Nike workers upset over allegations
JAKARTA (JP): The worker's union of one of the 11 Nike subcontractors in Indonesia on Friday denied the allegations aired by antiexploitation activists at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post, the worker's union of PT Pratama Abadi Industri said the accusations were groundless since none of the firm's 8,000 workers are currently facing such unfavorable conditions.
"Salaries, health protection and work safety have been properly guaranteed by the company," said the statement, which was signed by the union's chairman, Marjuli and its 11 other executives.
"It would definitely be different if our salaries here were to be compared with those (people working in the same field) in the United States because the cost of living is totally different.
In other words, the union said, an American like Jim Keady, who leads a comfortable lifestyle in the States, would of course face difficulties trying to survive here on the basic salary of an Indonesian worker.
The union executives were referring to a former soccer coach in America, who urged athletes competing in the Olympics on Monday in Sydney, 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.
Keady claims to have visited Indonesia last month and tried to live on the wages of a Nike worker -- which he said was about Rp 10,000 (US$1.20) a day.
"You can survive, but you cannot live," he 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," said Keady, who left St. John's University in the United States over a dispute about his refusal to wear Nike products and is suing Nike with regards to his resignation.
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.
Keady and other antiexploitation activists also released a report which documents claims of intimidation and harassment of union workers and women in the 11 factories, which has a total workforce of 70,000, 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.
But the union workers of PT Pratama Abadi Industri, one of the 11 subcontractors, emphasized that none of the allegations are true of their plant.
"Female workers taking leave during the menstrual period don't feel threatened because of the trust between the employees and the company," the union said.
Globally, Nike has 708 factories operated by contract companies and employing about 550,000 people.
In Indonesia, it has been operating for almost 12 years with most of its subcontractor factories, which includes PT Astra Graphia, PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry and PT Nagasakti Parama Shoes Industry, are located in Tangerang, west of capital Jakarta.
No statements from workers or managements of the other factories could be obtained.
The 11 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. (bsr)