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NEWSLETTER 13, NOVEMBER 2000
Wages, Hours and Trade Union
rights -- Still Missing
Research into Nike's
Global Alliance assessment study
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(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"
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