00-09-15, Wages, Hours and Trade Union rights -- Still Missing

Research into Nike's Global Alliance assessment study

(view the report)

Approximately 10% of workers at five Thai factories producing garments and footwear for Nike were surveyed by the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI) as part of the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities project, an initiative that includes Nike, the World Bank, the International Youth Foundation, and others. When these research findings were recently released, the press has reported that on the whole "workers are satisfied with workplace conditions" (Financial Times, Sept. 6, 2000). What they fail to report is how workplace conditions have been defined. For the purposes of the Global Alliance study, "workplace conditions" does not include several major topics of concern to Thai garment and footwear workers. What's missing from the Global Alliance report are worker's opinions on issues relating to wages, hours of work, freedom of association and collective bargaining. Though Nike describes the Global Alliance as part of Nike's overall monitoring program this initiative is clearly not investigating issues of basic workers rights.

The Clean Clothes Campaign commissioned the Thai Labour Campaign to look into the situation at Luen Thai, one of the five factories. This research uncovered a large gap between the reality at Luen Thai and the portrait the Global Alliance paints. The Global Alliance fails to outline the complete context of their findings and the methodology that allowed them to obtain these results.

In the Global Alliance study selected workers were asked to answer multiple choice questions. In this way, their priorities were suggested for them. Were higher wages and shorter hours among the options they could choose from? After interviewing Luen Thai workers, the Thai Labour Campaign found that "...they felt that the questionnaires were guiding them and tried to encourage them to conduct activities at the community level. The workers questioned why they, the workers, have to do community development while their working conditions were not improved."

Workers' responses were directed to certain select topics. While workers were asked about safety, could they express their opinions on whether or not it is safe to pursue union activities? Is it safe to complain to management about working conditions? Are union activists safe from discrimination? Do workers who speak out about working conditions have to fear persecution? These issues were not covered by the Global Alliance study.

Information on workers needs relating to income is misleading. The Global Alliance report states that in all five of the Thai factories workers earn more than the minimum wage. "However the fact is that most of the apparel and footwear factories in Thailand only pay the minimum wage. There is no exception in the case of Lian Thai, where workers only earn the minimum wage and have never received any bonus from the factory. The only reason that Lian Thai workers received so-called higher than minimum wage is due to their excessive overtime workload. In other words, the reason that the Lian Thai workers continue to work in the factory is because they earn 50% of their income from working overtime until 9 p.m. and sometimes until midnight and every Sunday."

Some Lian Thai employees are hired for only four-month periods to avoid paying them benefits. During their initial job training workers are paid a lower rate, the Thai Labour Campaign reports, and this is in violation of Thai labour protection law.

Interviews with workers revealed that "the Global Alliance tried to introduce activities to the workers by emphasizing that workers need saving mechanism instruction, as the workers, especially single workers do not know how to manage their money." In reality, the lives of Luen Thai workers are characterized by a "cycle of debt. As soon as they receive their payment, they need to pay off their debt and start borrowing money again."

Nike reports that the Global Alliance will look at the workplace "through workers' eyes" and "will use that information to improve monitoring." But the Thai Labour Campaign has found that the Global Alliance survey did not include questions that allowed workers to raise issues of Thai labour protection law and trade union rights. Daily working hours and wages were not clearly discussed in the survey, though these are among the most basic labour rights.

Workers have been demanding action on issues of wages, working hours and union repression at Nike's contract facilities for years -- why omit discussion of these issues from a study that claims to investigate workers' needs? The Thai Labour Campaign research clearly demonstrates that the Global Alliance initiative is no substitute for an independent monitoring and verification system, or for a genuine complaints mechanism that allows workers to voice their grievances.

For a copy of the report "Lian Thai Industrial and the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities"