trade Unions, part of the pan-democrat camp, attracted
2,800 mostly Indonesians, Filipinos and Thais to a colourful and rowdy
day-long festival of slogan-shouting, dancing and singing from yesterday
morning at Victoria Park before marching to the Government Offices in the
afternoon.

Thirty-one Indonesian, Thai, Filipino and Nepali associations also
entertained workers in a May Day programme organised by the Coalition for
Migrants’ Rights at the Central Lawn in Victoria Park.

“Together, we move and we fight for our rights”, the Indonesians proclaimed
on their T-shirts, as they carried placards and banners calling for an end
to “underpayment and excessive agency fees”.

The Asian Migrants Co-ordinating Body also put on entertainment at the park
as protesters assembled. The two umbrella groups then joined the
confederation for the May Day march.

Asian Migrants’ Co-ordinating Body spokeswoman Dolores Balladares said
domestic helpers demanded “substantive and commensurate wage increases” and
the scrapping of the government’s “anti-migrant policies” that made them
“vulnerable to abuse and violence”.

Satya Prasad Ghale, chairman of the Far East Overseas Nepalese Association,
led a group calling for an end to an immigration policy banning Nepali
domestic helpers from coming back to the city after their contracts had been
terminated.

Groups representing security guards, truck drivers, cleaners, office
secretaries and employees of schools, bus companies and universities also
took part in the confederation rally.

“This year our main theme is about raising salaries to keep up with an 8.3
per cent inflation rate, legislation for a minimum wage, standardised work
hours and collective bargaining,” confederation organising secretary Walker
Fung Kai-yuen said.

April Fifth Action legislator Leung Kwok-hung attended a rally organised by
the Jesus Is Lord charismatic group before waiting in Admiralty to join the
confederation march.

“I wanted to get across my message they will never walk alone, like those
Israelis who walked with Moses, since labour rights is human rights,” he
said.

“Migrant workers need to be more organised and be more militant. Maybe a
half-day strike and every migrant worker takes to the street. That is the
original May Day - work stoppage. ”

The Labour and Welfare Bureau said it would review labour policies “from
time to time”.

Most Philippinos, and certainly workers, don’t have access to the Internet, that’s why they chose to show their support in a more tradtional, but equally impressive, way. They took it to the streets of Manilla. Workers in the Philippines DO have mobile phones, so they’ve been text messaging to our special number (0031 6 39171613). Tell your internetphobic friends that there is no excuse anymore for not signing in .

Here’s the Philippino press release and some photos. And looks like quite a happening!

From April 19 to 22, 2008

SCW To Participate in the Catch the Olympic Flame for Labor Rights

Rosario , Cavite - The Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW), an alliance of workers organizations and unions in the province of Cavite , Philippines will be holding an unofficial “Olympic Torch Relay” at 4:00 PM on April 19, 2008.

The torch relay will start at the town plaza and will end at the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) in Rosario , Cavite where a short program will be held to highlight workers rights violations and violence committed against the striking workers in two Korean apparel companies of Chong Won Fashion, Inc. and Phils Jeon Garment, Inc.

This activity is a parallel activity to the alternative torch relay being launched by the Play Fair 2008 Campaign called “Catch the Flame”. It is an electronic relay race to bring public attention to the need for Olympics movement to stamp out abuses of labor standards in workplaces making Olympic goods.

According to Merly Grafe, chairperson of the SCW, the Catch The Flame campaign is requesting any supporter to become a torch bearer via sms-bluetooth-internet.

“ Anyone interested to participate in the Catch the Flame for Labor Rights and be a torch bearer on line can log on to www.catchtheflame.org. But since not everyone in the Philippines have access to the internet, we have decided to have our own version of the torch relay to create more public awareness and to disseminate information about the labor rights violations all over the world committed by sports brands that sponsors the Olympic games”, Grafe explained.

The Fairplay Olympic flames will passed through different countries from March 24 to August 2008 and participation can be made by signing on at www.catchtheflame.org These flames would be posing a clear message to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and hopefully pressure them heed the call to respect workers rights.

The unofficial Torch Relay will be passing the Philippines on April 19-22, 2008. During these days, supporters of labor rights are encouraged to sign in their name at the website or send a text message with name, country, and a personal message to this number 00 31 6 39171613.

While the passing of the Olympic Torch in different countries had been marred by protest especially about the human rights violations of China, this year’s Olympic games’s host, it will be important to highlight and expose the on-going union repression and violence and killings among labor leaders in the Philippines and in Cavite as well.

“We were not spared from these violence and killings and we have lost three lives already to this brutal killings. First it was Bishop Alberto Ramento, the chairperson of the Workers Assistance Center, Inc. and second and third were SCW officers and former union officers of Yazaki-EMI Jesus “Buth” Servida and Gerardo Cristobal both murdered by assassins bullets along Baranggay Anabu, Imus, Cavite in separate incidents of December 11, 2006 and March 10, 2008, respectively”, Grafe laments.

Furthermore, she said that while the Olympic spirit embodies fair play, we want to demand from the Olympic games supporters to ask the Olympic brands if they are fair also to their workers in terms of their wages, job security, and workers rights.