An examination of "sweatshop" allegations against Nike's
employment practices overseas is featured on a front page piece
in Sunday's WASHINGTON POST. Richburg & Swardson note workers in
Serang, Indonesia, are paid $2.28 a day to make Nike shoes --
"and most of them say they like it." But not all Indonesian
workers are happy, and the country, "for a variety of reasons,
has generated more controversy for Nike than have other foreign
producers." Nike Chair Phil Knight: "Whether you like Nike or
don't like Nike, good corporations are the ones that lead these
countries out of poverty." Nike officials say the company has
improved working conditions in Indonesia and that the country "is
on a road traveled by Britain and the United State in the last
century." Nike's Asia liaison, Charles Brown: "This is how
industrial revolutions start and sustain themselves." Still,
critics remain "unimpressed." Jeff Ballinger, of Press for
Change, a Nike critic: "It's a bigger picture than, 'Is the
economy getting better?' and 'Are rural people climbing out of
poverty'" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/28).
JESSE'S CRUSADE: Jesse Jackson used his L.A. TIMES op-ed to
highlight his trip to Indonesia last week: "Apparel companies
still pay celebrities more money to promote the shoes we buy than
they pay the Indonesian work forces involved in making them"
(L.A. TIMES, 7/28).
HOOSIER ANGER: At Whiting High School in Whiting, IN,
students and school officials are boycotting Nike because of its
donation to a group seeking to retain the state's traditional
single-class basketball tournament. Nike gave $10,000 to Bobby
Plum's "Friends of Hoosier Hysteria," a group opposed to the
four-class format approved by the state for '97-98 (INDIANAPOLIS
STAR-NEWS, 7/27).
