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We are not machines: Nike and Adidas workers in Indonesia

Notes and References

1. See http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/morning/features/s251857.htm

2. Ngadinah's comments were translated by Agatha Schmaedick, a member of the US organisation United Students Against Sweatshops who attended part of Ngadinah's trial.

3. See Amnesty International's website at http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf/webasacountries/INDONESIA?OpenDocument (accessed 26 Feb. 2002).

4. The Global Alliance report did point out that the hourly wages at the nine factories, which at that stage varied between $US0.32 and $US0.42, were much higher than the overall hourly pay of Indonesian production workers in 1999 (US$ 0.17) (Center for Societal Development Studies 2001, p. 23). In making this comparison it neglected to mention that most Nike factories are located in heavily populated industrial zones where the cost of living and the minimum wage are both significantly higher than in most parts of Indonesia.

5. To the best of the author's knowledge official figures for recent inflation in the cost of basic food items in West Java are not yet available.

6. This is obviously not a precise measure, but it gives a broad sense of what proportion of Nike and Adidas sport shoe workers in Indonesia are in this situation. More research is urgently needed, particularly on the impact on these children of living apart from their parents.

7. Information regarding the dangers of Toluene is summarised in the Toxicological Profile for Toluene, Updated, published by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (Atlanta: ATSDR, 1998).

8. The Indonesian Manpower Ministry estimates that 40 million people are currently unemployed in Indonesia out of a population of more than 200 million (Interpress Service 2002).

9. Sources here were the companies web sites - http://www.nikebiz.com and http://www.Adidas-salomon.com/en/ir/.

Note that exchange rates cited in this report were determined using the following web-based currency converters: the Universal Currency Converter and Oanda.com http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory.

References

Bissell, T., Gesualdi, F., Haan, E. d., Curr, P., Bjurling, K., Kearney, N., Copeland, L., Gould, B., Connor, T. & Delaney, A. 2000, 'Open letter to Phil Knight (Nike CEO) from labor rights groups concerned about Nike's labor practices - a detailed response to Nike's claims to have reformed its labor practices', NikeWatch web site - http://www.caa.org.au/campaigns/nike/letter_15_March_2000.html

Business Review Weekly 2001, 'Net Earnings', by James Thomson, 13 Dec.

Business Times (Singapore) 2002, 'Indon economic rebound at risk from floods', by Shoeb Kagda, 5 Feb.

BusinessWeek 2002, "An Economic State Of Emergency, Without reform and debt relief, Indonesia faces catastrophe", Michael Shari, 11 Feb.

Connor, T. 2000, Like Cutting Bamboo, Nike and the right of Indonesian Workers to Freedom of Association, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad Briefing Paper No. 27, September.

Connor, T. 2001, Still Waiting for Nike To Do It, Global Exchange, San Francisco.

Center for Societal Development Studies 2001, Workers' Voices: An Interim Report of Workers' Needs and Aspirations in Nine Nike Contract Factories in Indonesia. Prepared by the Center for Societal Development Studies, Atma Jaya Catholic University,Jakarta, Indonesia for the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities.

Greenhouse, S. 1997, 'Nike shoe plant in Vietnam is called unsafe for workers', New York Times, 8Nov., p.1.

Inter Press Service 2002, 'Labor-Indonesia: Businesses Reject New Minimum Wage', by Kafil Yamin, 10 Jan.

Jakarta Post 2002a, 'Index prices soar in many provinces', 9 Jan.

Jakarta Post 2002b, 'Fuel prices hike won't hurt the poor, says government', 24 Jan.

Los Angeles Times 2001, 'The Inside Track', 4 June.

Minichiello, V. 1995, In-depth interviewing : principles, techniques, analysis, 2ndedn, Longman, Melbourne.

O'Rourke, D. & Brown, G. 1999, 'Beginning to Just Do It: Current Workplace and Environmental Conditions at the Tae Kwang Vina Nike Shoe Factory in Vietnam', Global Exchange web site. - http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/corporations/nike/vt.html, San Francisco, accessed 13 April 2001.

O'Rourke, D. 2000, 'Monitoring the Monitors: A Critique of PricewaterhouseCooper's Labor Monitoring', Professor Dara O'Rourke's website, Massechussets Institute of Technology - http://web.mit.edu/dorourke/www/, accessed October 2000.

TRAC 1997, 'Ernst & Young Environmental and Labor Practice Audit of the Tae Kwang Vina Industrial Ltd. Co., Vietnam', Transnational Resource and Action Centre web site - http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/nike/ernst/audit.html, San Francisco, accessed 3Apr.1998.

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