LABOR
"Now that workers at Nike's Indonesian subcontractor have won a
10.7-percent raise, observers are wondering whether the U.S. company will
leave the country. Two thirds of Nike shoes are made in Indonesia, China,
and Vietnam, where Nike's subcontractor recently fired 447 "troublesome"
employees after workers demanded a raise. In the past, Nike left Japan,
South Korea, and Taiwan as wages rose. Will Africa be the next stop?"
Le Monde, Paris.. reprinted in World Press Review page 20, September 1997
Will Tiger Mend Nike's Image?
Alan Attwood wrote a great article for "The Age" a centrist
publication in Melbourne, Australia, April 15, 1997. It was reprinted in
the "Mirror on the U.S." Section of World Press Review , page 30-31 , July
1997.
Briefly , it mentions that Tiger Wood, the great young golf pro,
was courted by Phil Knight, CEO of Nike. Woods agreed to ware the Nike
"swoosh" in return for $40 million dollars over five years. It is also
mentioned that Woods's mom is from Thailand (irony).
The article goes on to highlite several problems that have hit Nike
of late. "A new line of basketball shoes became a marketing disaster when
some Muslims took offense, claiming that a label looked very much like the
Arabic letters for Allah." it also mentions that the gas used to pump up
Nike's Air shoes is coming under fire for contributing to global warming.
Profits are revealed. "revenues... grew 36 percent in fiscal 1996.
... Knight's own Nike stock holdings have an estimated worth of more than
$3 billion."
Nike is trying to revamp it's image by employing Former UN
ambassador Andrew Young and President Carter to investigate on Nike Asian
operations.
A particularly important point the article makes is about Thuyen
Nguyen, a Vietnamese who returned to Vietnam to investigate Nike factories
there.
"Nguyen talked privately with workers, most of whom are women, and some as
young as 15. He found that the labor cost for shoes retailing for up to
$160 could be less than $1.50 per pair and detailed many instances of abuse
by supervisors of workers paid as little as $1 per day- only 15 cents per
hour".
The article also quoted Alice Turner , from her letter to the
editor New York Times " I'm going to take a hard line toward Nike. Shape
up your human-rights record and show us you've shaped up, or I will never
trade with you again."
Finally the Article possess the question .. What if Woods or Jordan
did that.
There is much more to this article. Please find it (public
libraries) and read the whole thing. While you are at it, I'm looking for
more data on Nguyen's report and investigation in Vietnam. If any one can
supply me with more info on it, please email me at cooperbenham@telis.org
Thanks, Stan Cooper
Nike Supports Women in Its Ads but Not Its Factories, Groups Say
By Steven Greenhouse
New York Times October 26, 1997
A coalition of women's groups has attacked Nike as hypocritical for its new
television commercials that feature female athletes, asserting that
something is wrong when the company calls for empowering American women but
pays its largely female overseas work force poorly.
The commercials show women saying they will be stronger, healthier and more
independent if they are allowed to play sports.
In a letter to Nike's chairman, Philip Knight, the coalition, which includes
the National Organization for Women and the Ms. Foundation for Women, wrote,
"While the women who wear Nike shoes in the United States are encouraged to
perform their best, the Indonesian, Vietnamese and Chinese women making the
shoes often suffer from inadequate wages, corporal punishment, forced
overtime and/or sexual harassment."
Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority, a research and advocacy
group, said: "The message in the empowerment ad is strong, but there's a
disconnect between that message and the way Nike pays and treats its
workers, especially its women workers. The sweatshops, which all of us
thought were a thing of the past, are back again. And just like the
feminists at the turn of the century fought them, it's incumbent on us to do
the same."
Nike's factories have become a target for labor rights groups, which have
repeatedly said that they pay too little and force workers to toil in poor
conditions. Global Exchange, a human rights group in San Francisco that has
often attacked Nike, seized on the new television commercials to rally
women's groups behind a new effort to criticize the company.
The coalition is calling on Nike to let local independent monitors inspect
factories in Asia and to increase pay, suggesting that its wages in Vietnam
be raised to $3 a day from $1.60 a day. Vada Manager, a Nike spokesman, said
the women's groups misunderstood Nike's role in Asia, adding that its
factories in Vietnam, Indonesia and China pay considerably more than do most
factories in those countries.
"Nike has created some 500,000 superior jobs with good wages around the
world in developing economies," Manager said. "The job opportunities that we
have provided to women and men in developing economies like Vietnam and
Indonesia have provided a bridge of opportunity for these individuals to
have a much better quality of life."
Ms. Smeal said, "We think it's great they're providing jobs. It's just that
the level of the wages should be increased and the working conditions
improved." Others who signed the letter to Nike include Alice Walker, the
author, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the Black Women's Agenda and the
Coalition of Labor Union Women.
The coalition's letter said many of Nike's workers in Vietnam could "barely
afford three meals a day let alone transportation, rent, clothing, health
care and much more." But Nike officials pointed to a recent study by
Dartmouth College researchers that concluded that Nike's daily wages in
Vietnam were four times the cost of obtaining three meals a day there.
The letter also faulted Nike for physically abusing workers, referring to an
incident in Vietnam in which a manager punished workers by making them run
laps in the sun.
Manager acknowledged occasional abuses and said the abusive managers had
been dismissed. He added that the company's factories had passed inspections
by Andrew Young, the civil rights leader.
[Note from Thuyen Nguyen, of the Vietnam Labor Watch: "It must be noted that
Nike has been refusing to sign a living wage provision as proposed by
President Clinton's Apparel Industry Partnership, yet at the same time the
company has been telling people that they are paying above a living wage in
Vietnam and indonesia."]
Highlights of the Vietnam Labor Watch report on Nike factories
Find out more at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/1/nikehigh.htm
The workers are not making a livable wage. They make an average of 20
cents per hour, or $1.60 a day from their factory jobs, but the cost for
eating three simple meals is $2.10 a day. Ninety percent of the workers
we interviewed told us they received extra help in terms of money, food
or housing from their families to make ends meet.
Workers cannot go to the bathroom more than once per 8-hour shift and
they cannot drink water more than twice per shift. It is a common
occurrence for workers to faint from exhaustion, heat, fumes and poor nutrition
during their shifts.
Verbal abuse and sexual harassment are frequent, and corporal punishment
is often used. One day during our two week visit, 56 women workers at a
Nike factory were forced to run around the factory's premise in the hot
sun because they weren't wearing regulation shoes. 12 fainted during the
run and were taken to the hospital. This was particularly painful to the
Vietnamese because it occurred on International Women's Day, an important
holiday when Vietnam honors women.
Other forms of punishment used are forcing workers to stand in the sun
(sun-drying), kneel on the floor with hands up in the air, write down their
mistakes over and over again like parochial school children, clean the
toilet and sweep factory floors. In November 1996, 100 workers at the Pouchen
factory were forced to stand in the sun for an hour because one worker
had spilled a tray of fruit on an altar.
Women workers have complained about frequent sexual harassment from
foreign supervisors. Even in broad daylight, in front of other workers,
these supervisors try to touch, rub or grab their buttocks or chests. One
supervisor told a female factory worker that it is a common custom for
men in his country to greet women they like by grabbing their behinds.
Health care is inadequate. At the Sam Yang factory, with 6000 employees,
one doctor works only two hours a day but the factory operates 20 hours
a day.
We found numerous examples of workers making below the minimum wage
of $45 per month, and have pay stubs as evidence. Moreover, all 35 workers
we interviewed in depth said they received below minimum wage for their
first 90 days at the factory, a clear violation of the minimum wage law.
Forced and excessive overtime to meet high quotas is the norm. While
Vietnam's labor laws say the maximum yearly overtime is 200 hours, on average
Nike workers are forced to work 500+ hours per year. If workers refuse,
they are punished or receive a warning. After three warnings, they're fired.
Workers say they do not get the legally mandated compensation for overtime
wages, night shift wages or Sunday wages, and their pay stubs confirm this.
Over 60% of the workers we interviewed complained that when they did not
meet their daily quota, they were forced to work extra hours until reaching
the quota _ with no overtime pay at all.
Almost all the workers we interviewed told us that they had lost weight
since working at Nike factories. They complained of poor nutrition, frequent
headaches and general fatigue.
Other non-Nike shoe factories we visited in Vietnam pay higher wages
and have much better working conditions.
Given the distressing conditions, the relationship between factory managers
and workers in the Nike factories is extremely tense. We believe that if
this antagonistic relationship continues, there could well be very serious
clashes.
From National Organization of Women
San Luis Obispo Chapter
P.O. Box 1306 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406
Novemebr 6, 1997
Mr. Stan Cooper
Free The Children
Paso Robles High School
801 Niblick Road
Paso Robles, CA 93446
RE: Nike
Dear Mr. Cooper and the students in Free The Children:
We read about your protest of Nike's working conditions overseas in
the Telegram-Tribune. It is with great pride and encouragement that the San
Luis Obispo chapter of the National Organization for Women congratulates
you for taking a stand against human rights abuses at Nike Corporation.
The National Organization for Women is part of a coalition of women's
groups across the country which is also protesting the hypocrisy of Nike in
advertising how their product advances women in sports here in the US,
while maintaining appalling conditions in its factories overseas where
those products are manufactured.
It is encouraging to see out young people exhibiting such
sensitivity to these problems and exhilarating to see that you have the
courage to speak out and take action against it.
We applaud you activism. Keep up the good work.
Yours truly,
Angie King
coordinator, SLO chapter, NOW
UPDATE ON THE NIKE CAMPAIGN
Nike Abuses Vietnamese Women on Women's Day:
From: LABOR ALERT
Just returned from a fact-finding delegation, a Vietnam Labor Watch representative
reports the following story concerning Nike's operations in Vietnam. A member of the
delegation, Thuyen Nguyen, verified this incident by interviewing witnesses from the
factory:
The Pouchen factory in Dong Nai has production contracts with Nike and other shoe
companies. Recently, a Taiwanese supervisor forced 56 female workers to run twice
around the two-km (1.2-mile) factory perimeter as punishment for failing to wear
regulation company workshoes. Twelve of the women suffered shock symptoms,
fainted and were hospitalized -- one of them still unconscious. All 12 spent the day in the
hospital.
This incident took place on March 8th, International Women's Day, a major holiday in
Vietnam when Vietnam honors its women and many Vietnamese companies give gifts to
their women workers. Nguyen noted that Nike factory managers all knew that there were
Americans currently in Vietnam to investigate abuse in their factories, and even so they
allowed this incident to occur. "Just imagine what happens under normal conditions,"
said Nguyen. "It is clear that under the current system Nike cannot control its contractors
in Vietnam."
While the Vietnam Labor Watch delegation was in the country, there also were two
strikes at Nike facilities in Cu Chi. These disputes concerned issues of overtime pay,
arbitrarily firing of employees and firing of employees without the presence of a union
representative. During Nguyen's stay in Vietnam, the Worker newspaper published
several articles about those strikes and one about another Nike factory (Sam Yang) with
a history of labor abuses. The latter story concluded that Sam Yang still has several
problems with its labor practices, including wages, overtime and treatment of
employees.
During his stay in Vietnam, Nguyen interviewed 35 Nike workers and 25 Reebok
workers with the help of Vietnamese officials. Since the Nike workers were too fearful
of retaliation to talk while inside factory confines, Nguyen waited outside the gates and
conducted interviews there. He received help from the Vietnam General Confederation of
Labor, local confederations of labor, local unions at the factories and reporters.
Everyone he encountered was upset about abuses at Nike factories and went out of their
way to help.
Labor union officials in Vietnam said that they were urging criminal charges against the
Taiwanese supervisor at the Pouchen Nike shoe factory. Vietnam has accused foreign
factory managers of worker abuse on several occasions. A Korean woman manager was
given a three-month suspended jail term last year for hitting Vietnamese workers on the
head with a shoe.
Nike Producing in Haiti:
An article published in the Grand Rapids Press on December 15 revealed that some Nike
clothing is being produced in Haiti. Nike's contract is with the H.H. Cutler Co. -- one of
the same companies which is the subject of the National Labor Committee's Disney
campaign.
The GR Press story, written by Mary Ann Sabo, details what has happened since Cutler
moved its operations from Michigan to Haiti in recent years. The move created misery
for the Michigan workers who lost their jobs. The Haitian workers who now have those
jobs also are suffering. Sabo quotes one worker who, after working at Cutler's Haitian
operation for five years, makes only 30 cents an hour:
...it's not enough to get by on. It's not enough to eat or send my children to school.
Everything I'm trying to do doesn't seem to bring me further in my life.
Nike Protests Continue:
Ontario, Canada. Campaign for Labor Rights activist Bill Kennedy teamed up with Julie
Dwyer-Young of Development and Peace to organize a leafleting whose "participants
ranged in age from 4 months to late 70s."
Eugene, Oregon. The Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network has repeatedly leafleted at
a local Nike outlet.
Vancouver, British Columbia. East Timor Action Network (ETAN) handed out leaflets
emphasizing "Nike's labor practices in the third world while relating this devaluation of
human lives to the situation in East Timor, where Suharto is relentlessly pursuing his
genocide of the Timorese."
The Cesar Chavez Student Organization for Labor Solidarity at Western Washington
University organized Nike events in Bellingham and Olympia, Washington.
San Francisco. Global Exchange organized actions around the opening of a new Nike
Town store. During a Global Exchange press conference two days before the
demonstration at the Nike Town opening, San Francisco Labor Council Secretary Walter
Johnson called for the AFL-CIO to initiate a national boycott against Nike products until
the company begins paying its workers a living wage and treating them according to
international labor standards. Medea Benjamin, of Global Exchange, said, "Nike
sweatshop workers in Indonesia make $2.20 a day -- well below the livable wage, yet
Nike continues to pour money into bloated megastores, into its CEO's $5.2 billion
hoard, and on multi-million dollar promotional contracts with rich sports stars."
Nike Adds Right of Free Association to Code of Conduct:
The Fair Trade Center (in Sweden) recently met with a spokesperson from Nike. During
the meeting, Nike practiced its usual strategy of denial and disinformation. However,
one positive new development did emerge. The latest Nike code of conduct is to contain
the following language:
Management [will] recognize the dignity of the individual, the rights of free association
and collective bargaining.
Of course, Nike already makes many fine commitments in its code of conduct, little of
which does the company bother to implement. Still, the fact that Nike now officially
recognizes its workers' right to engage in union activities gives us addtional leverage
with the company.
Andrew Young To Review Nike code:
According to an Associated Press story dated February 25:
Nike has hired former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young as part of an effort to counter
criticism that working conditions at some of the company's Asian factories are
inhumane. Young and his GoodWorks International group are to review a new code of
conduct for the shoe and apparel company's overseas factories...
Max White, coordinator for the Portland-based Justice Do It Nike organization, said...he
hopes Young is able to make an independent review and does not simply conclude what
Nike wants him to conclude or see what Nike wants him to see.
In an interview with Campaign for Labor Rights, White added that the core issue is not
the content of Nike's code of conduct but its enforcement, which so far has been close to
nil.
Coming Up:
UCLA protests: The UCLA Vietnamese Student Union's Advocacy Committee is
preparing for a multi-event Boycott Nike Campaign to take place during the first and
second weeks of April. There are approximately 1200 Vietnamese students at UCLA.
Nike tour, May 2-23: Campaign for Labor Rights and Press for Change are organizing a
12-day speaking tour in Canada (Vancouver, Alberta and Ontario) with an Indonesian
woman fired by a Nike subcontractor when she organized for her rights. Cicih Sukaesih
will meet with local activists in Vancouver and at several stops in Alberta and Ontario.
The tour is being generously funded by the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund
and by the Alberta Federation of Labor. Planning is also underway to add tour stops in
West Coast cities of the U.S.
Delegation to Indonesia, May 20-31: Global Exchange is organizing its second
delegation to Indonesia, where participants will learn about the context of repression in
which Nike and other transnational companies operate. From the Global Exchange
newsletter: "Indonesia has achieved high economic growth rates, yet human rights
abuses and suppression of democratic forces continue under the dictatorship of General
Suharto. This delegation will observe the National Parliamentary Elections with local
NGOs, while meeting with activists, students and government officials. Following up
on our Nike and anti-sweatshop campaigns, we will also explore the role of
multinational corporations. Cost is $2150 from San Francisco/Los Angeles. Late fee
after April 10." Call 800-497-1994 for more information.
International mobilization: Campaign for Labor Rights and Press for Change are
coordinating with groups around the world which have sports shoe campaigns. There is
likely to be a major international mobilization against Nike, probably on October 18.
Contact Information:
To receive the Campaign for Labor Rights newsletter, send $35.00 to Campaign for
Labor Rights, 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. To receive a sample copy of
the newsletter, send your postal address to clr@igc.apc.org or 541-344-5410. We rely
on subscriptions to help us provide our many services. Please join! Also check out our
web site at http://www.compugraph.com/clr
http://www.news-star.com/stories/092197/biz_workers.html
Study: Chinese workers abused making
Nikes, Reeboks
Last modified at 11:07 p.m. on Saturday, September 20, 1997
NEW YORK (AP) -- Subcontractors making shoes in China for Nike and Reebok use
workers as young as 13 who earn as little as 10 cents an hour toiling up to 17 hours
daily in enforced silence, independent observers charge.
The motive of the two American companies is: "Where in the world can we find the
cheapest labor -- even if it's in the most repressed circumstances?" said Medea
Benjamin of Global Exchange, a watchdog group that provided a study of the Chinese
factories to The Associated Press.
Nike has used human rights activist Andrew Young to "whitewash" abusive working
conditions not only in China, but also in Vietnam and Indonesia, said Ms. Benjamin,
co-director of the private, nonprofit San Francisco-based group, which has an office in
New York.
Young insists he saw no sweatshop conditions when he toured plants making Nike
shoes. Nike said the report was erroneous and Reebok said it monitors work records at
the plants making its shoes.
Nike, the world's No. 1 athletic shoe manufacturer, has been accused by human rights
groups of running overseas sweatshops. Clothing makers also have come under fire
for conditions at factories elsewhere in Asia.
Global Exchange is acting for two human rights organizations in Hong Kong that
interviewed scores of workers from four major sports shoe subcontractors in China's
southern Pearl River Delta. The four factories, which employ at least 80,000 people,
were monitored in 1995 and again in June and July 1997.
The subcontractors at all four sites are violating not only "the most basic tenets of
Chinese labor law, they're also flagrantly violating (Nike's and Reebok's) own codes
of conduct," which the companies formulated to regulate their practices overseas, Chan
Ka Wai, assistant director of Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, said
Saturday.
The 30-year-old private, nonprofit group wrote the report with Hong Kong-based Asia
Monitor Resource Centre. The two groups are funded by church groups and private
donations worldwide, Chan said.
At the Wellco plant in Dongguan County near Hong Kong, owned by a Korean
subcontractor for Nike, people as young as 13 reportedly were doing sewing and
cutting work, workers said.
Chinese labor law says no child under 16 may work in a factory, the report said.
Researchers said talking during work was not allowed, with violators fined $1.20 to
$3.60, according to the report.
It said that at the nearby Taiwanese-owned Nority plant that makes Reebok shoes,
workers were paid only $1.20 to $1.45 a day, in violation of the Dongguan minimum
wage requirement of about $1.90 for an eight-hour day.
And Nority employees routinely worked 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, the
human rights groups said. Besides the regular hours, they reportedly put in 2 to 5
hours of forced overtime, in violation of Chinese law mandating a 44-hour week.
Anyone who refuses overtime could be fined, docked an entire day's pay or even fired,
the report said.
The biggest of the four plants is Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Co. Ltd. in Dongguan,
which employs about 50,000 workers, most of them women 18 to 22 years old,
making both Nike and Reebok products.
The study said Yue Yuen did not provide social security benefits, medical insurance or
bereavement leave, although they are mandatory by law.
Nike condemned the study as "erroneous."
The study "incorrectly states the wages earned by workers, (and) makes irresponsible
accusations about worker health and safety," said Dusty Kidd, director of labor
practices for the company.
After Nike first came under criticism last year, the company hired Young, former U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, to help monitor its factories in Asia.
"I didn't see sweatshops, or hostile conditions," he said Friday, five months after a
tour of several factories that make Nikes in Vietnam, Indonesia and China.
"I saw crowded dorms," he said in a telephone interview, "but the workers were eating
at least two meals a day on the job, and making what I was told were subsistence
wages within those cultures."
The civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta said he had made "no attempt to
whitewash the situation, nor did Nike."
"I didn't say that there were no violations, but I didn't see systematic abuses. ... Nike
was trying to avoid the problems. And I helped them realize these are questions that
can't be avoided."
Reebok said the China plants making its shoes are not "Reebok factories."
However, Doug Cahn, director of the company's Human Rights Program, said "any
violations are unacceptable to us and we demand that factories take corrective action if
the charges are found to be true."
Copyright 1997 The Shawnee News-Star
Reprinted from:
San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune
Tuesday, November 11, 1997
Section C5 (Buisness)
LAWMAKERS CHASTISE NIKE CEO
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dozens of Congress members are taking Nike Inc. to task
for "ruthless exploitation" of Third World workers, contrasting billionaire
Nike chairman Phil Knight's personal wealth with the pittance he pays Asian
shoemakers.
"We are deeply disappointed and embarrassed that a company like
Nike, headquartered in the United States, could be so directly involved in
the ruthless exploitation of hundreds of thousands of seperate Third World
workers, most of whom are women," more than 50 Democratic lawmakers said in
a letter to Knight dated Sunday.
Girls as young as 13 are sewing and doing other handwork in Chinese
factories that produce Nike shoes for the U.S. market, they said.
Reps. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., and Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, led the
group, which seeks a meeting with Knight to discuss the company's labor
paractices and the reasons Nike won't build manufacturing plants in the
United States.
Forbes magazine has listed Nike's primary owner among the
wealthiest people in the world, placing his worth at more than $5 Billion,
the House members noted.
"Sadly, while your personal wealth continues to grow, you maintain
a lobor strategy which pays workers in Asia pennies an hour," they said.
"You spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year in advertisements
treating our young people as a market and urging them to buy your expensive
products -- which often cost more than $100 a pair."
Nike's public affairs office in Beaverton, Ore., said any comment
should come from company spokesman Vada Manager. Manager was traveling,
however, and not immediately available.
Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., signed the letter along with
the top Democrats on three committees, Reps. Charles Rangel of New York,
Ways and Means; Ron Dellums of California, National Security; and William
Clay of Missouri, Education and the Workforce.
No House members from Oregon or Washington signed the letter,
though Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has in the past been critical of Nike's
paractices.
In the letter, lawmakers told Knight that Nike could play an
important roel in rebuilding the manufacturing base in the United States.
But "Nike has led the way in abandoning the manufacturing workers
of the United States and their families as it produces its products in
low-wage Third World countries," they wrote.
http://www.uaw.org/solidarity/9609/15.html
PROTESTERS FROM FREE TIBET/EAST TIMOR ACTION NETWORK DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE
NIKETOWN N.Y. CITY
Protesters from the Free Tibet/East Timor Action Network demonstrate outside
the newest Niketown retail outlet in New York City. Nike has drawn increased
criticism for its use of cheap labor in China, Indonesia, and other low-wage
countries to produce expensive athletic shoes sold in the U.S. China has
ruled Tibet since the early 1950s; East Timor is controlled by Indonesia's
military dictatorship.
Heineken and Carlsberg have dropped plans to brew beer in Myanmar (also
known as Burma) after the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) threatened
a worldwide boycott. Myanmar is run by a repressive military dictatorship
that overthrew a democratic government in 1990. The IUF and human rights
groups have called for an end to foreign investment in Myanmar. The IUF
has now set its sights on PepsiCo, the only multinational company still
doing business there. PepsiCo has also been targeted by the International
Metalworkers Federation (IMF) for its attempts to undermine union representation
in its European operations.
Machinists President George Kourpias called for organizing workers in
the global world market at an IMF forum on "A Shop Floor Agenda for Global
Solidarity." Kourpias, the new chair of the AFL-CIO's International Affairs
Committee, urged IMF affiliates to work more closely with churches, environmentalists,
women's groups, and other allies to strengthen worker power around the
world. Over 250 representatives from 110 unions in 72 countries attended
the forum. Other speakers included labor leaders from Great Britain, Brazil,
and Sweden.
Auto workers at Vauxhall Motors in Wales have reduced their workweek
from 39 to 38 hours with no cut in pay. Leaders of the Transport and General
Workers Union (T&G) say that while the reduction is a modest one it
does ensure that many temporary and part-time workers become full-time.
The union will focus on overtime in the next round of bargaining.
The Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone International (PTTI) urges 223
union affiliates in 117 countries to stop buying USA Today, the U.S. daily
owned by Gannett, the same company that owns the struck Detroit News.
Solidarity - October, 1996
FREE THE CHILDREN
Reprinted from CRIMSON CHRONICLE Oct. 24, 1997. Vol. 57, No.1
Paso Robles High School Newspaper, page 15
FREE THE CHILDREN
By Angelica Yanez
America isn't it beautiful!? It is the land of the free and home of
the brave. We are proud to be American, dignified citizen of the U.S.A.. As
great as things are here, in many countries the "Third World" life isn't so
great. These poor countries face daunting problems such as child
exploitation, no enforcement of labor laws, and sexual, physical and
psychological abuse. This happens not just occasionally but day in and day
out.
Education is something we all take for granted in the U.S.A. but
children face prejudice and ridicule all over the "Third World" for having
no education.
Over 200 million children world wide are exploited everyday. These
are our earth's children and they should not be alone when there are so
many possible helping hands. You may ask "What can I possibly do to help?"
A new club has formed on PRHS campus. "Free The Children" is an
internationally based organization that joins hearts in hope and love to
help others in their time of crisis.
Craig Keilburger, a Canadian who was 13 when he lifted his voice in
support of the world's exploited, poor children and the club was formed,
first in his garage and then all over the world.
What are these basic human rights? Freedom from harm in any way,
the right to balanced meals, clothing and shelter. Each child also has the
right to protection and education. It is a sad truth that tens of millions
of children all over the world are working for just pennies a day,
oftentomake the very clothes and shoes you are wearing.
THEIR CRIES SHOULD NO LONGER GO UNHEARD. THESE ARE OUR CHILDREN OF
TOMORROW.
If you are interested in joining the crusade, see Mr. Cooper, the
club's advisor, in P5.
They have a website!
www.slocs.k12.ca.us/pasohigh/children/freethechildren.html
Don't be afraid to let your voice be heard!
RESEARCH CHILD SLAVE-LABOR ISSUES
FREE THE CHILDREN PRHS INCOURAGES STUDENTS INTERESTED IN RESEARCHING
CHILD SLAVE-LABOR ISSUES TO READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES:
October 1, 1997
Congress Set to Ban Imports of Goods Made by Child Slave Labor
Related Articles
Journal: King Cotton Exacts Tragic Toll From Egypt's Young (Sept. 25)
A.F.L.-C.I.O. Rallies Against Clinton's New Free-Trade Pacts (Sept. 24)
Take Daughters to Work? Union Offers Another Idea (April 23) Sporting Goods
Firms to Fight Sale of Soccer Balls Made by Children (Feb. 14)
Child-Labor Abuses Ignite a Youthful Crusade (Dec. 25, 1996)
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
As a result of a quiet maneuver by House and Senate conferees,
Congress is expected to enact the nation's first ban on imports of
goods made by forced or indentured child laborers, children who are
sold into bondage by their parents and who must often work a decade or
more to buy their freedom.
The bill's sponsors say it will greatly affect the importing of rugs and
carpets from Pakistan and India, where some children as young as 4 are
sold into bondage. Human rights organizations estimate that South Asia
has more than 15 million indentured child laborers.
"This is extremely important as a moral issue," said Rep. Bernard
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who introduced the legislation in
the House. "Consumers in the United States of America shouldn't be
purchasing goods made by children who are indentured servants and
virtual slaves. We should not do business this way, and we should not be
perpetuating this system."
Some experts on child labor question how effective the measure will be,
suggesting that children will be exploited as long as poverty remains
endemic worldwide.
The conference bill that includes this measure is expected to pass
Congress quickly, but Congress has not approved extra money to enforce the
provision. Nor is it clear how the United States will determine
that child labor is being used.
The conference bill that includes this measure is expected to pass
Congress quickly. Children's rights groups estimate that each year the
United States imports more than $100 million worth of goods -- for the
most part rugs and carpets -- produced by bonded or indentured children.
These groups also say that indentured child laborers are used to
mine gems or to produce exported goods like leather goods and rattan
baskets. However, such labor is also prevalent in brick and matchstick
factories, which export little of their products
Although Congress first passed laws restricting child labor in the United
States early in this century, the provision in the conference bill would be
the first law barring the import of any goods made with any child labor.
"This is an incredible breakthrough," said Terry Collingsworth, general
counsel of the International Labor Rights Fund, a Washington-based
group that has campaigned against child labor. "Now when we approach
child-labor users in the carpet sector or other sectors, we have a tool.
This will change the dynamics completely for us. Before, if you talked to
someone in Pakistan who used bonded child labor, they'd say they didn't
have to worry because there's no legal sanction in the United States.
From the day this bill is signed, that will change."
The bill, which is backed by the Clinton administration, would not ban the
import of apparel or footwear made in factories that employ 13- and
14-year-olds who are not indentured workers. But Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa who also sponsored the provision, said he hoped that it would
be a first step toward barring imports of all products made by children.
Linda Golodner, co-chairman of the Child Labor Coalition and president
of the National Consumers League, said: "We've been trying to push for
legislation against international child labor for several years. This was a
way to cover a portion of what we'd like to see done."
Sanders persuaded the House to insert the provision, on a voice vote,
into the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill. He then joined with Harkin
to persuade House and Senate conferees on Monday evening to keep
the provision in the bill, even though the Senate had not passed a similar
provision. The appropriations bill is widely expected to be enacted in the
next week.
Those campaigning against child labor predict that the U.S. Customs
Service will receive help in cracking down on these imports -- a steady
stream of tips from child labor groups, here and abroad, that seek to hunt
down employers who use forced child labor.
"This will empower nongovernmental organizations and child labor
groups to investigate where children are being exploited," Harkin said.
Federal officials say that before goods from a factory are barred from the
United States, Customs investigators would visit the site to determine
whether forced child labor was being used.
According to Human Rights Watch, desperately poor parents in India
sometimes sell 5-year-olds into bondage for $50. The children often
work for rug makers and are sometimes chained to their looms to
prevent their escape.
In theory, these children are supposed to be able to pay off their debts in
a few years, but their employers often pile on high interest charges and
add to the debt whenever the children make mistakes in a task like tying
knots in a rug. Many children remain in such bondage until they are 21.
Some experts on child labor say the bill fails to address the underlying
cause of child labor: poverty in developing nations.
Elliot Schrage, a Columbia Business School professor who has helped
coordinate a sports equipment industry effort to stop the use of children
in stitching soccer balls in Pakistan, said, "If Congress and the
administration really wants to end child labor in the developing world,
they need to support efforts to educate children in poor communities, to
provide their parents with meaningful jobs and to enforce laws that
already exist in those countries that already prohibit forced labor."'
On the House floor recently, Sanders got rapid approval, without any
debate, to insert the provision into the Treasury-Postal appropriations
bill. His strategy, aides said, was to introduce the provision as an
amendment when the House was trying to ram through the bill, which
contained a cost-of-living raise for Congress that many House members
were embarrassed about and wanted to dispose of quickly.
Since the Senate has not approved a similar provision, some House
Republicans said they were ready to delete the amendment, voicing
concern that it might be expensive for the Customs Service to enforce it.
But Harkin and Sanders, with the aid of the Child Labor Coalition, lined
up the support of some important members of the conference committee,
including Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Rep. Jim Kolbe,
R-Ariz. The administration helped the effort by stating that the provision
would cost little to enforce.
"This bill is a small step, but an important step," Harkin said. "Sometimes
you have to take small steps around here. If we can show this works, the
mechanism will be in place for a more comprehensive ban on imports
made by child labor."
In 1930, Congress enacted a law that barred imports of goods made by
forced, indentured of convict labor conducted "under penal sanctions."
That provision has been enforced only against goods involving adult
labor. Federal officials said it did not apply to children because forced
child laborers did not work under penal sanctions.
Opponents of child labor have often urged the Clinton administration to
stop the imports of some rugs and other goods made with forced child
labor. But Customs officials have hesitated, saying they did not have the
authority to do so. Administration officials said they backed the bill to
end what they called an important oversight in the 1930 law.
For more information on the Sanders amendment, contact the office of
Representative Bernard Sanders, United States House of
Representatives, Washington, DC 20515; ask for Bill Goold at (202)
225-4115 or (800) 962-3524; e-mail: . In
Vermont, call Tina Wisell at (802) 862-0697
CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS newsletter subscriptions: Send $35.00 to 1247 "E"
Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. For a sample copy, send your postal
address to clr@igc.apc.org.
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Club Activities
Students give Nike the boot
By Jeff Ballinger
Telegram-Tribune
PASO ROBLES - In a crusade highlighting the alleged human rights
abuses of the Nike Corp., a high school club is asking the sporting goods
goliath to "Just don't do it."
The Free the Children club at Paso Robles High School organized a
boycott this week, collecting from their classmates 14 pairs of new and
used Nike shoes and numerous shirts and sweatshirts.
Club president Maria Campoverde, a junior, said the goods were to
be shipped back
Friday to Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Or., to Chief Executive Officer
Phil Knight.
A letter enclosed asked Knight to change his company's employment practices in
southeast Asia regarding children and young adults.
The 2-year-old local club has about 20 members, and is a chapter of
an international
children's organization dedicated to protecting children from exploitation
and abuse. It
even has a web site at
http://www.slocs.k12.ca.us/pasohigh/children/freethechildren.html.
It is one of several groups worldwide calling for the better treatment of
Nike's overseas workers.
During lunch Friday, club members and adviser Stan Cooper, a social
science teacher,
handed out leaflets to students detailing how the company allegedly relies
on teen and
preteen labor paid below local minimum wages in China, Vietnam, Thailand and
Indonesia.
"We're talking about children who have been denied their
education," Cooper said.
Nike executives have repeatedly denied the claims.
But the controversy has stirred national media interest and a
fictional boycott has been
the subject of recent Doonesbury comic strips. Free the Children has been
calling for a
real one all week.
Each day at lunch, the club sets up a table in the center of campus
to collect Nike goods
and sell boycott buttons as well as raffle tickets for a trip for two to
Magic Mountain.
Meanwhile, many students eating lunch and socializing in the open square wore a
variety of Nike products Ñ shoes, hats, jackets, shirts, sweats,
sweatshirts -- marked
prominently by a swoosh, the wing-shaped company logo.
"The swoosh is everywhere," Campoverde said.
Two new club members, freshmen Jennifer Barrera and Campoverde's
younger sister
Laura, gave up their Nike shoes this week after finding out that children
even younger
than they are allegedly working as slave labor half way around the globe.
"I heard of this and it got to me," Laura Campoverde said. "I
don't like what they are
doing."
Convincing the rest of the nearly 2,000 other students on campus
hasn't been as easy.
Although club members said they've heard a great deal of discussion among
classmates
on the issue this week, the elder Campoverde said the reaction of students
walking by
the club's table is the expected mix of approval, derision and curiosity.
As she talked,
one boy walked by and said, "I'm wearing Nikes and you're not gettin' 'em."
Some will stop and listen, buy a button, or sign a photocopied
letter to be sent to
legislators. Others keep on walking, or make unkind remarks.
"They don't take the time to let us explain," she said.
Freshman Missy Daniel said the problem is viewed as less than
serious since it happens
so far away. "If it was happening here, a lot more people would care about
it," she said.
Campoverde realizes she won't convince everyone to give up their
Nikes, and that the
club's efforts alone will not change the world. But that's not the goal.
"We can't make a big change all at one time, but getting people to
think about it...that's
how all this starts," she said. "We want people to think about who made
these shoes
before they try them on." At least one student who walked by the club's
table Friday is thinking about the issue.
Junior Chad Rummell, wearing black Nike sneakers, said he wondered
how much the
boycott would accomplish, and if other sporting goods companies were doing
the same things. But he said he's not about to give up his shoes right now.
"I got these last summer, so I'm stuck with them," he said.
But he acknowledged that what he's learned about Nike will cross
his mind the next
time he buys athletic shoes.
Published Oct. 25, 1997
© San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune
E-mail:
slott@slnt01.sanluisobispo.com
http://www.sanluisobispo.com
805-781-7800
Food for thought...
Some might say, "Well, they have to work
to help their families!" but in India, 50 million children between 4 and
13 work full-time for pennies a day while 55 million Indian adults remain
unemployed.
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