May 2001, New report from Global Echange, Still Waiting For Nike To Do It

May-2001, New report from Global Echange, Still Waiting For Nike To Do It

Nike's Labor Practices in the
Three Years Since CEO Phil Knight's
Speech to the National Press Club

Taking a detailed look at Nikes promises from three years ago and describing what they have actually done (very little).

The new report can be found at:
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/corporations/nike/stillwatiting.html

Download a pdf version (361kb) of the report

Note that Nike's response is on their website at http://www.nikebiz.com Find below the press release.

Press release of Global Exchange:

New Report Reveals Nike's Reform Talk Was a Public Relations Ploy Still Waiting For Nike To Do It

Three Years After CEO Phil Knight's Reform Promises Nike Workers Continue to Suffer Repression & Poverty Wages

"On May 12, 1998 Nike CEO Phil Knight made a major speech pledging to reform his company's labor practices. Our report shows that three years later, Nike workers in sweatshops abroad still work for wages they and their children can't live on, are forced to work long overtime hours, and face harassment, violent intimidation and firing when they organize to defend their rights or tell journalists about labor abuses in their factories," said Leila Salazar, corporate accountability coordinator of Global Exchange, the international human rights organization.

Global Exchange will release a 105-page report, Still Waiting for Nike to Do It, today that examines Nike's performance in relation to commitments made by its CEO Phil Knight on May 12, 1998. In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC Knight made what were, in his words, "some fairly significant announcements" regarding Nike's labor practices. Noting that the controversy over sweatshop conditions had made his company's product "synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse," he announced that Nike would adopt new labor policies on health and safety, child labor, independent monitoring, among other issues. Knight later described the speech as a "watershed event" that signaled a "sea change in the company culture."

The Global Exchange report provides detailed analyses of Nike's performance with respect to each of the six areas of reform cited by its CEO and concludes, "Nike has mislead consumers and let down the workers who make its products, who continue to suffer extreme injustice while Nike touts itself as an industry leader in corporate responsibility." The report also provides a detailed, 70-page account of the issues that Knight avoided in his 1998 speech and which Nike has continued to neglect during the last three years, among them raising workers' wages, ensuring that they have the right to form independent unions, and eliminating long hours of forced overtime.

In May 1998 Knight Promised	Three Years Later
To involve non-government organizations (NGOs) in factory monitoring with summary statements available to the public.	Nike has arranged only one audit of one factory by one non-profit group. Nike won't say when, if ever, summary statements of NGO factory monitoring will regularly be released to the public.
To expand education programs making free high school equivalency courses available to all Nike sportshoe workers.	Less than 2% of Nike workers have participated in these programs, primarily because their wages are so low they cannot afford to give up overtime income in order to take a course.
To increase its micro-enterprise loan program to a thousand families each in the countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand.	Small loans have been made to 5,000 individuals. Meanwhile the 530,000 workers in Nike's production chain continue to live in poverty.
To fund university research and open forums on responsible business practices, including funding four programs in United States universities in the 1998-1999 academic year	Nike held one forum in 1998. Nike has refused to allow factory research by reputable academics. Most of the academic research the company claims to have funded is not available to the public.
Raising the minimum age for factory workers to 18 for footwear factories and 16 for apparel factories.	Nike workers' wages are not paid enough to support their children, hence many of those children will be forced to work from a young age.
Adherence to U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) standards in factory air quality.	Nike gives factory owners advance notice of air quality testing, allowing them to change chemical use on the day of the test.

"During the last three years Nike has continued to treat the sweatshop issue as a public relations inconvenience rather than as a serious human rights matter," says Salazar. "Nike executives evidently think that by tinkering around the edges of labor reform they can diffuse criticism and scrutiny. It is indefensible that consumers and most importantly Nike factory workers are still waiting for Nike to take concrete steps to guarantee the people making its products aren't facing abuse and intimidation."