Yesterday student activists won arguably the most impressive victory in the more than fifteen fight to end Nike’s sweatshop abuses. The “Just Pay It” campaign, run by the United Students Against Sweatshops, under the leadership of USAS staffer, Rod Palmquist, forced Nike to the bargaining table and got them to do something they have refused to do to date - take financial responsibility for the welfare of Nike’s subcontracted workforce.

At issue was $2.2 million dollars in severance and back pay due to approximately 1,800 Honduran workers who had been producing Nike products for the college bookstore market.

Here is an excerpt from the joint statement released by Nike and the trade union federation (CGT) that was representing the workers.

Nike and CGT are concerned for the workers in Honduras and have agreed to take important steps to support former employees of Hugger and Vision Tex. Through this agreement, Nike will contribute to a workers relief fund of $1.5 million to be administered jointly by CGT, the Solidarity Center, the Worker Rights Consortium and supervised by professor Lance Compa of Cornell University.

As someone who has fought this fight with Nike for more than a decade, I am so very grateful for what USAS and the Honduran workers have accomplished. This is truly a watershed moment. But now is not the time to rest on the laurels of this victory. We must analyze why it worked and develop plans duplicate its success. That is one of the mistakes that was made in the first go-around with Nike on these issues back in the late 90s. We had them on the ropes and we backed off. We cannot afford to do this again.

So, what were the key elements of the “Just Pay It” campaign that created the winning dynamic?

1. USAS picked and froze their target - Nike. This was not a generalized campaign against sweatshops, they did not go after “the industry.” Circumstances created a scenario where they focused on one company (Nike) in one country (Honduras).

2. USAS was clear in their demand - “Just Pay It.” There was no ambiguity to what they wanted from Nike. Workers were owed $2.2 million dollars and they wanted Nike to pay this amount. Because of this clear demand, they were not drawn into the subterfuge of public relations nonsense that Nike has been so successful at promoting over the years (Codes of Conduct, Corporate Social Responsibility, independent monitoring, etc.). Again, the demand was clearly laid on the table, “pay these Nike workers the $2.2 million dollars they are owed.”

3. USAS mobilized at the grassroots level. When Nike refused to meet their demand, the USAS ground forces mobilized workers, students, professors, non-profits, consumers, etc.

4. USAS made it fun and exciting. From small leafleting actions outside Niketowns, to creative demonstrations on college campuses, to bringing Honduran workers to the USA to tell their stories first hand; students had a blast taking on this corporate bully.

5. USAS held universities accountable to their public commitments. Students made excellent use of the foundation that had been laid by the first generation of USASers. If schools had licensing relationships with Nike AND belonged to the Worker Rights Consortium this meant that there was a framework for accountability. In accessing this framework, USAS was able to pressure the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University to cut ties with Nike over this issue. And had Nike not made the move they did yesterday, I am sure that other schools would have followed suit in the fall.

6. The Honduran workers were willing to fight and were wanting of the collaboration with students and consumers. I believe this was actually the linchpin of this campaign and will be the linchpin of future campaigns. These Nike workers, despite their fears and disappointments, were willing to stand up and fight. When they did, they inspired and empowered students and consumers to join them and the solidarity actions of the students and consumers then re-inspired and re-empowered workers. It was a fluid and symbiotic relationship that ultimately led to victory. Nike workers around the world must learn of this victory and know that there is an army willing to support and work with them when they are ready to fight.

Now that students have led the way, the task is laid before us - we must replicate this victory. Nike must be pressed in multiple factories and in multiple countries. The template has been created and now the work must be done.

Peace, Jim Keady

Team Sweat:

Today we won a groundbreaking victory in the fight against Nike’s sweatshop abuses!

Nike announced this morning that they have come to an agreement with the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT) and will pay $1,500,000.00 to a fund for monies owed to workers for back pay and severance.

Here is the official joint statement from Nike and CGT.

Nike and CGT Statement
26 July, 2010

Beaverton, Ore. (July 26, 2010) – NIKE, Inc. and the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT), representing the former employees of the Nike contract supplier factories Hugger and Vision Tex, have reached an agreement to help improve the lives of workers affected by the Hugger and Vision Tex factory closures in Honduras.

Nike and CGT are concerned for the workers in Honduras and have agreed to take important steps to support former employees of Hugger and Vision Tex. Through this agreement, Nike will contribute to a workers relief fund of $1.5 million to be administered jointly by CGT, the Solidarity Center, the Worker Rights Consortium and supervised by professor Lance Compa of Cornell University.

Nike will also work with its Honduran suppliers to offer vocational training programs and to prioritize hiring of former Hugger and Vision Tex workers as jobs become available over the next two years. Nike will also cover worker’s enrollment in the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS) to obtain health care coverage for a year or until they find new employment, whichever comes first.

Nike and CGT are pleased to have worked together to create a resolution that helps the former Hugger and Vision Tex workers in Honduras to receive needed financial and medical support. Nike and CGT are committed to working together, in conjunction with other stakeholders in Honduras, to develop long-term, sustainable approaches to providing workers with social protection when facing unemployment.

Much of the congratulations for this victory needs to go to the workers in Honduras who did not give up their fight for justice, as well as the United Students Against Sweatshops (www.usas.org) and the Worker Rights Consortium (www.workersrights.org), who supported these workers every step of the way.

This victory proves that we can and will win the fight for justice in Nike’s factories!

Peace, Jim Keady

By Ana Arias
Posted On: July 18 @ www.justmeans.com

Sometimes the CSR decisions of big corporations are as perplexing as a jigsaw puzzle with missing parts. Why the company would hire a 135-people CSR department, amass a 74-people compliance team and spend approximately $25 million annually on CSR efforts while simultaneously refusing to cough up the $2.2 million owed to Honduran garment workers in legally-mandated severance is beyond comprehension.

According to United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), who are staging a heavy-duty anti-sweatshop “Just Pay It” campaign against the apparel giant, in January 2009 two of Nike’s factories in Honduras by the names of Vision Tex and Hugger were closed. To boot, Nike failed to pay the 1,800 workers their severance and additional legally required benefits. Each worker is due about $1,300, which the student group says is equivalent a US manufacturing employee losing around $15,000 to $20,000. Seems Nike’s talking out of two sides of its mouth. Shocking, right? It sure doesn’t smell like the kind of CSR home most of us would want to be involved with. To say nothing of the bad rep it creates for legitimate corporate social responsibility programs in ethical organizations.

On one hand, Nike is apparently insisting that they’re not responsible for what occurs in its sub-contracted factories. Yet they claim to be “driven to do not only what is requires by law but what is expected of a leader.” Yikes. I hope ethical CSR leaders cringe as much as the rest of us when we learn of such blatant inconsistencies. And on the other hand, the company’s code of conduct mandates that all of its suppliers comply with the particular country’s manufacturing laws in which they operate, inclusive of legally-mandated severance payments. “In the event a Nike factory closes down, as was the case with both Hugger and Vision Tex,” writes USAS’s International Campaign Coordinator Rod Palmquist, “then the buck stops at Nike’s doorstep.” It sounds to me as if Nike would be a highly qualified candidate we could designate to the Corporate Hall of Shame ballot.

I was glad to learn of progressive community and university leaders who are putting pressure on and affecting Nike’s financial bottom line because of the company’s complete disregard for the Honduran garment workers. In Portland, Nike’s backyard, a panel of community leaders urged Nike to enforce its code of conduct by paying up worker severance immediately. The University of Wisconsin-Madison became the first college in the country to cut its Nike contract over sweatshop abuses in April, causing Nike to lose $1 million in Badger gear yearly sales. Cornell University announced in June that it will let its Nike contract expire by December’s end, unless the company steps up to the plate and pays the workers what they’re owed. Extra kudos to Cornell, as Nike is the exclusive sponsor of the university’s athletics program.

I’ll conclude with a few more figures and a wild but plausible idea to provide more perspective. Last year, Nike’s estimated spend on sponsorships was $260 million and $200 million on advertising. The likes of superstar LeBron James is getting approximately $90 million over a seven-year period, and France and England’s World Cup soccer teams are getting annual amounts of $54 million and $44 million respectively. Now imagine the ripples of positive change that could take place if Nike’s CSR team surprised company executives and the world by taking the company’s $25 million CSR budget and re-allocating $2.2 million of that that budget to pay the Honduran garment workers for the what they’re owed. It’s far-fetched, I know. But Nike could do it if it wanted to.

by Randy Shaw

July 21, 2010

In a move that could radically alter the rules of the global economy, a factory in the Dominican Republic backed by the United Students Against Sweatshops is producing t-shirts and sweatshirts at the same prices as Nike and Adidas, while also paying workers a living wage. Knights Apparel has already passed Nike as the top college supplier, defying experts who have long argued that Nike’s sweatshop wages made it impossible for those paying workers fairly to compete.

Knight’s success comes after more than a decade of painstaking work by college anti-sweatshop activists, whose creation of the Workers Rights Consortium built a market for living wage alternatives to sweatshop goods. The students’ success is also the latest example of the power of “positive” boycotts, currently used by UNITE HERE to steer guests to union hotels through INMEX and earlier by the United Farm Workers to offer consumers alternatives to Gallo wine.

Having studied the proliferation of sweatshops since writing a book about Nike’s labor practices in the late 1990’s, I know the sheer number of experts arguing that the global “race to the bottom” is inevitable and beyond the power of activists to change. Fortunately, student anti-sweatshop activists ignored these claims, and have now defied the conventional wisdom.

Students Defy Stereotypes
The story of Knights Apparel is really two stories, with the nuts and bolts of the company’s creation and business plan covered in the July 18 New York Times. The story not covered was the long battle by college students to rewrite the rules of the global economy, as they sought to accomplish what most economists and pundits said was impossible.

The struggle began in the late 1990’s, as students responded to revelations that the clothing with collegiate logos sold in their campus stores were made in sweatshops. Campus anti-sweatshop groups soon formed, and soon won agreements from administrators not to sell sweatshop goods so long as alternatives were available.

Creating these “no-sweat” alternatives was the tricky point. The students addressed this by attempting to beat the capitalists at their own game: they created a Workers Rights Consortium that would help to create a sufficient market for no-sweat goods to support their manufacture.

In other words, the students used the “Field of Dreams” approach. They told manufacturers that if they created apparel and paid a living wage, business and sales would come.

And Knight’s Apparel has turned the students dream into reality. Its product will be on over 260 campuses by September, and over 400 by winter quarter.

The company’s shirts will sell for the same price as those made by Nike and Adidas, whose goods are typically made in places like Bangladesh (15 cent minimum wage) or China (85 cents). In contrast, workers are paid $2.83 per hour at the Alta Gracia factory in the Dominican Republic (whose minimum is 85 cents) that makes Knight’s Apparel.

That’s what possible when you don’t have folks like Nike’s Phil Knight making tens of millions of dollars annually off the poverty of third-world workers.

Perhaps as surprising as this outcome is the fact that it took place over more than a decade, as the movement continued as key student activists graduated and myriad other causes and issues emerged. Students are not typically associated with long-term campaigns for this very reason, which makes the success of United Students Against Sweatshops that much more impressive.

The Power of “Positive” Boycotts
In addition to defying the belief that apparel companies cannot survive by paying a living wage, the students also showed the power of shaping consumer behavior by providing positive alternatives.

Back in the 1990s, the students faced a choice. They could relentlessly urge students to avoid sweatshop apparel without providing “no sweat” alternatives, or they could help build a market for the latter.

Recognizing that students were going to buy clothes with their college logo, the students wisely chose the latter strategy. And Knights Apparel has finally made this no sweat alternative a reality.

It is the same “positive” boycott strategy that UNITE HERE uses with its INMEX program. The union knows that people need to stay in hotels, so rather than simply tell them which to avoid the program promotes hotels where visitors should stay.

During the UFW grape boycott, consumers were so focused on only buying union grapes that growers clamored to get the union thunderbird on its packages. The UFW could also readily promote alternative wines to Gallo, which helped the effectiveness of that boycott.

Global Impact
While the success of “no sweat” clothing in the collegiate submarket will not entirely rewrite the rules of the global economy, it does provide a roadmap for other market sub-groups. For example, there are thousands of organizations that sell apparel with their logo, and Knight’s Apparel now provides a viable no sweat option.

As unions, religious organizations and community groups turn to producers paying living wages, it will spur the development of additional factories, expanding the market beyond the t-shirts and sweatshirts sold on college campuses. And now that Knight’s Apparel has created a model for collegiate clothing manufacturing, pressure might build for similar alternatives elsewhere in the apparel industry.

Activists have long argued that another type of apparel world was possible. Now students have helped make this socially responsible alternative a reality.

by Jake Sexton

July 20 2010

We got a very positive bit of news this week, about a new clothing factory opening in the Dominican Republic town of Villa Altagracia. The clothing industry is notorious for its exploitation of some of the world’s poorest people, paying workers starvation wages, treating them like criminals, and making them live in perpetual fear of losing their only means of survival.

This new factory will allow its workers to join unions, and pay them a “living wage” that is more than three times the national average for garment workers in that country. The clothing will primarily be sports wear with college logos, aimed at American university students. The brand will be named after the workers’ home, Alta Gracia, and will be run by a now-socially conscious clothing company called Knights Apparel. The NY Times article above gives concrete examples of the way that this new factory is having a positive impact on people’s lives.

What brings this story home to me is the factory’s history (not mentioned much in the article). The factory used to be owned by a company called BJ&B, which also made college clothing for big corporations like Nike and Reebok. It was discovered that the factory was grossly abusing and exploiting their workers, who then start fighting for their right to unionize and receive better treatment. This campaign received the support of many major social justice organizations in the United States, and the workers won. They formed a union and fought for better contracts with better wages.

And then the contracts started to dry up.

I attended a conference for United Students Against Sweatshops, where a dozen workers from factories in a dozen countries came and spoke to us about their working conditions and their struggles. A Dominican worker told us how Nike and Reebok were no longer buying clothing from the BJ&B factory, and the workers were losing their jobs, and were on the verge of losing everything they had fought for. It was a terrible feeling, that even when you win, you lose. At that conference, we realized that it wasn’t enough to fight for these workers’ right to unionize, we now had to fight for big corporations to continue doing business with unionized factories. We had won a major victory, but we had to continue fighting for it to make a difference.

So now, years later, that same BJ&B factory is now owned by a company that is determined to treat their employees with respect, and pay them wages which will allow them to actually plan for a better future, not just feed their children and pay the rent. But while this is a major victory, we have to realize that victories can easily turn into defeats, that successes can become failures.

If we actually care about a new way of doing business, where workers are treated fairly, and businessmen don’t run away and look for the next impoverished people to exploit, we have to push for this, and keep pushing. We have to encourage people to buy from socially responsible companies like this. We have to push companies to imitate the beneficial model of Knights Apparel and Alta Gracia. If we don’t, this attempt could fail, and big companies everywhere could use it as evidence that their model–the one in which people are used, abused and thrown away—is the only one that “works”.

To get involved, hook up with our friends at United Students Against Sweatshops, Team Sweat, and other organizations that are fighting this fight.

Photo: Michael Kamber for The New York Times

By adelie Chevee

The Jakarta Post

Sun, 07/04/2010

Jim Keady has spent times living  with workers of PT ADIS Dimension, a footwear factory, and found out that they have lived in an appalling condition.

Keady said that the company, one of 37 Nike’s subcontractors in Balaraja, Tangerang, conducts incineration of waste from rubber shoes in a nearby location without considering its impact on the environment.

The practice exposed workers living nearby to emitting toxins from the incineration.

“Nike signed agreements with organizations protecting the environment. But it is not monitoring. If their subcontractors don’t respect it there are no penalties.” Keady said.

The unlawful incineration process is not the only criticism Team Sweat leveled against to the Nike. The not-for-profit organization denounces what it considered “an exploitation of workers” in developing countries including Vietnam or Indonesia.

In Indonesia, the highest minimum wage is Rp 1.1 million (US $120) but according to Keady this is not enough to secure a decent life.

After their rent, charges and cost of transportation, workers only take home Rp 700,000 ($77), says Keady.

To make matters worse for workers, they have to pay the cost of drinking water and two additional meals per day and child care, he said.

Keady explains that basic items such as soap, toothpaste or hygienic pads for women are hardly affordable with this amount.

Workers can’t save money and some even have to send their children back to the village so that they can live with relatives. This way they spend less.

With the amount of money, there is no way workers will have a chance to improve their lives and escape the cycle of poverty. Team Sweat’s research concluded that it would take Rp. 3 million per month for workers to meet their basic needs — which means three times higher than the existing wages.

Nike made $19 billion in revenue in 2009 with a 10 percent net profit margin. It is the world’s number one brand of athletic footwear and apparel.

Keady has talked to a number of Indonesian workers and persuaded them to build a unionized worker movement. But it is hard to make the workers organize if they face pressure at work.

“Nike exploits their fear,” he says. “It knows that their employees are desperate for work,” he said.

Keady knows a lot about workers’ woes as he has lived with the workers of a Nike’s subcontractors and lived off the same amount of money they receive, around $125 a month. He lost 25 pounds, and learned first hand that the living conditions are beyond what he could deal with.

Back in the States, Keady shared his experience at dozens of universities. What started as a limited tour turned out to be endless journey now that he is still on the road. Eventually his campaign, with the help of other NGOs, was enough to pressure Nike to make changes in some of its policies.

Team Sweat hopes that campaign against Nike bad practices could now be rekindled with the arrival of the soccer World Cup. “People should know the origin of the jerseys and shoes worn by their favorite players,” says Keady.

Nike and its contractors employ 800,000 workers in 1,000 factories across 52 countries. Indonesia is the firm’s third-largest manufacturing site after China and Vietnam, Keady said.

Responding to Keady’s accusation, a company spokesman said issues such as salary for workers in its disparate production chain are best dealt with “by negotiations between workers, labor representatives, the employer and the government”.

Erin Dobson, Nike’s senior manager for global public affairs, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times which published a story on Keady on Wednesday as saying that the company participated in efforts to improve the overall workers’ welfare.

“We believe there is ample room for innovation in this area,” she said, “And that progress must occur throughout the industry, and at the governmental level, not only in Nike’s supply chain.”

She said Nike’s code of conduct mandates that the company pay the minimum legal wage in each country, which in Indonesia is $122 a month, one of Asia’s lowest.

The Nike representative in Indonesia did not return a call from The Jakarta Post for this story.

In the past, Nike has repeatedly denied claims regarding labor issues in Indonesia.

The pension fund, TIAA-CREF, currently owns approximately $230,000,000.00 in Nike stock and to date, they have done nothing significant in terms of pressuring Nike to pay living wages, negotiate union contracts, and clean up their environmental damage in the countries where Nike products are made.  TC has also placed Nike in their “social choice for social change” account, which is a signal to their investors that they believe that Nike is “socially responsible.”  Clearly the facts show that Nike is anything but socially responsible.

That is why on Tuesday, July 20th at 9:30am - when TC holds their annual meeting of participants at 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 - TEAM SWEAT will be there!

We will be asking the TC Board of Directors to take the following actions:

* TC should make a formal request to Nike to pay the $2.6 million dollars in back wages and severance owed to 1,700 Honduran Nike workers.  If Nike refuses to pay, we will recommend that TC divests some of its holdings with Nike.  This would be in line with similar actions take by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University, who recently cut their contracts with Nike over this issue.

* TC should make a formal request to Nike to create a pilot project in which Nike would take part in tri-party collective bargaining with a Nike shoe factory in Indonesia.  The result of this bargaining would be legally-binding and enforceable labor agreement that was signed by Nike, the factory management and the trade union at the plant.

* TC should make a formal request to Nike to pay for an independent assessment of the environmental damage done by the burning of scrap shoe rubber in Indonesian villages for the past 20 years.

If you would like to attend the TIAA-CREF annual meeting and take part in pressuring them to hold Nike accountable, please email Jim Keady at jim@educatingforjustice.org no later than July 10th as arrangements will need to be made to get member proxies so you can enter the meeting.

Jim Keady with a U.S. soccer shirt. "Despite their low wages, they still
have immense pride in their work," he says of the workers. (John M.
Glionna / Los Angeles Times)

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times

June 28, 2010

Reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia -

Like any die-hard sports fan, Jim Keady eagerly anticipated soccer’s World Cup.

But he isn’t at home watching the matches. Instead, the 38-year-old New Jersey native has been in Indonesia, talking to the workers who make the Nike jerseys worn by nine of the teams in the tournament.

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For years, the former professional goalie has waged a one-man campaign to highlight Nike’s labor practices, complaining that the company pays Indonesian workers low wages to stitch together the uniforms that have made the company the world’s most successful sports garment manufacturer.

Sitting at an outdoor coffeehouse here, Keady produced several Nike jerseys in Cup team colors. “These jerseys are real wealth you can touch,” he said. “They’re making Nike and the players rich while the workers who make them continue to grind out lives of abject poverty.”

Keady’s campaign goes back to 1997 when, as a soccer coach for St. John’s University in New York, he questioned the school’s plans to sign a $3.5-million endorsement deal with Nike.

The devout Catholic insisted that the contract would be hypocritical for a Christian university. “I was told to drop the issue or get out,” he said. “So I resigned in protest.”

The showdown prompted Keady to launch Team Sweat, a nonprofit dedicated to persuading Nike to change its business practices.

Keady said that major sports events such as the World Cup offer an opportunity to reach a wider audience.

“Right now, the eyes of the world are on the World Cup,” he said. “Now is the time to get out my message.”

Nike and its contractors employ 800,000 workers in 1,000 factories across 52 countries. Indonesia is the firm’s third-largest manufacturing site after China and Vietnam, Keady said.

A company spokesman said issues such as salary for workers in its disparate production chain are best dealt with “by negotiations between workers, labor representatives, the employer and the government.”

Erin Dobson, Nike’s senior manager for global public affairs, said the company has participated in efforts to improve overall worker welfare. “We believe there is ample room for innovation in this area,” she said, “and that progress must occur throughout the industry, and at the governmental level, not only in Nike’s supply chain.”

She said Nike’s code of conduct mandates that the company pay the minimum legal wage in each country, which in Indonesia is $122 a month, one of Asia’s lowest.

Keady says that if Nike raised the price of its shoes by $2.50 a pair and gave that money to workers, it would help lift most out of poverty. Nike calls that a simplistic solution that does not take into account complicated country factors.

In 2000, the towering, redheaded Keady moved to Indonesia and lived on the same salary as a Nike worker, which at the time was about $1.25 a day, staying in a 9-by-9-foot home in a community where 10 families share bathroom and kitchen facilities.

He lost 25 pounds in one month and returned to the U.S. to tell of his experiences. “I thought it would be a 10-week tour, but I’ve been on the road ever since,” he said.

Often, his campaign resembles activist Michael Moore’s documentary “Roger & Me” and Keady has recorded his exploits, producing a short film called “Behind the Swoosh.” He also unsuccessfully tried to meet with Phil Knight, Nike chairman and former chief executive, and has sought the support of athletes promoting Nike, including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and soccer star Mia Hamm.

But he spends most of his time interviewing workers who don’t make enough money in a week to buy a Nike jersey. Although he hasn’t had time to watch the World Cup games, many of the workers have.

“Despite their low wages, they still have immense pride in their work,” he said. “They’re overjoyed at the fact that many of these World cup players are wearing jerseys made in Indonesia.”

Keady told the story of one Nike factory worker.

“He said that one day, he’d like to be able to buy a pair of Nike sneakers that he helps make,” the activist recalled. “After 19 years of factory work, he wanted to be able to bring home the product so he could show his daughter what Daddy does. That just floored me.”

john.glionna@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

One of the goals of my trip (as you will read about in future posts) was to find the workers that made the World Cup replica jerseys that I bought at Niketown in NYC before I left for Indonesia. My team had been searching for a couple of weeks prior to my arrival for the plants where these jerseys were produced, but to no avail. Luckily, following our meeting with the Nike shoe factory workers the other night, one of the union leaders said that he had a contact for us at a plant that may have produced this stuff. On Thursday night, he arranged for me to meet with half a dozen workers from this Nike apparel factory.

As I pulled the soccer jerseys from my bag, replicas from the U.S., Brazilian, Australian and English National Teams, and passed them around the room, I was struck by the care and attention that each worker gave to the shirts. When most people grab one of these jerseys, they hold it up to themselves, throw it on, and are off on their merry way. But these workers carefully inspected each piece, running their fingers along each seam and holding it the way that a sculptor might hold and admire a finished piece of art. These were not just soccer jerseys to them, this was their lifework, and the pride they took in what they do and create was evident.

As things turned out, these particular jerseys were not produced at their factory, although they did produce replicas for Nike the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and they are now producing similar Nike products. They shared that there may be a factory within their group that produced these and they would try and find out for me.

As our conversation continued, the workers shared that (to no surprise), the number one issue for them was their wages. Their basic salaries ranged from Rp1.130.000 to Rp1.191.000. The differences in pay were because of the range of jobs that were held (sewing operator, machine tech, sample creators).

They also shared a couple of other interesting things. one of the women told me that whenever Nike monitors are scheduled to visit the plant, workers are told by the managers to lie to the monitors and NOT to discuss anything that might be deemed negative about the plant. The also shared that their work days are very long, sometimes working from 7am-8:30pm. And, when they do have to work long shifts like this, the factory is supposed to provide them with dinner - a meal of at least 1400 calories. The reality is that they get small portions of rice, vegetables, tempeh, and salty fish - not nearly close to the agreed upon standard. They told me that in the past, they used to get a meal allowance of Rp2.250 if they had to work overtime. I know from my research that Rp2.250 would buy you about a third of a portion of a modest meal at the local food stall. So, it seems that whether they are getting the cash or the food, they are being cheated.

We came back to the discussion on wage levels and one of the men shared how tough it is to try and survive on the wages, especially given the fact that he has a daughter. I’m a relatively new parent myself (my daughter will be two in July) and so the issues that workers who are parents face have taken on new personal emotional meaning for me.

I asked him about his daughter and I learned that she is three-and-a-half years old. When she was just three months old, she had to be sent to live with his mother-in-law in a village in central Java between Solo and Yogakarta. Because he makes such a low salary producing for Nike, he is only able to see his daughter two or three times a year. He fought back his pain as he shared this with me and my heart went out to him. I have only been away from my daughter for a few days and I miss her dearly, I cannot imagine only seeing her two or three times a year.

I shared with him and his fellow workers that this situation is unfair. I showed them flyers I had prepared that documented how much Nike made last year from their sweat and hard work.

Nike’s 2009 Revenues: Rp19.200.000.000.000

I also showed them a flyer with the names, photos and salaries of the top five executives at Nike and what they made in 2009.

Phil Knight, Chairman of the Board
Basic salary = Rp28.254.340.000
Total salary = Rp34.564.540.000

Charlie Denson, President of the Nike Brand
Basic salary = Rp11.923.100.000
Total salary = Rp73.333.700.000

After showing them these flyers I shared with them that I am quite sure that none of these men or anyone that is working for Nike in the USA had to “export” their babies back to home villages. I shared with them that these Nike executives are getting rich, the Nike investors are getting rich, the athletes that endorse Nike are getting rich, but the workers who produced the real wealth for Nike continue to live in abject poverty. I asked them if they wanted to fight to change this.

One of the women responded, “Yes, we want to fight, but we don’t know how.”

Here our work begins.

JUST(ice) DO IT.

Peace, Jim Keady

This morning I attended a demonstration at the famous Bunderan HI statue in central Jakarta.

My colleagues here in the NGO community have been working for months on engaging a number of the major brands to improve conditions for workers. It seems that their negotiations have fallen apart and this demonstration was an attempt to raise public awareness about the current state of affairs.

It does not surprise me that these talks did not lead to the desired end. Without the threat that there will be labor strikes and/or a consumer boycott if demands are not met, these top brands (Nike, Adidas, Reebok, etc.) will go along with these discussions and in the end, do nothing. That is why it is imperative that the focus of our work be grounded in building worker power and encouraging and supporting workers to use their power to bring Nike to the bargaining table.

Peace, Jim Keady

I spent the afternoon doing a round of pricing research to update my understanding of the purchasing power (or lack thereof) for Nike’s Indonesian workers.

The current basic monthly salary for a Nike worker here is Rp1.100.000 ($114USD). Here are some average major monthly expenses that all workers have.

Rent Rp300.000
Drinking water Rp100.000
Transportation Rp100.000

If you add up these three major expenses, that equals Rp500.000. If you subtract this Rp500.000 from the basic monthly salary of Rp1.100.000, you are left with Rp600.000. Divide this Rp600.000 by the average amount of days in a month (30) and your remaining daily spending power is Rp20.000. What does that mean?

You will need to eat. You get one (not so great) meal at the factory. You will need two additional meals. A modest meal at the warteg (local restaurant or food stall) will cost you Rp8.000 - two meals, Rp16.000.

If you want to have a bottle of iced tea with one of these meals, that will cost you Rp2.500.

If you want to have a healthy snack during the day (two bananas) that will cost you Rp4.000. You cannot afford the snack.

Isn’t that crazy? You are producing the real wealth for a company that posted $1,500,000,000.00USD in profits last year and you cannot afford two meals, a bottle of iced tea AND a snack.

It is important to note, that we have only discussed SOME expenses. What about clothing, shoes, stuff for your house, recreation, soap, toothpaste, etc.? And, we are only talking about the needs for one adult here. What if you had children?

When the workers here talk about their financial struggles, they say that they are digging a hole today to fill in the hole that they dug yesterday, but the hole in front of them just keeps getting bigger. Ironically, so do Nike’s profits.

Peace, Jim Keady

My team and I left my hotel this morning at 6:30am and drove 90 minutes to a Nike shoe factory in one of the industrial areas outside Jakarta. There we sat and waited (again). We were back on the beat looking to document the dumping and burning of Nike scrap shoe rubber.

This is an important issue because Nike has made major public statements about their supposed commitment to protecting the environment. In fact, if you read their most recent corporate responsibility report, it is loaded with claims and planned initiatives on how they say they will limit their global environmental footprint. I am unsure how successful they are going to be since it seems that they cannot even manage their trash in a way that is responsible.

“Therefore the disposal of footwear soles by burning that Mr. Keady discusses in his presentation is either counterfeit or unauthorized.”
- Carolyn Wu, Issues Manager, Nike, Inc. ~ May 10, 2002

As I wrote in an earlier post, I have been pushing Nike on this issue since I first discovered that shoe rubber from their plants was being dumped in burned in villages around the factories. For years, Nike denied any wrongdoing (note the quote above from Nike’s Carolyn Wu).

In 2009 Nike did admit, to me at least, that there was some validity to my claims. Just before my visit to Indonesia in 2009, Nike sent one of their top environmental people from Asia to investigate this issue. During his visit, this Nike exec sat outside a factory and waited for the dump truck to leave the plant. He followed it and found that the end of the line was a public dump where eventually Nike had to clean up 180 dump truck loads of scrap shoe rubber and spend thousands of dollars on an environmental remediation of the site. The resulting policy change was Nike’s new waste management system.

The question I wanted answered, was “Is the waste management system really effective or it is simply another Nike public relations ploy?”

So… there we sat and waited.

The giant yellow dump truck rolled out of the factory gates around 10:15am. We whipped our van around and followed it down the bumpy dirt road. I must share that I felt somewhat uneasy as we were doing this. In 2002 while doing similar research at a dump, I ended up being chased in my van by machete wielding preman (thugs) on motorcycles who worked for the mafioso that ran the dump. They eventually caught us, beat my driver and brought my team back to the dump where I ended up on my knees with the boss telling me, “If you come back here, I will kill you,” as he stood over me with a sword drawn over my head.

The dump truck pulled into a makeshift recycling center that is run by the local community and started to unload. To not raise suspicions with the men who ran this operation, I posed as an American buyer of shoe scraps. We told them that I worked for a company that made artificial soccer fields and that we used this kind of material as a base. They bought the story. From our conversation I learned that they only received the scrap foam from the factory (about 1 ton a day) and it is sold to buyers that use it to make cushions for sofas, chairs, etc. There was no scrap shoe rubber dumped with them, but they told me where it was discarded, a dump site just up the road.

We made our way down the road and came upon the dump site that we were told about. It turned out that while we were at the community recycling center, that another dump truck must have left the plant and come to this site. As it unloaded it’s trash, we watched and waited. It took about 20 minutes for the truck to be emptied of its contents. It was morbidly fascinating to watch the people at the dump sort through the trash as it was pushed off the truck. They scavenged for plastic bottles and anything else that might have value if salvaged.

When the team of men from the factory finished their work, loaded back onto the truck and rolled out back onto the road, we kicked into action.

Alif told the man that ran the dump that I was a Canadian reporter doing a documentary on recycling efforts in Indonesia. Rather than TELL you what I found here, I offer the photos below and will allow you to judge if Nike’s claims about their new waste management system are legit.

Just an FYI, the kind of dumping I described above and that you can see in these photos, happens 3-4 times a day, every day, and the burning happens for hours every afternoon.

JUST(ice) DO IT.

Peace, Jim Keady

I spent the early evening of June 8th traveling the broken, dusty roads of an industrial suburb outside of Jakarta en route to a meeting with Nike factory workers. At around 6:30pm, we arrived at the home of a worker and I was invited in. I had met with many of these workers before, so it was a reunion of sorts and I was very happy to see them. I settled into the corner on the floor of the 6×10 room, sparsely decorated with a rug, outdated wall-hangings, and fading blue paint. Following a brief introduction and the gathering of some data, I listened to the all too familiar stories from these eleven Nike factory workers. Despite the fact that they produce the real wealth (the stuff you can actually hold in your hands, or put on your feet) for the $19,200,000,000.00 sportswear giant, they still live in grinding poverty.

As our discussion continued, one of the women, her young face framed by her traditional Muslim headdress, shared how painfully difficult it is to live on her basic monthly salary of Rp1.110.000 ($114USD). Her rent is Rp300.000 and there is pressure to send Rp350.000 back to her family in the village. If there is no overtime for her to work and earn extra pay, this leaves her with Rp405.000 for the month to meet the rest of her basic needs.

Let’s do some math here. If she has Rp.405.000 after rent and sending money home to her family and you divide that Rp405.000 by the average amount of days in a month (30), she is left with Rp15.500 per day to meet the rest of her basic needs. And when a simple meal of rice, vegetables, tempeh, and a small piece of fish costs Rp8.000 and a bottle of iced tea costs Rp2.500, it should be no surprise why she was near tears as she shared that she has to borrow money every month from friends and neighbors to make ends meet.

The remainder of our discussion focused on what we could do together to help get workers the raises they deserve. I shared with them that the consumers and investors from around the world (4,000 of whom live in Jakarta) who are part of TEAM SWEAT are ready to support them in their fight. The workers then shared their fears with me, that if they fight for the wage they want and deserve (Rp3.000.000 per month) and go on strike to make it happen, that they could be fired and that Nike could pull orders from their factory.

I responded to this by saying that their fears may be justified and then I raised the following, “What else would you like to do? Nike’s making money, the factory is making money, the athletes are making money… and you continue to live in poverty. When are you going to stand up and fight for yourselves?” It was a difficult thing for me to say and I prefaced it by letting them know that I shared it with love and solidarity. But I remained firm that Nike’s Indonesian workers could not continue to look for people like me to act like a Santa Claus and bring them the gift of better working conditions and fair wages. It was time for them to take action. Still fearful, they agreed.

We will meet again on Thursday night to continue our discussion and lay the groundwork for a specific action.

Peace, Jim Keady

I started today by meeting with Alif and Benny, my friends and colleagues that have been working to organize things prior to my arrival in Indonesia. They reported that contacts have been made with workers at a number of Nike factories and that meetings with workers are in the process of being confirmed. They shared that the key issues remain the same: workers’ wages are too low to meet basic needs; and the workers continue to be afraid of the power that Nike has over them (i.e. they fear doing real organizing and exercising their right to strike for better wages because they could be fired and/or Nike will pull orders).

As our discussion continued, Alif shared something very interesting with me. As I noted above, I did my best to keep my travel plans (specific dates, etc.) a secret on this trip. Despite this, at 7:31pm on Monday night, about 20 minutes before my plane was about to land, Alif got a text message from one of the staff members at Nike’s Jakarta office - “When Jim arrives in Indonesia, tell him I said, ‘hi.’” How Nike knew I was en route is somewhat unsettling, but it is the nature of my work.

After our meeting in Jakarta, Alif and I headed out to a Nike factory. Our plan was to sit outside the plant and wait for the dump truck that carries the scrap shoe rubber to leave the factory and follow it.

A Nike scrap shoe rubber dump site in 2001.

A little background on this… In the summer of 2000, I first unearthed the fact that scrap shoe from Nike plants was being dumped and burned in villages. The slow burning of Nike shoe rubber at a relatively low heat emits dangerous toxins into the air, soil and water. Despite the fact that I put Nike on notice with regard to this issue in 2000, 2001, and 2002, when I returned to Indonesia in 2008, I once again documented the same problem. In the summer of 2008, I shared my updated findings with the top executives at Nike and was promised that it would be addressed. In July of 2009, during my visit to Nike factories with Caitlin Morris, Nike’s Director of Innovation and Sustainable Business, I was shown the new waste management system that would rectify this issue. While it looked impressive, I was not convinced that it would address the problem. Why? Because implementing that kind of system and changing the culture that drives that system would take REAL investment from Nike. What happens now is that Nike tells their subcontractors, “we want this done.” But Nike does not provide the factory with any capital to make it happen, nor are they willing to increase the price they pay to the factories for Nike sneakers to offset the costs. So what you end up with is a nice show for the monitors and Nike telling the world that they have addressed these issues and they have a new system in place, etc. But the reality remains unchanged on the ground.

So, we sat there for hours, clandestinely waiting, but to no avail. We would have to try again.

Peace, Jim Keady

After more than a day of travel, I reached Jakarta safely and am ready to begin 10 days of research on the current state of conditions for Nike factory workers here.

I am hopeful that this trip will be productive and rewarding. I also am hopeful that you will enjoy and learn from the accounts of my daily activities.

JUST(ice) DO IT.

Peace, Jim Keady