May 13, 1998
New York Times
Nike Pledges to End Child Labor and Increase Safety
By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.
Related Readings:
Money Transfer
Dilapidated Health Care
Bust or Boom?
Nike Critic Praises Gains in Air Quality
at Vietnam Factory
Nike Pledges to End Child Labor and
Increase Safety
Nike Shoe Plant in Vietnam Is
Called Unsafe for Workers
|
WASHINGTON -- Bowing to pressure from critics who have tried to turn its famous shoe brand into a synonym for exploitation, Nike Inc. on Tuesday promised to root out underage workers and require overseas manufacturers of its wares to meet strict U.S. health and safety standards. Philip Knight, Nike's chairman and chief executive, also agreed to a demand that the company has long resisted, pledging to allow outsiders from labor and human-rights groups to join the independent auditors who inspect the factories in Asia, interviewing workers and assessing working conditions. "We believe that these are practices which the conscientious, good companies will follow in the 21st century," he said in a speech at the National Press Club. "These moves do more than just set industry standards. They reflect who we are as a company." Nike said it would raise the minimum age for hiring new workers in shoe factories to 18 and the minimum age of new workers in other factories to 16, in countries where it is common for workers as young as 14 to hold such jobs. Footwear factories have heavier machinery and use more dangerous raw materials, including solvents that cause toxic air pollution. At overseas factories that produce Nike shoes, the company said, it would tighten air-quality controls to ensure that the air breathed by workers meets the same standards enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the United States. Knight's pledges did not include increased wages, a major demand of critics who say Nike and other U.S. companies pay workers in China and Vietnam less than $2 a day and workers in Indonesia less than $1 a day. Even though the cost of living is much lower in these countries, critics say workers need to make at least $3 a day to achieve adequate living standards. In his speech, Knight defended the company's record of creating jobs and improving factory conditions abroad, but seemed to acknowledge that it was time for dramatic actions. "It has been said that Nike has single-handedly lowered the human-rights standards for the sole purpose of maximizing profits," he complained. "The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse." "I truly believe that the American consumer does not want to buy products made in abusive conditions," he said. The initiatives announced Tuesday address the types of issues,
like air quality, that were raised by an inspection report prepared
for the company by Ernst & Young, an accounting firm. The
report found many unsafe conditions at a plant in Vietnam, adding
to criticisms of the company when the report was made public
by the Transnational Resource and Action Center, a nonprofit
group that often criticizes The company's critics responded favorably to many elements of the plan released Tuesday. But they noted Knight had not promised to raise wages. They also cautioned that he had not spelled out which groups would be allowed to participate in the new monitoring of factories, or provided other details of that part of his commitment. "Independent monitoring is a critical element of an overall system of improving labor practices," Knight said. "Nike's goal is to reach a point where labor practices can be tested and verified in much the same manner that financial audits determine a company's compliance with generally accepted accounting principles." Monitoring labor standards abroad has split industry members of a committee established by the White House to consider overseas labor standards of U.S. corporations, preventing it for the past year from coming up with recommendations. Jeffrey Ballinger, director of Press for Change, a group that has been critical of Nike, called the company's plan a major retreat and a sign of the critics' growing strength. "I think on the health and safety question, it is a very significant statement," he said. "There is not a lot of wiggle room. They either fix it or they don't. I really, really believe they are going to get after that problem." The company has been hurt by falling stock prices and weak sales even as it has been pummeled in the public relations arena, including regular ridicule in the comic strip Doonesbury and an encounter between Knight and the gadfly filmmaker Michael Moore in his new documentary, The Big One. Knight said the main causes of the company's falling sales were the financial crisis in Asia, where the company had been expanding sales aggressively, and its failure to recognize a shifting consumer preference for hiking shoes. "I truthfully don't think that there has been a material impact on Nike sales by the human-rights attacks," he said, citing the company's marketing studies. But for months, the company, which spends huge sums for advertising
and endorsements by big-name athletes, has been responding increasingly
forcefully to complaints about its employment practices, as student
groups have demanded that universities doing business with Nike
hold it to higher standards. In January it hired a former Microsoft
executive and made him vice president for corporate and Other critics, such as Thuyen Nguyen, director of Vietnam Labor Watch, were critical when the American civil-rights leader Andrew Young last year reported favorably on the company's efforts to improve conditions in its Asian factories, saying he had glossed over problems. Knight emphasized in his speech Tuesday that using objective organizations to monitor working conditions would serve not just Nike, but eventually U.S. industry in general, by "giving the American consumer an assurance that those products are made under good conditions." Some critics said that the company cannot reassure consumers without improving wages in its factories. "We see one big gap," said Medea Benjamin, director of the San Francisco-based human-rights group Global Exchange. "A sweatshop is a sweatshop is a sweatshop unless you start paying a living wage. That would be $3 a day." |