KELLY: Child Labor Overseas: A Code of Conduct With Real Teeth

It's amazing what you can accomplish in two months, if you set your mind to it. And get angry kids on your side. When Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Dan McCurry of the Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund kicked off their FoulBall Campaign on June 28, they set out to enlist kids as activists. Their goal: to get child labor out of soccer ball manufacturing. Through media attention and outreach to soccer clubs nationwide, they spread the word that up to 20 percent of all soccer balls were being made with child labor. And they also spread around the phone numbers of who to contact to complain. Like Adidas. And the World Federation of Sporting Good Industries. And the U.S. Youth Soccer Association. Because kids are their customers and constituents, organizations like these are not exactly thrilled to have a bunch of angry kids tying up their phone lines. And they got angry calls galore. "Our base was tens of thousands of children playing soccer," McCurry said. "When they found out the balls they were kicking around were made by other kids, they wouldn't stand for it." Kids reached out to help kids. And it worked. On September 3, FIFA -- the Geneva-based Federation Internationale de Football Association -- announced a landmark code of ethical conduct. The Code of Labour Practice not only forbids child labor, but also requires fair wages and decent working conditions -- all of which have been abominably lacking in the soccer ball industry, where kids as young as 6 often labor in cramped conditions for up to 14 hours a day. Every regulation soccer ball must bear the FIFA label of approval -- specifying the ball is of regulation size, weight and durability. And now, that label must also specify fair labor conditions. It's a huge step, a landmark in the whole field of overseas labor conditions. It's worth lingering for a moment over this victory in the war against child labor, because it has some things to teach us. First is the speed with which change came, because pressure was applied at the right points. That gives us all hope, that things can happen faster than we imagine. Second, it offers insight into how to go beyond mere codes, by putting real teeth into them. The FIFA code promises two things lacking in other codes: sanctions, and monitoring. Without these two factors, companies rarely go beyond the "declaratory stage" -- to use a term coined by Pharis Harvey, executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund. Starbucks, for example, has a code of conduct for overseas coffee-pickers, "but there's not much follow-through," Harvey said. "A code has very limited usefulness unless the workers in the field know about it. There needs to be a mechanism to discuss problems." With soccer balls, the enforcement mechanism is the FIFA label itself. Companies "lease" the right to use the label from FIFA, and to receive it, they now must certify that they and their subcontractors are following ethical labor standards. With an industrywide regulatory system already in place, the labor requirements are piggy-backing on it. This is a strategy that can be carried through the entire multi-billion-dollar sporting goods industry, McCurry said. And it may be a strategy that can apply to other industries as well. There are serious sanctions for companies that don't meet the code: Their soccer balls don't get certified. But how does anyone know if the code is being carried out? That's the $64,000 question. And that's where external monitoring comes in. In the case of FIFA, policing will fall to union organizations such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the world's largest organization of trade unions, based in Brussels. The terms of the monitoring are still being worked out, but the code stipulates that licensees must allow inspections at any time, and must inform workers about the code -- so they themselves can bring up infractions. It's all brand-spanking new, and how well it works in practice remains an open question. In Pakistan -- where an estimated 80 percent of all soccer balls are made -- kids have been sewing balls alongside their parents for generations. It's unlikely that will all change with the stroke of a pen. But change has at least begun. It began with kids helping kids.