December 13th, 2011
GIVE THE GIFT OF FAIR TRADE!
Team Sweat:
Still in the hunt for that perfect gift for the Holidays?
Why not get someone you love an EFJ Fair Trade T-Shirt?
This is a gift that just keeps on giving. When you pick up one of our famous fair trade shirts…
* You are supporting workers in the USA (Lifewear) and the Dominican Republic (Alta Gracia) who produced the shirts and are getting paid living wages and have good union contracts in place.
* You are supporting workers in Indonesia and advocates in the USA who are fighting for living wages and union contracts.
* You are getting a friend or family member a REALLY cool shirt!
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR SHIRT(S) NOW!
If you place your order by December 19th, I will do everything in my power to make sure that it gets to you by December 24th.*
Thanks in advance for your support!
Peace,
Jim Keady
* If your shirt is not in stock or if you are outside of the United States, the order may not arrive by December 24th.
December 9th, 2011
Team Sweat:
Below is a letter from Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB). This union represents workers at Nike’s SM Global factory. I am sharing the letter with you as I received it. There are some spelling and grammatical errors, but I wanted you to read it as I did.
Peace, Jim Keady
Jim Keady meeting with Nike workers from the Serikat Buruh Bangkit
Dear Mr. Keady,
I am pleased to introduce myself, Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB). At present we have ten bases in ten factories and one of them is PT SM Global.
First of all, let me convey our sincere appreciation for the all the invaluable efforts that you have been doing in connecting the labour with Nike including your meeting yesterday with unions in Tangerang. My sincere apology for not being able to attend the meeting yesterday.
Secondly, we would like to confirm that the issues you have raised in your e-mail to Nike are true. For your information, our labour union has been trying to do the legal action since 2008 by reporting the issues to the relevant and authorized government institutions for the company to fulfil the rights of the labour (we keep all the related documents). Unfortunately, no change was made by the factory. Instead, the union officials received pressure, repeated rotation of their positions, downgraded, and be blamed by the management of the factory in front of all the workers saying that the factory will be closed as a result of the action of union officials. Those are the fact of their efforts to do character assassination, create confrontation among union officials and the workers and violation to the freedom of establishing a union by making the union officials as the public enemy for the workers.
For your information, in previous similar case when the factory was reprimanded for the first time, the management announced the same information – blaming the officials and not admitting the violation and did not want to correct the mistakes. Instead, the workers were requested to sign a pre-arranged statement stating that they were in good condition, have no problem, and will not demanding anything.
On 25 August 2011, the management repeated their similar actions. On that day, while the workers will take holiday for celebrating religious day, they were made anxious in a meeting with Mr. Jung who said that the factory will be closed. The closing was due to the report of the labour union causing reprimand by Nike to the factory, and that Nike had cancelled their order as a result of this. Mr. Jung said that after Idul Fitri holiday, the worker will be put on holiday. Those who were considered undisciplined will be laid off (we have no clue the definition of “undisciplined”).
As a labour union, I believe that the reprimand from Nike is not intended to close the factory which will surely provoke suffering for the labours. During the years, the labours are treated very unfairly as the factory has been practising no compliant procedure to Nike ethical code, in addition to continuous exploitation to achieve certain standard of quality and quota of quantity. Thus, it is very unfair for the labours and union if the reprimand is used by the management to clean their hand by sacrificing and blaming the union.
Once again, I greatly appreciate and thankful to you who has perfectly raised the issues and facts occurred in PT SM Global as well as submitted them to Nike. Me and my team will be ready to provide more information, evidence, and documents to complement our report on unfair treatment to the labours including the latest threat on the closing of the factory.
Looking forward to future collaboration, I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Fiqoh
Serikat Buruh Bangkit
December 9th, 2011
In the near fifteen years I have been working to end Nike’s sweatshop abuses and make Nike a fair trade company, I have watched with great pain as Nike has aggressively colonized Catholic schools across the nation. In fact, this is how my work started. Back in 1997, while an assistant coach as St. John’s University, I said that because of Nike’s exploitation of their overseas workers, our Catholic university should not be party to the $3.5 million dollar endorsement deal Nike put on the table. I lost that battle and since have witnessed Nike continue their march across the Catholic school landscape, spreading their imperial values - values that run completely counter to the ethos of Jesus’ Gospel. For their part in bowing to the Nike empire, our Catholic schools get some free gear and at times cash and other perks and Nike gets their allegiance and more importantly, public witness (via our student athletes) that Nike has the backing of some of the greatest Catholic institutions in the United States. Very simply, our Catholic schools sell their names and reputations to Nike for a pair of sneakers and a buck and they offer up our student athletes as walking advertisements for the Nike empire. For Nike’s part, it is brilliant. For our Catholic schools’ part, it is sad indeed.
For many, the Nike sweatshop issue is not breaking news. The plight of Nike’s overseas workers has been covered by reporters, academics and activists for many years. In this time, Nike has done well to manage the public relations backlash and Catholic schools have been a key component in their game to convince consumers that “Nike fixed their sweatshop problem.” While Nike has made modest strides at addressing some abuses (the use of toxic glues, sexual harassment, physical abuse, etc.) they have absolutely refused to deal with the key demand that has consistently been pressed by Nike’s overseas workers and those who advocate in solidarity with them - workers want to be paid a living wage.
On the issue of a living wage, Catholic Social Teaching is quite clear. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum, states “that the remuneration must be enough to support the wage earner in reasonable and frugal comfort.” (#34) The U.S. Catholic Bishop’s Pastoral, Economic Justice for All, tells us that “the way power is distributed in a free market economy frequently gives employers greater bargaining power than employees in the negotiation of labor contracts. Such unequal power may press workers into a choice between an inadequate wage and no wage at all. But justice, not charity, demands certain minimum guarantees. The provision of wages and other benefits sufficient to support a family in dignity is a basic necessity to prevent this exploitation of workers.” (#103) And Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Laborem Exercens, exorts “Hence in every case a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly. It is not the only means of checking, but it is a particularly important one and in a sense the key means.” (#19)
Having spent so many years documenting the spending power of Nike’s workers, I can tell you with authority that their wages certainly do not meet the benchmark of a living wage as set forth by Catholic Social Teaching. If you question this, I encourage you to CLICK HERE and watch a clip from my most recent round of spending power research for Nike’s workers in Indonesia.
It is because of the lack of action on paying a living wage that Catholic schools are so important in Nike’s public relations war. Think of it like this. Let’s say you are an alumnus from St. Joseph’s University, the Jesuit school where I did my undergraduate degree. And let’s say that you are somewhat aware of the Nike sweatshop issue. Then you see this picture.
Without saying a word, this image makes the statement to you that, “Nike must have cleaned up their act.” Why? Because, you think, “there is no way that a Catholic, Jesuit, university would ever do business with Nike if they were still paying their workers poverty wages.” This image tells people that Catholic schools like St. Joseph’s University are behind Nike 100%. It tells people that Catholic schools are so much in support of Nike that we are willing to allow our student athletes to advertise their products to the masses. It tells people that Nike must be paying their workers living wages, if they weren’t, why would this Catholic school allow itself to be used by Nike as a marketing tool?
I can tell you why our Catholic schools allow it to happen.
First, many are of the belief that Nike has fixed these problems because Nike has lied and they got a few Catholic schools on board with them. Once this happened, the domino effect took place - administrators think, “if these other Catholic schools have done these endorsement deals, Nike must be ok” and they act without exercising the hermeneutic of suspicion.
Second, if administrators are aware of Nike’s violations of Catholic Social Teaching, rather than standing up and being a voice for the voiceless, they adopt the herd mentality noted above (”everyone else is doing it”) and/or they cave to pressure from Athletic Directors, Business Managers, Board Members and powerful alumni and donors to go with the flow.
If by chance, administrators are willing to take on the issue, many times the schools want an easy out. They ask, “Ok, if we do not wear Nike, who should we wear?” This is not the question we should be asking as a Catholic school! This struggle for justice is not about who YOU should or shouldn’t be wearing. It is about the WORKERS. It is about taking the preferential option for the poor. It is about working in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in these factories to bring Nike to a point where they pay workers a living wage. The question we should all be asking at our Catholic schools is, “If Nike is violating Catholic Social Teaching and they are not paying workers a living wage, what can we do to change that?”
Here is a short list.
1. If your teams are currently wearing Nike products, immediately make a public and provocative statement and cover up every Nike logo with a patch. This may violate the terms of your contract with Nike and may cost you whatever Nike is giving to you. So be it. At times, the Gospel demands radical action and with it, painful consequences. For individual athletes, if your school is not willing to take this action collectively, do it yourself. You may be the spark that lights the flame of revolution.
Using St. Joseph’s University as an example, the Nike logos could be covered with something like this.
2. Take every penny of money that has been given to your high school or university from Nike and give it to Catholic Relief Services, Jesuit Refugee Services, etc.and make a public statement as to why you are doing this.
3. Engage Nike publicly on the issue of a living wage for their factory workers. Write them open letters. Hold on-campus prayer services. Send delegations to the Nike campus to meet with Nike executives. Hold press conferences announcing all these actions…
Why must we do these things? Because we are Catholics. And because we are called by our Catholic faith, in the words of Pope Paul VI, “to carry forward the work of Christ himself under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgement, to serve and to be served.”
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