NIKE shoe production
in the Third World
-- the facts

Indonesian workers make $2.46 a day

10,000 Indonesians went on strike to protest wages that are below subsistence level.

"If I don't work overtime, I can't survive," says Baltazar at PT Hasi Nike factory in Jakarta. He works an average of 40 overtime hours a week.

Vietnamese workers make $l.60 a day

1,300 workers at the Sam Yang factory went on strike to demand a one cent per hour raise in wages. Other issues include excessive and illegal overtime and compensation for working with hazardous material.

Chinese workers make $1.75 a day

There is no minimum wage in China and when abuses are discovered, the whole factory disappears. "The supervisors will get nervous and move the work to another province. It's impossible to monitor factory conditions," says Asia Monitor Resource Center in Hong Kong.

You pay over $100 for shoes that cost less than five dollars to make.

As a consumer, you can change Nike's unfair labor practices.

Write: NIKE Inc.

One Bowerman Drive

Beaverton, OR 97005

PHILIP KNIGHT, CEO of Nike is the sixth richest man in America. He is worth 5 billion dollars and profits off the backs of sweatshop laborers.

NIKE is the biggest shoe company in the world because it operates in countries where it is illegal to organize and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.

NIKE can afford to pay endorsers like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Monica Seles a combined total of over 60 million dollars to brand themselves with the swoosh.

Call NIKE at: 1-800-344-6453 (press 3 for comments)

Demand that NIKE pays overseas factory workers a living wage for an eight hour work day.

Vietnam and China should get $3.00 a day and Indonesia should get $4.00 a day.

For More Information contact Global Exchange: 415-255-7296,

E-mail: gx-kimberly@globalexchange.org

Address: 2017 Mission Street, Ste. 303, San Francisco, 94110

Website: www.globalexchange.org

*****

Questions and answers about NIKE

Where does Nike produce shoes?

1- During the 1970's, most Nike shoes were made in South Korea and Taiwan. When workers there gained new freedom to organize and wages began to rise, Nike looked for "greener pastures." It found them in Indonesia, China and most recently Vietnam - countries with no protective labor laws, endless supplies of cheap labor, and authoritarian leaders who outlaw independent labor unions.

2- By 1992, Nike had eliminated nearly all of their U.S. work force in favor of low-wage Asian producers.

Why pick on Nike, if all shoe companies are the same?

1- The Asian-American Free Labor Institute in Indonesia says Nike factory workers file more complaints about wage violations than any other shoe company.

2- Nike has been in Vietnam for less than two years and already one factory official has been convicted of physically abusing workers, another fled the country during a police investigation of sexual-abuse charges and a third is under indictment for abusing workers, as reported in the New York Times.

3- Nike, the biggest shoe company in the world, spends $978 million a year on marketing ploys that "empower" women and inner-city youth to buy overpriced shoes that are made with sweatshop labor.

4- Nike has a responsibility to abide by humane labor practices as defined by their Code of Conduct which says "in the area of human rights...in the communities in which we do business - we seek to do not only what is required, but what is expected of a leader." A leader would not lower human rights standards to maximize profits.

Aren't the workers happy to have the factory jobs?

1- Workers risk retaliation and further repression by staging strikes to protest Nike's unfair labor practices. In April 1997, 10,000 Indonesian workers went on strike over wage violation. In the same month, 1,300 workers in Vietnam went on strike demanding a one cent per hour raise and last year 3,000 workers in China went on strike to protest not only low wages, but hazardous working conditions.

2- If Nike sets up shop in a developing country, great things are supposed to happen because the workers need jobs. Yes, they need jobs. What they don't need is physical and verbal abuse by Nike factory supervisors. What they don't need is to work up to 192 overtime hours per month because they don't even make minimum wage at the Nike factories in Dongguan Province in China.

Isn't the minimum wage enough to live on in those countries?

1- If minimum wage was enough, workers would not have to work from 100 - 200 overtime hours per month.

2- The Indonesian government admits minimum wage is only 90% of subsistence needs for one person.

3- U.S. companies like Coca-cola and Goodyear recognize minimum wage is not enough. They are in Indonesia paying above minimum wage and have remained competitive in the global market.

Can Nike afford to pay workers a living wage?

1- Some U.S. companies like New Balance, make most of their shoes in the U.S. paying workers over 30 times what Nike workers get in Vietnam. And New Balance still makes a profit.

2- Less than 10 percent of Nike's 978 million dollar marketing budget could raise the salary of all their factory workers in Asia.

3- Nike has projected revenue at 9 billion dollars for 1997 and the CEO of Nike, Philip Knight is worth 5.2 billion dollars.

G I o b a I E x c h a n g e Phone: 415-255-7296, E-mail: gx-kimberly@globalexchange.org

Address: 2017 Mission Street, Ste. 303, San Francisco, 94110 Website: www.globalexchange.org

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