Why we are camp

WHY WE ARE CAMPAINING ON NIKE

All over the world many groups are campaigning on Nike to protest against its labour practices and to obtain the adoption of an independent monitoring system. The countries where campaigns are going on, as to april 1997, are:
USA (Global Exchange and Press for Change)
UK (Christian Aid)
France (Agir Ici)
Holland (IRENE and Clean Clothes Campaign)
Italy (Centro Nuovo Modello di Sviluppo)
Canada (Paix et Developpement)
Australia (Community Aid Abroad)

In this page two documents are contained:
1- An interview made by Corporate Crime Reporter to Jeff Ballinger explaining why we are campaign on Nike
2- The postcard prepared by Community Aid Abroad to campaign on Nike.

Interview with Jeffrey Ballinger, Director "Press for Change", Alpine, New Jersey
(Corporate Crime Reporter - December 1996)

CCR: What part of a Nike shoe is labor?
BALLINGER: Nike has said that a $70 pair odf Air Pegasus shoes that Nike was producing in Indonesia a couple of years ago had labor costs of $1.60. I think that was high by about 70 cents. I think it was less than a dollar at that point.
Now, with the increase of labor costs in Indonesia, I think it is still under $1.50 per pair.
Total marketing for the company is about $500 million a year. That includes these big endorsement contracts. The company has direct adversiting costs of about $300 million. That would put the adversiting to a pair of shoes at about $1.00 to $1.50.

CCR: Making shoes in the United States is prohibitively expensive?
BALLINGER: Nike says thet if they made the $150 Air Jordan shoe here in the United States, it would cost consumers $350 to $400 a pair. That's ridicolous.
Saucony and New Balance are still making some shoes in the United States. They are making many shoes abroad now. Just before the New York City Marathon this year, the "New York Times" ran a price comparison. That showed that the made in the USA Saucony and New Balance shoes were cheaper than Nike in all four sports shops.

CCR: I'm wearing a pair of New Balance right now. It says on it Made in the USA. Should I feel morally comfortable wearing these?
BALLINGER: I would feel very comfortable in those shoes, as I would feel in a pair of Reebok, or Nikes or other shoes made in South Korea or Taiwan today, because workers are making a living wage and they have some political rights and developing trade union rights.

CCR: Where is this campaign going?
BALLINGER: Nike announced its code of conduct in 1992. I felt at the time that they were digging a huge hole for themselves. I was going to watch what they did in these factories and hold them to the standards that they set for themselves. Sure enough, after a couple of years, journalists and non-governmental groups began to compare what the promises were in these codes from Nike, Reebok and Levis to the actual conditions in the factories. And you started to see a new level of awareness about some of these issues that hadn't been addressed.
Now, we are up to the next phase, which is "how do we enforce these codes?".
Many people are very upset with the global economy, I have a couple of children and I can't buy a toy not made in China. It can't be done, except for the big stuff, like the big plastic picnic tables, and things like that. Mybe you will find something made in Thailand, which is maybe a little bit better. This is going to turn on the ability of a few groups like Press for Change to translate this general feeling of discomfort that consumers have into enough of an irritant to force companies like Nike to accept independent monitoring. We are going to keep the pressure on to push them into that independent monitoring mode.
It is Not going to be without flaws. We understand that industrial relations have been a tremendously difficult thing thing to solve, even in the United States. So, to go to a country where people have few rights and erect some kind of monitoring plan or alternative dispute resolution system is difficult.
When you have 60,000 workers in Indonesia building shoes, you are going to have a story of some kind of abuse almost svery week.

Postcard prepared by Community Aid Abroad to campaign on Nike

Dear Nike Inc.,
while you continue to record string profits ($US 299 million in 1994), there are reports that the women who actually make Nikes in your contractors' factories in Indonesia:
- Work extremely long (up to 72 hours a week)
- Are paid as little as $US 2.40 a day
- Often suffer injuries at work and work in unsafe conditions
- Have been subjected to physical and verbal abuse by supervisors
Condition are similar for women employed by your contractors in other parts of Asia. Please upgrade your code of conduct covering shoe contractors so that their workers can join independent unions and negotiate for fairer wages and conditions. Please also allow your code to be monitored by an independent group which includes representatives of the workers who make your shoes.

Sincerely,

Name: _______________________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________
Phone: H: _____________________________________________________________
Email: _______________________________________________________________

Deliver to:
Community Aid Abroad
GPO Box 1000
Sydney NSW 1043

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