Chicago, IL
WHEREAS, Millions of dollars worth of soccer balls are annually imported into the United States by an industry which regularly uses and abuses impoverished child laborers as human sewing machines; and
WHEREAS, Over 5 million soccer balls imported and sold in the U.S., 80%, are hand stitched by children between the ages of 5 - 14. 35 million soccer balls are produced annually, primarily in Pakistan and other third world countries. The FOULBALL Campaign estimates that over 3,000 Pakistani children under the age of 14 work six days a week making soccer balls for the U.S. market; and
WHEREAS, There has been an 83% increase in the number of U.S. soccer players, mostly children and teens, in the past decade. As the U.S. market is burgeoning, the sporting goods industry is increasing the manufacture of sporting goods by children in nations where the unemployment rate of adults is very high. This child labor exploitation is destructive to the well-being of those families and their nations. We who play these games and buy these soccer balls must demand that no child labor is involved; and
WHEREAS, The FOULBALL Campaign is a coalition of humanitarian, labor, consumer, religious, educational, and child advocacy organizations, with support of the general public in the U.S. and Europe; therefore, be it
RESOLVED: That the AFL-CIO supports the removal of child labor from the soccer ball and sporting goods industries and requires that former child ball stitchers be placed in schools and physically rehabilitated; and, be it further
RESOLVED: That the AFL-CIO demands that the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), the international governing body of soccer which regulates all aspects of the game and puts its seal of approval on every soccer ball which may be used in any officially refereed contest, require a verifiable "NO CHILD LABOR" clause in the contract of every producer of a ball which carries the FIFA stamp of approval. This FIFA stamp of approval will be a verifiable monitored guarantee that its label on a soccer ball means "MADE BY ADULTS ONLY" at a fair and just wage, with liberated child workers educated and rehabilitated; and, be it further
RESOLVED: That the AFL-CIO supports the FOULBALL Campaign as one way of prohibiting exploitative child labor through creation of a system of enforceable global monitoring of soccer ball and sporting goods production facilities throughout the world.