Labor Rights and the World Cup: Blessing in Disguise?

Author: Mustafe Elmi

Every four years the World Cup brings people from all around the world to watch a sport that many people adore. However, in recent history, the developing world has long wanted to host the World Cup in their countries. South Africa hosted in 2010 and Brazil hosted in 2014. Human rights organizations and international trade unions have been vocal critics of the labor rights violations that take place when developing countries host international sporting events. This paper argues that labor rights violations are more prevalent when a country is hosting a major sporting event, such as the World Cup, but in the long term there are positive impacts that comes with hosting such an event.

First, this paper will present two case studies on the labor right violations that occurred in South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014). The paper will include a discussion section with recommendations of how to improve labor rights as well. Finally, the conclusion will analyze the papers limitations and future research in this area.

Case Study 1: South Africa 2010

When South Africa won their bid to host the World Cup, then former president Thabo Mbeki said, the tournament “will send a ripple of confidence from the Cape to Cairo.” Mbeki argued that future historians will study this momentous event and say, “A moment when Africa stood tall and resonantly turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict.” He continued to say, “We have to show that Africa’s time has come.” Other South African public figures, such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, endorsed the World Cup coming home (Cowell 2009).

While South Africa’s establishment was celebrating this historic World Cup bid, Richard Pithouse, a professor at Rhodes University, wrote an article before the World Cup started in South Africa in which states, “We’ve already witnessed a brutal crackdown on shack dwellers, street traders, homeless people, street children, sex workers and the organized poor that is likely to get worse as evictions escalate and the police do more shooting-to-kill in the run-up to the World Cup” (Cowell, 2009). In the case of South Africa, there were some appalling human rights violations prior to the World Cup (Molloy and Trish 2015). In this section the paper will focus on the labor rights abuses that took place during South Africa’s World Cup Preparation.

In the summer of 2009 over 70,000 South African workers went on Strike. These workers were working on the World Cup stadiums. Protesting began because the government promised the workers a 13 percent increase in their salaries. The workers threatened that they would continue protesting unless their demands were met. Lesiba Seshoka, the union spokesperson said, “The government must help us now, otherwise we are going to delay 2010.” These workers made 2,500 South African Rand. The largest number of construction workers were members of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa and they refused to accept 10 percent increase compromise from the corporations. (Wilson 2010)

The workers were mistreated by the local authorities when they protested. Several South African judges declined calls from the South African companies to “outlaw” the strikes saying that it is within their constitutional rights to organize and protest. As part of FIFA’s assignment, South Africa was required to build ten modern stadiums. However, five stadiums were being “modernized,” whereas, the other five were built from scratch. (Khan 2014). According to human rights groups, two South African construction workers lost their lives building these stadiums. Danny Jordon, the director of the World Cup organizing committee, urged workers to go back to work while acknowledging their right to strike. Jordon’s main job was to make sure that the World Cup was going to take place in June 2010. Jordon praised the workers and said, “Their hard work has ensured that we are on track to meet our deadlines and that our stadiums will be among the best in the world next year” (Wilson 2010). The problem with Jordon and his superiors is that they were not offering any solutions to address the labor right violations that were taking place. In other words, their priority was to meet FIFA’s deadlines (Allen 2013).

According to The New York Times, the labor minister held a meeting between the nation’s largest unions, such the National Union of Mineworkers and Building Construction and Allied Workers Union. The minister was under intense pressure and the unions posed a political dilemma for his government. On one hand, South Africa was expecting half a million tourists attending the World Cup, not to mention the pride that comes with hosting such event, so everything had to go smoothly. On the other hand, labor unions played a vital role in electing the African National Congress (ANC) and Jacobs Zuma to the presidency (Alegi 2008). Udesh Pillay, a researcher for the World Cup organizing committee, said in response to the meeting, “The bottom line, I think they will come up some agreement sooner rather than later.” A few weeks later an agreement was reached (Bearak 2009).

One of the groups that benefitted from the South African World Cup were construction companies. From 2008 to 2009 the top five construction corporations in South Africa made 100 percent return from their investments. Their CEOs made a fortune because their salaries increased over 200 percent. Before the World Cup started the government promised that over 450,000 jobs were going to be created, but in the last six months of 2010 (after the World Cup tournament ended), about 110,000 construction laborers lost their jobs increasing the unemployment rate from 24.3% to 25. 2%. Though the labor unions fought for a better working conditions the salary gap rose over 70 percent from 2004 to 2009 (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013). The authors concluded, “The World Cup has therefore made its contribution to increasing social inequality within South African society.” The World Cup not only had a negative impact on construction workers and labor rights, but also contributed to the economic inequality of a country that is one of the most unequal in the world. In conclusion, there were no significant improvement on the livelihoods of the South African workers and families after the World Cup. (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013:4).

Case Study 2: Brazil 2014

Brazil is famous for its sun, beaches and soccer. However, there were protests taking place in Brazil before the first ball was kicked in 2014. According to Datafolha Agency, an opinion poll that was conducted in 2008 showed that about 80 percent of Brazilians were happy that the World Cup was coming home, but by April of 2014, only 48 percent were happy (Vickery 2014). The explanation for this lies in Brazil’s economy (Onis 2014). When Brazil won the bid to host the World Cup in 2007, the economy of the country was on the rise. However, because of political and economic problems, the economy shrunk with a negative GDP growth rate. This explained the public opinion shift of the Brazilians society (Hilton 2013).

Antonio de Souza Ramalho, the leader of Sintracon-SP, (one of the largest construction unions in Brazil) argues that the construction workers are the least underprivileged people in Brazil and they are generally unaware of their constitutional labor rights. Furthermore, Ramalho states that FIFA does not address their problems. The clear majority of the workers are from the rural and poorer parts of Brazil. The workers complained that they were been treated horribly by their employers. For example, not getting paid on time and working longer hours than they were assigned (Karlsson 2014).

Jin Sook Lee, a member of Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), argues that laborers work over 80 hours a week and says that this is a “clear violation of labor laws.” BWI organized labor workers and wanted their salaries to be increased by 10 percent. Additionally, they wanted Brazilian construction corporations to end the 12 hours work period because that violated Brazilian labor laws that were already in place. According to human rights organizations, eight men lost their lives while they were building stadiums in Brazil (Watts 2014). In addition to that, the Brazilians Labor Ministry reported that there were over sixty-two thousand World Cup- related workers’ accidents in 2012 alone. Most of these incidents happened on construction sites (Karlsson 2014)

FIFA did not comment on these horrific labor rights violations. In fact, Jerome Valcke, the Secretary General of FIFA was worried about whether all of the stadiums were going to be ready instead of addressing these crises (Vickery 2014). FIFA instead left labor-related issues for local governments to deal with (Bean 2016).

Raquel Rolnik, a special representative from the United Nations office for Adequate Housing accused Brazilian authorities of committing grotesque human and labor rights violations “in the name of the World Cup constructions” (Carrion 2013). Labor rights violations were not limited to construction, though most of the violations occur there. The Brazilian authorities also prevented Brazilians from participating in the local markets. For example, in 2014 while the Brazilian city of Salvador was hosting the World Cup for a week the street vendors were not allowed to sell their food around the stadiums. Instead, McDonalds was welcomed to provide fast food for World Cup visitors. Unsurprisingly, McDonalds is one of the sponsors of FIFA (Carrion 2013).

Discussion and Recommendations

Some might argue that the workers were the biggest losers of all parties involved. However, Eddie Cottle and Mauricio Rombaldi wrote an article titled, “Lessons from South Africa’s FIFA World Cup, Brazil and its Legacy for Labor” for the Institute for Latin American Studies. In this article, they argued that South African unions took advantage of the World Cup to protest and to show the world the systematic problems that South African workers face (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013).

The South African unions partnered with Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) to grab the attention of the international community. BWI was the first labor rights organization to develop a platform where workers can protest during mega sporting events like the World Cup. BWI’s platform is called the Campaign for Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010. The positive aspect of this movement was they had a specific issue to focus on: developing the labor conditions of construction laborers. Additionally, the authors stated, “The success of this model lies in its replication beyond South African borders.” In other words, BWI did not only stop in South Africa, but carried on promoting labor rights in Brazil as well, and is determined to continue fighting for workers’ rights in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013:1).

Authors argued throughout the paper that the BWI work has been a success story. One of the key elements that made this union succeed is that they have “five strategic pillars, such as organizing, research, negotiations, campaigning and international solidarity” (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013:5). Organizing was crucial because it is the first stage where unions come together to address the problems that they were facing. This second stage is research. The authors define research in this context as, “Raising the consciousness of South Africa trade unions to start conceptualizing an alternative way to organize workers in the construction sector” (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013:7).

With the help of Labor Research Services (an affiliate of BWI), the workers were ready to hold the authorities accountable to the point where they submitted their grievances to the Ministry of Labor. In the third stage, negotiations took place. In the case of South Africa, the unions presented nineteen demands for them to continue working. Even though they did not get all of their demands, the results were better than the alternative (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013).

Campaigning and international solidarity were essential for the labor unions to have a relative success. FIFA was under intense pressure because the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions and Swiss Labor Assistance were directly pressuring FIFA in Switzerland where the organization is based. This led FIFA to address the appalling working conditions of the laborers. This shows what happens when labor unions work together locally and globally, they can use the international supporting events in their own favor (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013).

During and after the World Cup in South Africa, there were arguably some achievements on the ground, for example, South African workers wage increased from R2500 to R6000. Most importantly, the working conditions of the workers, such as health and wellbeing, have improved compared to previous years. The South African unions were well-organized that their membership rose to over 39 percent in the three years prior to World Cup (Cottle and Rombaldi 2013).

Miguel Conchas argue that the labor and human rights violations in the developing countries will continue unless FIFA changes their attitude towards workers. FIFA is a profit maximizing association that is more concerned about bringing revenues rather than creating fairer tournament (Maharaj 2015). FIFA is powerful because when they demand something the host nations must comply. For example, in 2014 they wanted to ban the sale of Alcohol and the Brazilian government did not have a choice but to work with them. Host nations usually care about their international image instead of improving the lives of their people (Conchas 2014).

Some experts, such as Christopher Haferburg, argues that World Cup improves the “urban development” of the hosting country. When international sporting events are taking place in a nation governments of those countries are more likely to spend money on urban renewal, and improve the infrastructure of cities which create jobs for their locals. In the long term, these kinds of events are good for the investment reputation of countries (Haferburg 2011).

To improve labor rights, BWI has presented several concrete steps that FIFA can address to put an end to labor violations. For example, BWI wants FIFA to comply with the existing international labor laws of the International Labor Organizations (ILO), the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and most importantly, OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The OECD’s procedures lay the foundations for the kinds of requirements needed if a country wants to host the World Cup (BWI 2015).

BWI wants to partner with FIFA itself in examining labor rights violations of the host nations. BWI argues since FIFA already wants the host nations to conform with “FIFA laws,” why not add the protection of workers and labor rights to their existing requirements (BWI 2015). In response to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, FIFA wants selected host countries to build what it calls “Green Stadium,” BWI suggested FIFA to go one step further to include, “Decent Work Stadium and Infrastructure Standards, for all contracts throughout the supply chain related to the World Cup” (BWI 2015: 3).

On positive notes, Chappelet and Junod argue that there are several legacies that international sporting events bring to host countries in the long term, such as “Sporting legacy, urban legacy, infrastructural legacy, and economic legacy” (Cornelissen, Bob, Swart 2011:3). Sporting legacy refers to the renovation and sporting facilities that remain after the World Cup. Having more stadiums can inspire more people to join teams and extra-curricular activities which is good for their health. Urban legacy refers to the new urban development that happens in host cities (Cornelissen et al. 2011).

Concurrently, as part of the World Cup preparations, Brazil built new museums and cultural sites to attract tourists in the long term. Infrastructural legacy goes along with urban renewal. For example, both South Africa and Brazil built new metros and highways. Economic legacy is crucial for the long-term economic growth of the country. For example, there might be an increase in Tourism or foreign direct investment. If there are investments then the living standards of the host country will improve over time, but, most importantly, there will be an increase in salaries. Environmental legacies are important for host countries (Cornelissen et al. 2011). For example, Brazil expanded its bike lanes to 300 km around Rio (Conchas 2014).

In terms of politics, international sporting events will have an impact on the foreign policy and domestic politics of the host nations. After all, both South Africa and Brazil are members of the so-called BRICS groups and they want a greater publicity so that they can become important countries in the world of politics, economics and culture (Tomlinson, Bass, and Bassett 2011).

Conclusion

The paper argued that labor rights abuses are more rampant when country is hosting international supporting events, but in the long term, there is a positive impact that comes with the World Cup. To support this argument, the paper used South Africa and Brazil as case studies. Labor rights of the host nations were not protected, but if one looks the results afterward the labor rights improved gradually. The paper also presented solutions to end labor rights violations from several international labor rights organizations. The increasing partnership between domestic unions and international labor unions such as BWI can only bring positive effects in the future. The long-term economic benefits, such as foreign investments cannot be disregarded.

Labor rights organizations such as BWI studied how dire the situations of laborers were and turned it into a positive impact for the host countries. BWI had an ingenious platform because they used mega events as perfect chance to shame and empower the laborers in the developing world. As the paper presented, the labor union membership went up drastically in South Africa and the labor conditions improved over time in South Africa and Brazil.

This paper presented concise and limited research, but one can study further to search for better solutions to put an end to exploitation of World Cup workers in the developing world. This paper strongly argued that labor rights violations are prevalent during the World Cup, but one cannot ignore the positive results that came into play after the World Cup was over.

There were a few challenges while researching topics of the paper. For example, Academic articles were difficult to find in the case of South Africa and Brazil. In South Africa, there are limited academic journals that are dedicated to study sports. In the case of Brazil, there was a language barrier because most of sports journals were written in Portuguese.

Finally, if one wants to pursue further research of the impact of international sporting events, they should spend more time studying how the political and social institutions changed before and after a country, previously analyzed in South Africa and Brazil, hosts such event. Another vital aspect for further research would be the role of FIFA. This paper was mainly focused on the labor rights of hosting nations, but the role of FIFA is quite significant in the decision-making process of host nations.

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