00-07-31, Fair Wear Australia offers Nike pens to sign the Homeworkers Code of Practice with, as the torch passes by the major Olympic sponsor's concept store.

Monday 8am 31st July 2000

MEDIA RELEASE

Just Sign It, Nike.

Fair Wear offers Nike pens to sign the Homeworkers Code of Practice with,as the torch passes by the major Olympic sponsor's concept store.

At 12.40pm, as the Olympic torch passes by the Nike Concept Store, giantpink pens with 'Just Sign It' painted down their sides, will run with thetorch a short distance.

Pamela Curr of Fair Wear said, "Last month Nike settled the Federal Courtcase for breach of the Award, admitting that they needed to clean up theiract. Yet, today, they continue to refuse to sign the Homeworkers Code ofPractice."

"They say they have their own Code, and they don't need to sign theAustralian standard. The Australian Homeworkers Code of Practice is theonly code which is administered by equal numbers of employer and unionrepresentatives, and allows the Union to monitor the entire contractingchain. Nike say that homeworkers don't sew their clothes, so they don'tneed the code, but the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union was ready topresent evidence to the court that outworkers sew their garments. Theseoutworkers typically work 12 to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for about athird of the Award rate of pay, often working for as little as $2 an hour."

Kylie Wilkinson, the artist who made the pens, said, "I feel that it isimportant to bring to the attention of the public the fact that Nikemanufactures shoes in China, Indonesia and other countries with noprotective labour laws, and minimum wages set lower than subsistence level."

Kylie went on, "In light of their treatment of workers in the third world,and Australia, the public have to ask whether Nike is an appropriatesponsor for the Olympics."

Nike are one of the targets of the S11 protest. S11 stalls are heldoutside Nike every Friday evening.

A Nike worker from Indonesia will also be touring Australia in September, to tell the public about the oppression he suffered in a factory making Nike shoes.

EVENT DETAILS: What: Giant pink pens running with the torch outside the Nike concept store. Where: Corner of Bourke St and Swanston St. When: 12.30pm, Monday, 31 July 2000. Contact: Shelley Marshall - 0408 357 882, Pamela Curr - 0417517075