October 19th, 2010
Team Sweat:
I am in the midst of writing my book, “SWEAT” and I came across I speech I gave in the summer of 1999 on the steps of the Department of Labor in Washington, DC. This was at a rally that was organized by the United Students Against Sweatshops (www.usas.org) in protest of the Apparel Industry Partnership, a corporate front group that was established by President Clinton. After I gave this speech, I was approached by Joel Joseph, a labor attorney who happened to be in the crowd. It was Mr. Joseph who helped me file my lawsuit against St. John’s and Nike (which I eventually lost on appeal) and through that action, we brought the Nike sweatshop issue to the masses. This speech was a major catalyst for where I am at today in terms of this work.
Given how much time has passed since these early days of my involvement with this issue, it is nice to remind myself and our Team Sweat supporters, why we are in this fight for justice.
The speech is below. I hope you enjoy it.
Peace, Jim Keady
Good afternoon, my name is Jim Keady and I am here today to tell you about my story with Nike. In July of 1997 I began as an assistant coach of the Men’s soccer team at St. John’s University. It was a coaching dream. I had joined the staff of one of the hottest college soccer programs of the 90’s fresh off their 1996 NCAA Division 1 National Championship.
Along with my coaching, I began pursuing a master’s degree in theology. In one of my classes I was working on a paper that was examining Nike’s labor practices in light of moral theology. Simultaneously St. John’s University was negotiating a multi-million dollar contract with the Nike Corporation that would supply equipment and funding to all of the university’s athletic teams.
I took serious issue with this impending deal. I had done months of research that led me to conclude the following. 1) The Nike Corporation has been one of the grossest violators of workers rights. 2) By St. John’s being in a contract with this corporation we are an indirect enabler of Nike’s injustices; we are in violation of the mission of the University and the social justice implications of the Gospel.
Therefore I asserted, that as a Catholic university, we should not be benefiting from nor be a marketing agent for Nike. This was a contract that was estimated in excess of 3.5 million dollars in product and cash. This money was most certainly made on the backs of the poor. I personally did not want to be a billboard for a company whose business practices are unethical and promote injustice; a company that has consistently chosen the maximization of profit over human dignity.
Knowing that this issue was of crucial importance I decided that it must be pursued in the public realm. When I first began this, it was only a research paper. I had no idea of the incredible journey on which it would lead me. What started as a simple research paper, hoping to link moral theology and sport, turned into a hard life lesson in big money power and politics. The issue, whether or not St. John’s should be in a relationship with Nike, went public in the student newspaper on February 22, 1998. From that day it became and still is one of the most hotly debated topics in the schools recent history. News of this spread from our small campus in Queens and news stories and editorials on this issue at St. John’s have appeared in the New York Times, Newsday, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer and most recently the story has been syndicated nationally by the associated press.
By pursuing this publicly, my actions would cost me. In mid-May of 1998 I was given an ultimatum by University officials, wear Nike and drop the issue, or resign.
I was deeply troubled by this. I knew from my research that Nike had not significantly addressed the issues of wages or the workers’ rights to organize. Therefore, I decided the issue could not be dropped. The dialogue must continue. The University must be publicly pressured to reconcile how we can remain in this contract and stay committed to our mission and the social justice implications of the Gospel.
All of this lay heavy on my conscience. I was a coach for one of the most successful college soccer programs of the 1990’s. I truly felt that in the coming year, with the team we had returning, that I would be able to realize the dream as a coach that I did not realize myself as a player; to win an NCAA championship. Now I was faced with the challenge of putting this dream on the line.
I couldn’t believe that I was being forced to make this decision. I believed and still do that I was following the true spirit of the mission of university and the Gospel by making this a public issue. I had no idea what consequences these actions would hold. I simply could not allow myself to sit back while our Catholic University was benefiting from profits made on the backs of the poor.
Now was the time to decide how committed I was to the cause. The decision was laid before me. Show your allegiance to a company that violates basic human and workers’ rights or show your allegiance to the pursuit of social justice. I wish I could say the choice was easy. Thanks to God, through prayer and reflection the truth pierced through to my heart of hearts and I knew what had to be done. I resigned.
Through my resignation I stand here today in solidarity with the oppressed factory workers.
There is something-dishonest going on here. Phil Knight, president and CEO of Nike, is one of the richest men in America, while workers in his SE Asian and Central American factories scrape by on starvation wages. There is a disparity evident here that cannot be ignored. There is a theme of exploitation that permeates the entirety of the Nike Corporation. It begins in production, with the exploitation of the workers. It extends to promotion, where high schools, colleges and entire communities are colonized by the Nike marketing machine. From here it moves to the personal level, which I took issue with, as athletes and coaches either by choice or by force are turned into walking billboards. Finally it reaches you, the consumer, who are charged exorbitant prices for shoes that on average cost $16 to produce.
I hope together we stand in protest of this exploitation. We stand in solidarity against the injustices that oppress worker, athlete and consumer.
This issue is so crucial. There are two extremes diametrically opposed to each other here. First is the adherence to the iron-bound law of capitalism, which states that ever-increasing profit is to be achieved no matter what the costs to humanity or nature. In contrast to this is the law of humanity, which espouses that nothing; no profit, no product and particularly no sneaker, is worth more than the dignity of the human person. To paraphrase sentiments of Mahatma Gandhi which seem to echo truth here. Nike is at the crossroads. They now have to make their choice between the law of the jungle and the law of humanity.
Nike is surely not alone in their actions. Companies like Nike, Phillips Van Heusen, Reebok, the Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, K-Mart and Wal-mart are but a few examples of countless companies that chose profit over the common good. These companies are quick to share with you the slightest improvement in conditions in their factories, improvements that are usually nothing more than propagandist smokescreens created by well-paid public relations firms. Such actions are futile attempts to hide the plight of underpaid, overworked factory employees.
Employees who are paid poverty-level wages; who are forced to work long hours and not even come close to meeting their basic needs; who are forced to work overtime and are unpaid for such work; who are forced to work mandatory overnight shifts; are illegally denied health care and benefits; are denied legal benefits; are at times underage; are forced to work in factories that do not meet health and safety standards; and are denied their rights to organize and to free speech.
Today we stand in solidarity with these workers. We stand here in protest of their exploitation and as a messenger to these corporations, to our university administrations, the Apparel Industry Partnership and to the United States government that the blood the workers have shed to ensure basic human dignity and justice has not been shed in vain.
We call all persons who take part in the exploitation of workers to examine their conscience. We also call all persons who struggle for justice for these workers to keep a hopeful eye on the future. We must know that despite the system of oppression that ominously permeates the global marketplace, there is nothing that can subdue the power of the human spirit.
We can, we will, and we must through the power of love, reshape our world, so that dividends and profit margins are not the standard by which we judge success. But rather, we strive for the establishment of a global community where success would be measured by the guarantee that each and every person will be ensured their God-given dignity.
October 1st, 2010
Team Sweat:
Check out the comments from some of the newest members of Team Sweat. They have joined our righteous fight to get living wages and union contracts for Nike’s overseas workers.
Peace, Jim Keady
Nike could make conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers better by making a few small changes that wouldn’t affect their lives at all but even with constant reminders they still choose not to.
- Kyle Kristiansen
My English 1101 class at Georgia Southern University is wanting to stop the Nike sponsorship at our school because we have issues with the means of production Nike uses to create their products.
- Katie Smith
(I was) Inspired by the speech made at my school.
- Benjamin Gilbert
My email to Nike CEO Mark Parker:
Dear Mark Parker,
My name is Patrick Keyes, I am 15 years old, and I attend Seton Hall Prep High School in West Orange, NJ. Eariler this week we had a speaker come to our school named Jim Keady, who you have probably heard of and have negative feelings towards. I think that this should not be the case, because he is doing all this pestering of you and your company for a very good cause. As Jim has learned by actually living with these people, the workers that are in Indonesia are very underpaid and cannot support themselves or their family on the wages that they are paid by Nike. You are probably thinking, “Nike is the only reason these people have jobs, they are lucky we have provided them with work oppurtunites.”, but this thinking is immoral and wrong. It is not right to take advantage of someone because they have no work. If raising the wages of the workers in the Nike sweatshop increases the price of Nike products, then I as a loyal Nike customer who uses your company as my primary source of atheltic apparel will be more then willing to pay the extra money that it takes for this injustice to stop. If not, the I must stop my loyalties to Nike and find another outlet for my athletic equipment needs because I cannot in good conscience support a company who does not give its workers the basic human dignity they deserve.
From, Patrick Keyes
I’m joining Team Sweat because Jim Keady gave a presentation at my school which really got me thinking of this organization.
- Carlos Arante
The reason i joined this fighting group was because i never like to see a person work so hard and not get credit or rewarded for it. I am willing to put my heart and soul to get the people who work hard what they deserve. People like that should be the ones getting payed the big buxx. I believe that if i join then we are a little step closer to getting things down. I WANT THE CHALLENGE.
- Bryan Louis
(I joined Team Sweat) to help fight the cause for living wages and union contracts in Nike’s sweatshops and give them whats right.
- Anthony D’Angelo
(I joined Team Sweat because) you came to my school (Seton Hall Prep) and spoke to us.
- Derek Blahut
(I joined Team Sweat because) Jim came to my school and made my want to change this.
- Tim Johnston
I want nike to give their factory workers reasonable pay.
- Gus Arndt
(I joined Team Sweat) to fight Nike on their treatment of Indonesian workers.
- Anthony
Mr.Keady visited my high school ( Seton Hall Prep ) and i was deeply moved. Your cause is a just one, TeamSweat and i would like to help.
- Noah
(I joined Team Sweat because) I was inspired by Jim Keady’s presentation at Oxford College.
- Deana Bellen
I saw Jim Keady and heard what he had to say at North Dakota State University, and I felt compelled to join the fight against Nike and do what I can to support Team Sweat.
- Amber Thorson
I joined because I don’t believe in what Nike is doing. They have so much money and they can’t give their workers a living wage? It’s appalling! I joined to help get the word out and so maybe a change can be made.
- Shelby Novak
(I joined Team Sweat because) I listened to a pod cast given to Boston College students. My wife runs marathons and she recommended I listen.
- Kevin Bailey
I’m a high school student and last year in my social justice class we watched the Behind the Swoosh documentary and it helped me become aware about the issue of sweatshops, especially Nike’s. I want to help the people that must survive these inhumane conditions.
- Audrey Gutierrez
I am a high school athlete and I’ve been wearing nike all my life until this year when I learned of the injustices of nike’s factories. I want to help end this abuse of basic human rights.
- Matt
i just respect
- Faisal Fadhillah
Hi, I’m Daryl from manila Philippines, just finished watching your short film about nike’s sweatshop in indonesia, I was shocked that this is still being done in this day and age,specially by a big company like NIKE.Maybe it was just me being ignorant but I want to change that now. I would like to help in anyway I can to stop big companies like Nike from doing this to poor countries around the world. please send me an e-mail on how I can contribute in your fight to end injustice. God bless and take care.
- Daryl Gutierrez
I felt very ignorant after knowing that NIKE and other big companies have sweatshops in diff countries for the longest period of time now and here I am patronizing them by buying their products. It sickens me so much that I cant even look at the nike sb that I just bought last month from my local skate shop.on the brighter side, I feel enlightened after reading and learning from your site. In knowing all of these are still happening around the world, I will start by not buying from brands like NIKE and will help in sharing this information to my family,friends and colleagues.
- Daryl Gutierrez
Hi, I very much appreciated your presentation at our Life Group meeting last night in Wall, NJ. It was very inspiring to meet you and see how “on fire” for putting an end to modern slavery you are in real life. My encouragement to you and my prayers with you and all of your years of work. I am comforted to know that you are at the helm of this mission. I am confident you will see it through. God has put an incredible call on your life. Blessings to you Jim Keady and your family and all the people whose lives will be forever changed because you answered the call. Thank you. very best of the best.
- Noreen B.
(I joined Team Sweat because I am ) very interested in social justice.
- Doreen Aune
was inspired by Jim’s message.
- Lauren Miskin
My name is Pamela Mali. I am a archictectural student at the Cape University of Technology , in Cape Town , South Africa. Well now being an ex-consumer of Nike i was like millions of others oblivious to the struggle of the workers at these sweatshops….Frankly i’m appauled…I’d like to join Team sweat and join others to raise awareness about this issue. I feel there are many people out there especially us youth who unknowingly go through life associating ourselves to matters which are unruly and sometimes quite disturbing. I’d like to inform my fellow peers of this and together we could do something..it wont be easy i”m sure…but it will be worth it.
- Pamela Mali
I liked the Axis of Justice article, “Victory, Becomes Defeat, Becomes Victory.” My eyes were opened to the mistreatment of Nike sweatshop workers when I was about eleven when we were taught about it in school, and, being passionate about human rights even at that age, I’ve wanted to become involved in something, but I was never aware of anything like this, so this seems a good idea.
- Katie Davies
As a retired school librarian, I have helped scores of high school students write term papers about corporate accountability. Nike workers deserve my respect.
- Carol Schelin
As a fitness professional, I believe I am also an educator and teacher. I not only teach my clients about how to exercise and eat, but about exercise equipment. There are so many choices, and I’ve decided that I don’t want to contribute to the suffering of others when I purchase and use products & I urge my clients to do the same. There are other alternatives to Nike and no reason to buy their products. I believe Team Sweat is doing an excellent job in educating the public about the abuses that take place in sweat shops. I think that if professional teams and athletes did the same, we could together make a huge collective impact.
- Christine Buckley
I read in Huffington Post, thank you for informing us about what is going on with Nike. These companies need to start taking responsibility of how they conduct their business . There is such a lack of ethics… I am tired of it. As a consumers I want to know what I am buying.
- Monica Sohl
(I joined Team Sweat because I have) a passion to fight injustice.
- Steven D. Lamin
(I joined Team Sweat because I have) ethical labor concerns.
- Alexander Matheson
I am strongly in favour of the policies promoted by the international fair trade organisation - that workers are paid fairly, treated ethically, provided with opportunities for sustainable development, not exposed to dangerous working environments, that factories do not employ children or people in bonded labour, etc. I live in Australia. This website and the work of Jim Keady heartens me greatly and I will spread this work and website through my personal networks!
- Elizabeth Baros
I have not purchased a nike product in the past few years, under some assumptions that NIke uses terrible sweatshops. I watched your video which was fantastic and reassured my thoughts. I have emailed the video to my friends and family which sometime use their products. Thankyou for doing the footwork to get that video done. Hopefully Nike may change their ways. I do sometimes miss wearing their products.
- Nathan Casey
I have been a runner for many years, and active in Central/South American justice work with Witness for Peace for since the 80’s. I want to add my voice for justice in this issue. Thank you for your work.
- Tim Blevins
I used to buy nike products, but then i found out what was going on with nike and their workers. Its outrageous how nike could treat their workers like that and get away with it! I joined Team Sweat to raise awareness and help make a difference to nike and their workers rights!
- Charlie Miles
It is always best to help the less fortunate if one is able.
- Robert Laymon
i have been learning in social study’s about nike and their sweatshops. i never new that people slaved away and worked for very little money. i think it is unfair and what this website is doing is great. we need to stop slavery. people have the right to stand up for what they believe in.
- Hannah Jenkins
Listened to a podcast- Phedipppidations. Fair day’s work for a fair wage. Sweatshops should be illegal and they certainly are unethical. Corporate power and ignorance/denial needs to be limited. Sounds like you-all are doing a good job. Thanks.
- Ron Greeley
(I joined Team Sweat) because we can’t keep treading on people just so we can accumulate more cheap ’stuff’. We should all be prepared to pay a bit more for the things we buy for our leisure to ensure that the people who make it get a living wage - not just trainers but right across the spectrum of consumer goods. We can’t park our ethics just so we can save a few bucks.
- Ian Gregson
First off, THANK YOU for what you are doing — making this a better world! I was wondering if you will be giving a talk anywhere in Southern California this year? Also, would you consider giving a talk at USC? Lastly, if you haven’t read “Let My People Go Surfing” about Patagonia you MUST! I came across it last week and it is fantastic! Patagonia seems like a blueprint for what you are fighting for! Best always, Woody
- Woody Woodburn
Strong interest in the cause (Thank you Naomi Klein!)
- Vincent Trousseau
I have many strong beliefs but more less I believe that corporations need to help third world countries rather then detracting from them.
- Jeff Meckstroth
I have taken a hard line about supporting Nike in any way. My wife ribs me when Nike even comes up in any conversation. People take the position that “I can’t make a difference, so what does it matter if I buy just one pair of shoes…..or my pair of shorts…..or my whatever…???” They often respond that all the other shoe manufacturers do the same things. My favorite shoes are Asics. They have a pretty good sounding position on this topic and how they have third-party reviews of their manufacturing to make sure that they are at least trying to weed out the poor manufacturing practices. What is the best way for me to tell which manufacturer truly is doing all they can versus those who don’t? Any resources you can point me to would be much appreciated!
- Sean O’Connell
I am joining because I unwittingly supported Nike through buying their products over the years and need to atone for participating in this sin. I am also a PhD student and religion teacher who believes that in the inherent worth of every human person and places people above profits, and who desires to rally Christians to fulfill their duty to serve the poor.
- Walter Sisto
I loved Jim Keady’s talk at the University of San Diego, where I am a student. It sickened me that a Catholic institution supports a socially unjust system such as Nike, and I am motivated to make a difference.
- Julia
I’ve known about NIKE for awhile, but never got very serious in doing something about it. My eyes were opened a few days ago by a person that I look up to a lot for his efforts in Human Rights. He was unaware of NIKE sweatshops, and I really just decided then that I wanted to take more action against it. Hearing about Jim and his story, I really am moved. I think you’re making such a difference, and I’d love to get involved and help.
- Jen Gunshore
Saw Jim’s presentation @ Eckerd College on 4/22. Learned so much and will spread the word. Thanks, Jim!
- Russell Seaver
As a Canadian, I have enjoyed many priveledges such as access to healthcare, public education, wealthy lifestyle, freedom of worship, freedom of speech and freedom of choice, just to name a few. Because I am Canadian, I am more forunate and wealthy than at least 95% of the world population. For this reason, I realize it is my responsiblity to do what I can to help improve the working lives of other people around the world. I hope this is one way to help those less fortunate than myself.
- Wendy Burr
I was intensely saddened to learn of the quality of life led by those in Indonesia who work at Nike factories. I was outraged at the profits generated by the Nike Corporation, and the salaries of executives and athletes relative to those earned by the laborers who actually generate Nike’s wealth. I felt inexpressible anger at the degree to which Nike exploits workers around the world, and at the lack of voice, power and options those workers experience.
- David Streib
I joined to help get these hard workers a better pay. to help expose nike and this out sourcing going on in the world today. We are taking advantage of these families and workers and it should be stopped. They cant afford the product they are making. That is absurd!!! JUST PAY IT
- John Lauro
Hello this is a message for Jim Keady I hope you get this message. Im a director of photography based in stockholm, sweden. Im a member of the Swedish society of cinematographers. I shoot commercials, musicvideos, documentary and cinema. I know what you are thinking commercials! how awful! right? Well I agree, I really wish to only do Cinema but you know you have to start somewhere. And I have my principals, I refuse to do commercials for the tobacco industry, because my father is very ill and has advanced cancer because of that industry. And know that I have seen all that you have done to fight Nike and their sweatshops, I have decided to not do any commercials for Nike. Not that I have been offered does kinds of jobs, but if somebody offers me a job from Nike I will refuse it. Or I can tell them sure Il do it, but I want 60 000kr (6000 dollars for the job) and then I can take that money and donate it for your cause. I just wanted to tell you that you are doing a great job and that you have inspired me. I wish to tell you that if you ever need a director of photography for something please give me a call. Have a nice day and please feel free to view some of my work on my website: www.mattiassilva.com
- Mattias Silva
I joined to find out how I can help to put pressure on Nike to pay the severance they owe to layed off workers. I also want to learn about how to help improve living conditions of sweat-shop workers.
Regards, Adrian
I am of the opinion that everyone has a right to participate in the economic success. Without the workforce the manager would be useless. So it is a matter of integrity to pay fair wages. Not to do that is theft and thus criminal. Nike is obliged also to squeeze subcontractors to act in a way of human responsibility. Should this not be the case we all should stop buying Nike’s articles. By the way their products are quite expensive. So I think it should be no problem to divide the earnings among all involved producing employees in a fair way. Human beings all have the right to earn enough to afford a humane living together with their families. Managers should be aware of their social responsibility and stop their unlimited acquisitiveness.
- Stephan Dachauer
(I will) tell everyone i know about teamsweat encourage them not to buy nike till they have fair wages.
- Cathleen Lyons
I believe no one should be exploited. Work is for the person not the other way around.
- Alexis Jenkins
October 1st, 2010
The Spectrum
North Dakota State University
Written by LAURA MUZ
Friday, 17 September 2010 13:10
For more than a decade, former St. John’s University soccer coach Jim Keady has been working to inform the public about the living conditions of workers overseas due to outsourcing of companies such as Nike.
On Sept. 14, Keady delivered his message of advocacy to 180 NDSU students, faculty and staff.
Keady began his quest for social justice over a decade ago when, as a graduate theology student and soccer coach at St. John’s, he discovered how Nike makes their apparel in sweatshops in countries such as Indonesia and Honduras.
Through his research, Keady found that employees make $1.25 a day to make shoes consumers sometimes pay hundreds of dollars to wear.
Around the time of Keady’s initial research, St. John’s, the number one ranked school for soccer at the time, signed an endorsement deal with Nike. After refusing privately then publicly to wear the Nike logo alongside his team, Keady was dismissed from the university. He then decided to look further into the working conditions of Nike employees.
“I was given an ultimatum by my head coach. Wear Nike and drop this issue, or resign. So in May of 1998 I was constructively fired,” Keady said.
Keady centered his presentation Wednesday night on his experiences in Indonesia after leaving St. John’s University, and what it was like to live on the wages of a sweatshop employee.
What he found in Indonesia were four women living together in an 8-by-8 room with all of their possessions with them, football-sized rats, streets outside of homes lined with open sewers and Nike production employees begging for overtime just to feed their families.
Moved by his experiences in Indonesia, Keady founded Team Sweat, an international coalition of consumers, investors and workers committed to ending the injustices in Nike’s sweatshops around the world, according to his Web site.
However, Keady made it clear that Nike is not alone in the crowd. He cited that corporations such as Puma, Adidas, J Crew and Reebok also outsource their products and have employees living under these same conditions.
“It’s not just Nike that does this.” Keady said. “[It is] where Nike goes, so this industry follows.”
He and his coalition have been working for more than a decade to raise the wages of sweatshop workers by visiting Indonesia, putting pressure on Nike executives and raising awareness of other sweatshop-related issues.
“They’re not asking for charity; they want justice,” Keady said of the sweatshop employees.
Team Sweat has focused on certain attainable justices for the employees and has continued to find slow but steady progress.
In the last 10 years, Nike has improved the conditions of women workers by removing degrading policies involving menstrual leave and working to stop the violence that occurs when workers go against the management of the shops.
And, in July 2010, Nike contributed $1.5 million to a worker’s relief fund for Nike employees in Honduras who lost their jobs when Nike closed two of its factories: Hugger and Vision Tex.
Organizations such as the United Students Against Sweatshops and the Worker Rights Consortium worked with the employees to help them seek help from Nike, who is also offering vocational training over the next two years to assist the employees in finding other jobs.
“At this point in our history, we need a story like this to be told,” Keady said.
Students seemed receptive of Keady’s presentation, which was the first issues and ideas event put on by Campus Attractions this fall.
As the founder and captain of Team Sweat, Keady has visited more than 500 campuses in 42 states and three different countries to advocate for this issue that he has dedicated himself to.
“I hope students can get a better perspective of what is going on in the world and learn not to take what they own for granted,” Sam Maleki, Campus Attractions issues and ideas coordinator, said of the presentation.
For more information on Keady and Team Sweat, visit www.teamsweat.org or the Team Sweat Facebook page.
October 1st, 2010
The Independent (UK)
www.independent.co.uk
By Martin Hickman
October 1, 2010
Factories used by biggest brands abuse staff, employ children and pay pitiful wages - while stars earn a fortune
Many football tops, running vests and trainers on sale in the UK are made by sweatshop workers toiling long hours in hazardous conditions without trade union-rights, according to documents published by sportswear companies.
Two days before the Commonwealth Games begin, an analysis by The Independent of labour inspections by Nike, Puma and Adidas, the world’s top brands, identified 281 rogue factories, whose failings ranged from the unsatisfactory to the abysmal.
Low pay and long hours are common in workshops but some also use bonded or prison labour, ban collective bargaining, threaten and harass workers and force women to undergo pregnancy testing. “Less productive” workers face the sack.
A decade after some shoppers boycotted Nike over the issue, the leading players in the £134bn-a-year global sportswear industry seek to protect their reputations against allegations they profit from sweated labour by inspecting factories and blacklisting the worst. However their own reports show they have had only partial success in cleaning up the industry, and that they continue to outsource production to countries where trade unions are banned or restricted.
Instead of the “living wage” sought by campaigners, they pay the legal minimum wage, which can be half the amount deemed necessary by unions and academics to meet the cost of food, shelter, healthcare and education for a small family. When challenged by The Independent, none of the firms denied that some of their supplier factories were “sweatshops”.
Nike’s corporate responsibility report for 2007/09 paints the most vivid picture of conditions for the million of mostly Asian workers stitching and glueing sports shoes and apparel. It shows occasional or routine abuse by 35 per cent of Nike’s suppliers – affecting up to 280,000 workers.
Of 479 factories checked last year, on average 168 failed to meet Nike’s standards, meaning they had “serious system failures” or a “general disregard” for codes of conduct. One in five failed to provide contracts, honour collective bargaining, occasionally used children or worked staff seven days a week without a break.
One in 20 flouted wage laws, used bonded, indentured, prison or child labour, abused staff, or carried out mandatory pregnancy tests.
Nike said that some factories with poor grades may have had only one problem. On pay – to which most reports pay scant attention – Nike told The Independent: “We believe that local wage-setting is best done by negotiations between workers, labour representatives, the employer and the government.”
Of 362 factories that supply Puma, one in five – 75 – failed audits two years ago. About half of those flouted rules on hours and pay, and most endangered workers’ health. Three-quarters failed to follow rules on the handling of chemicals. Puma says it is committed to trade union-rights, but it outsources to China and Vietnam, which restrict those rights. In its Team Talk report, Puma admitted: “Considering these limitations, the social standard on freedom of association and collective bargaining is admittedly difficult to enforce at many of our supplier factories.”
Adidas, which was praised by the campaign group Playfair in 2008 for introducing complaints processes and for ending short-term contracts, gives little information about life inside its factories. Last year it ranked 60 per cent of 1,200 suppliers in the bottom three “compliance” ratings, but since it declines to explain the criteria, it is unclear how many failed audits. Last year the German firm warned 38 suppliers that they were so bad they could lose contracts.
Conditions may be worse than publicly stated because factories falsify wage and time records to pass audits. Puma acknowledged “many factories” covered up excessive working hours with two sets of time records – one genuine and one for inspections. The firm said: “It is common knowledge in our industry that software programs have been developed specifically for this purpose, with workers being coached on how to answer questions.”
Campaigners say that despite their willingness to document abuses, sportswear firms could do more to tackle long hours and low pay. In a report for the 2008 Olympics, Playfair noted that substantial violations of workers’ rights were “still the norm” and there was a “tendency to consolidate production” in states that restricted trade unions. Anna McMullen, of Labour Behind the Label, said: “They haven’t acknowledged there is something called a living wage, never mind working towards it.”
All three brands admitted that conditions could – and should – improve. Nike said: “Although we work quickly to address issues identified in audits, we know that challenges remain in some contract factories, including reducing excessive overtime and protecting the right to freedom of association.”
Puma said the industry had made progress by effectively combating child labour and improving health and safety, adding: “In other areas, such as freedom of association and wage levels beyond the legal minimum requirements we still see challenges ahead.”
Adidas said that as a result of its work it had been named a world leader by Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/blood-sweat-and-tears-the-truth-about-how-your-sportswear-is-made-2094517.html
October 1st, 2010
The Independent (UK)
www.independent.co.uk
October 1, 2010
It took years for campaigners to persuade the world’s top sportswear manufacturers that they should take responsibility for the conditions in which their products were manufactured overseas. When Nike, Adidas, Puma and the rest grudgingly came round, it was hailed as a turning-point in the relationship of these companies to their sub-contractors in the developing world. Five years ago this newspaper spoke of “the ethical revolution sweeping through the world’s sweatshops”. It seems we spoke too soon: what was really under way was a revolution in these companies’ public relations departments. As our investigation published today reveals, conditions in hundreds of the factories in which the West’s favourite sportswear brands are manufactured remain highly unsatisfactory or appalling.
None of the companies has committed to paying overseas workers a living wage, the paltry sum required for a worker to keep himself and his family in conditions of the most rudimentary decency. Many workers do not even make the derisory local minimum wage, which in China amounts to only two-thirds of a living wage. Some factories continue to use bonded, indentured, prison or child labour. Women working in others are subjected to compulsory pregnancy tests; if they prove positive, they are summarily sacked. Supervisors terrorise workers into submission. These are the shocking facts revealed by a detailed examination of the reports submitted by the companies themselves – but as Puma breezily admits, the truth is certainly far worse than that, because some of the sub-contractors lie systematically about their employees’ conditions of labour, and in particular about the amount of overtime they work. Special software has been developed to falsify the records of working hours.
The contrast these findings make with the codes of conduct the firms have embraced is startling. “Our vision is for everyone in our supply chain to share a common set of values”, declares Adidas. Nike’s code of conduct proposes that “high ethics means success”. It exhorts its workers “to lead balanced personal and professional lives”, and insists that “Nike will strive to pay fair compensation”. In the context of the gruesome shopfloor reality, these fine words are contemptible. Instead of trying to dazzle Western consumers with meaningless rhetoric, these firms must divert some of their vast financial muscle into bringing real improvements to the misery of the sweatshops. The industry’s pledge to reform remains dramatically unfulfilled.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-gruesome-reality-of-sweatshops-2094318.html
Visit Team Sweat on Facebook!
Visit Team Sweat on MySpace!
Visit Team Sweat on Twitter!