| During one of his several visits to Indonesia, Ballinger was able
to speak to some of the factory workers. One woman told him how she was
slapped across the face and called "a dog" for scuffing a shoe. She
also told Ballinger the only time workers could take a break is when they
literally collapsed while working.
He also heard stories of workers having their fingers cut off while operating dangerous machinery that they were trained to use in less than a week. "We don't advocate a boycott of Nike. We just want to raise the issues. If Nike is comfortable with the drumbeat of bad publicity coming out about production practices, so be it. We're not trying to stop their rocketing sales. We just want to put information out there that will force the company to address these concerns," Ballinger said. He continued. "Nike's earlier attempts to address them were clearly PR, but now I think they have gotten more serious. It remains to be seen whether they will fix these problems. But they are feeling the heat now." Last July, Washington Post reporter Keith Richburg visited the factories and also talked to several workers. "From what I saw in those factories, I'd have to say that the reports put out by activist groups are highly exaggerated. They are not as bad as people claim they are," Richburg said. "In fact, they are quite above average. And from what I saw 90 percent of the people working in the factories were happy to be there." In 1992 Nike created a Code Of Conduct dealing with minimum wages, child labor, health and safety, and the non-use of forced labor. Included in the Code Of Conduct is a Memorandum Of Understanding which is to be signed and complied with by Nike's contractors. Jeff Small, director of public relations at Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon explained the motivation behind the Code Of Conduct. "Like in any factory in North America, when you have management and workers working together you are going to have conflict. This is a reality. But we are going to do everything within our power to reduce the chances of conflict happening in our subcontracted factories in Asia." Said Jeff Ballinger, "I figured no one would look beyond the Code. So I went back to Indonesia every year to check to see if it was being implemented. For two and a half years after they came up with the Code of Conduct they still weren't paying minimum wage." Ballinger points out that doubling the wages of the workers would have little effect on what the consumer would pay for a pair of shoes. Cost of labor currently ranges from 1-4 percent of the wholesale price of the product. "In 1992 I published one of their wage stubs in (an international)
magazine. It was a computer generated piece of paper that showed workers
were earning less than minimum wage. It was hard for Nike to run away from
that and they decided to at least get serious about the wage issue."
|