Action Pack Guidelines

Start by congratulating yourself for participating in this campaign. You are part of a growing global movement that is committed to ending sweatshops.

You need to decide whether you will organise leafleting actions or just talk to staff in sportswear shops. Leafleting is more powerful, but if you can't leaflet, just talking to the staff is still important. The more sports retailers around the world who pass our message back to the big brands, the bigger our impact will be.

1. Leafleting:

• Download and print these guidelines, plus the leaflet, the letter, and the posters.
• Make a few copies of the posters and several hundred copies of the leaflet (two-sided) and the letter (one-sided). If you don't have access to a good printer you might need to download them onto a disk and take the disk to a commercial photocopying shop.
• Either fold the letter inside the leaflet (preferable) or keep a pile of letters to give to people who'd like them.
• Make some placards with the posters (using cardboard, masking tape, glue and a ruler or piece of wood).
• Agree with some friends on a time when you will meet outside your local sports store (maybe on a Thursday or Friday evening?).
• When you get there, and before you start leafleting, talk to staff at the store about the issue, explain what you are planning to do, and ask them to pass on letters to Nike and other sports brands (see "Talking to Shop Staff" below).
• Spend an hour or so handing out fliers to shoppers and passers by.
• If possible take digital photos of the action and send them to clr@clrlabor.org
• When you have finished, congratulate each other for taking a stand against sweatshops.
• Email a report on your action, with digital photos if you have them, to clr@clrlabor.org. Let Lara know how many of you came, how many fliers you handed out, and how staff from the store responded, and anything else you want us to know.
• Do it again, at that store, or at a new one, every week until the end of May (with hundreds more people around the world joining you each week).

• Although we should all be free to distribute information, in many parts of the world that right is, unfortunately, not fully protected by law. If someone with the authority to do so (police or government officials) asks you to move on, it is best do so politely (perhaps to continue leafleting outside another sports store).
• Shopping malls are generally private property, so it is better not to leaflet inside them. Try to find sportswear retailers that have sidewalk frontage.
• We won't win people to our cause by being pushy or aggressive. Do not harass pedestrians. Make it clear you have leaflets available, but let people take them from you if they want to. Don't force them on to people.

• Introduce yourself to staff behind the counter. Explain that you are concerned about the conditions facing workers who make sportswear, and are hoping that either they or their manager will be willing to communicate these concerns to the big sports brands.
• Give them a copy of the flier and explain that workers from the Doson factory in Indonesia have not been paid their proper legal severance pay for seven months, even though the factory produced for Nike for eleven years and only closed because Nike cut its orders.
• Give them some copies of the letters and ask that they:
  • pass a copy of the letter onto each brand that they sell in the store
  • ask the companies what their policies are on these issues.
• Say that you will return next week, or in a few weeks time, to find out if the companies responded.
• If you are planning to leaflet outside the store, let them know this. Explain that you have nothing against them personally, but that you think people should know about the conditions that their sportswear is made in.

• Aim to be polite, but firm.
• If the shop staff question whether or not what you are saying is true, point out that a number of well-respected international organisations are involved in this campaign. Point out that sweatshops are an important issue and customers have a right to know the policies of each sportswear brand.
• If you don't know the answer to a question, say so, and offer to find out the answer and get back to them. You can email the question to clr@clrlabor.org and we should be able to provide you with the information that you need.
• You might like to clean up any fliers people have dropped on the ground before you leave.

Thanks for being part of a world-wide movement committed to ending sweatshops!