Nike workers in Indonesia an issue in Olympics

JAKARTA (JP): An antiexploitation campaign against Nike sports shoes at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, has apparently kept executives of Nike Inc. Indonesia, a subsidiary of Oregon-based Nike International, extra busy.

None of them could be reached for comment on Monday on a call made by activists urging athletes competing in the Olympics to visit Nike factories in Indonesia to see the apparent failure of the world's giant shoe producer in protecting workers rights in its Indonesian factories.

"The management is still in a meeting. As usual, we're not allowed to disturb them," a security guard, Herman, said over the phone. Another guard added that the meeting could last until 8 p.m.

A staffer of PT Indo Pacific Public Relations, which used to handle Nike activities here, claimed to be unable to reach any of the Nike top-level managers.

"They are still in a meeting," the staffer said.

News agencies reported on Monday that athletes competing in the Sydney 2000 Olympics had been urged by activists to visit Nike factories in Indonesia to observe how the company exploits workers.

The activists renewed a campaign against the alleged exploitation of Asian workers by the international sportswear giant, releasing a report which documents claims of intimidation and harassment of union workers and women in companies contracted to make Nike shoes in Indonesia.

The Community Aid Abroad-Oxfam Australia report, based on interviews conducted with industrial union organizers in Indonesian factories, said workers were threatened with violence if they tried to join unions; that union members were fired for small mistakes and that women were intimidated into not applying for menstrual leave by being required to undergo humiliating examinations.

Tim Connor, the author of the "NikeWatch" report, said Nike was failing to protect workers rights in its contract factories in Indonesia.

"Recently Nike has been pushing the line that it has reformed its human rights practices," Connor said. "The truth is that (there has been) only very minor and grudging reforms.

"Nike is the biggest company in the sportswear industry ... if anyone can afford to pay workers enough to eat, enough to feed their children, Nike is the company," Connor told a news conference on Monday in Sydney.

In a statement in response to Connor's report, Nike's global issues manager, Vada Manager, said from its based in Beaverton, Oregon, the United States, that the company had undertaken to raise age requirements and wages for workers in Indonesia, improved factory conditions and published factory monitoring reports as part of reforms to improve conditions for its workers in Asia.

"No company has done as much in terms of labor rights, code of conduct enforcement, age and wage improvements as we have," Vada said.

"We uphold the Olympic ideal of human dignity," the statement said. "Those campaigning to eliminate sweatshops are addressing the right issue, but targeting the wrong company."

Connor said other sportswear manufacturers were equally responsible for exploitation of workers, but Nike was being targeted because it was the largest.

Nike has 708 factories operated by contract companies and employing about 550,000 people in several parts of the world.

In Indonesia, Nike has been operating for almost 12 years with its 11 subcontractor factories employing 70,000 workers.

Most of the companies, such as PT Pratama Abadi Industri, PT Astra Graphia, PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry and PT Nagasakti Parama Shoes Industry, are located in Tangerang, west of capital Jakarta.

The factories produce between 45 million and 55 million pairs of shoes per year with only 2 percent going to the local market. The rest are shipped to overseas markets, particularly the U.S.

In Sydney, Jim Keady, a former soccer coach who left St. John's University in the United States over a dispute about his refusal to wear Nike products, said athletes should experience firsthand the conditions endured by Nike workers in Indonesia.

Keady, who is suing Nike in relation to his resignation, spent August in Indonesia trying to live on the wage of a Nike worker -- which he said was about Rp 10,000 (US$1.20) a day.

"You can survive, but you cannot live," Keady said. "It's a starvation wage. I know, I starved on it. I lost 25 pounds and spend most of the month painfully hungry and exhausted."

Keady said workers in Indonesia were "absolutely flabbergasted" when they found out how much athletes were paid for endorsements.

"They begged us to bring these athletes to their homes to see how they are forced to live, to see how they are forced to survive, how they don't make enough money to feed their children," he said, extending an open invitation to all Olympic athletes to go to Indonesia.

On its website (www.nikebiz.com), Nike says that its subcontractors in Indonesia had agreed to increase the monthly wage of their employees to Rp 300,000 as per April 1, which is slightly higher that the government mandated minimum wage in Tangerang of Rp 286,000.

"In addition to increasing the take home pay of their workers, Nike partners will also provide meal and transportation allowances.

"The entire value of these packages, not including overtime and cash bonuses, will exceed the minimum physical need, or cost of living expenses, Rp 350,000, for the region where the factories are located," the website says.

Nike, it adds, has worked very closely with our factory partners in ensuring that workers are paid appropriately, treated fairly and that their rights and dignity are protected at all times.

On Dec. 22 last year, some 8,000 workers from two Nike subcontractors went on a rampage, vandalizing seven cars and pelting stones at a factory on Jl. Raya Serang in Balaraja, Tangerang.

The group staged a massive protest beginning at noon to demand larger holiday bonuses. (bsr)