workconditions

WORKING CONDITIONS IN NIKE SUBCONTRACT FACTORIES ® Boje (August 20, 2000; Last update August 1, 2001)

	Wages & Quotas	Average Work Week	Forced Overtime	Month's Wage Deposit Required	Workers are Fined	Health & Safety
Tier 1 Beaverton & ~ 110 US factories	High Wage & No Quotas There are reports of factory in Oregon with mostly part time people working without benefits	40 hours	None		No
Tier 2 Taiwan & S. Korea - where more sophisticated technology and work process is used					No
Tier 3 - Vietnam, Cambodia - moderate level technology	$1.50 a day (Vietnam) Others put it at $1.25 per day: While Nike spokesman Tiger Woods is paid more than $55,000 a day for wearing the corporate logo, the average Indonesian worker is paid just $1.25 to make the gear that Woods wears, activists Analysts say that hourly production wages in Cambodia are now at US$ 0.24 in Vietnam				1/2 day pay for talking
Tier 3 Thailand moderate level technology	Sweatshop Wage - Now, in sweatshop making export clothes, Lek (Junya Yimprasert) found out that the [Thai] workers can earn as little as only 46 baht [1 US$] a day. Minimum Wage in Thai - Thai minimum wage is now from US$ 3 - 4.50 Living Wage - This is the wage payment that meets the cost of food, basic shelter, and subsistence. The anti-sweatshop movement is working to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. There is fear that any wage increase would encourage foreign (transnational) corporations to shift their production bases elsewhere, leading to higher unemployment in Thai. Tiger Woods Wage - Tiger Woods signed a sponsorship agreement in September, 2000 with Nike for 5 years worth $100 million. With all winnings and endorsement earning this year, Tiger Woods will get $55,000 a day. A Thai worker in a Nike factory would have to work for 14,000 days or 38 years to receive the same amount.
Tier 3 - Indonesia (115,000 workers in 30 factories)	Rp 10,000 (about US $1.20) per day is simply not a living wage for a human being. $3.30 a day (Indonesia) Indonesia Wage Raise claim by Nike (See Footnote 5) Indonesia Wages do not meet basic needs (1 ) Analysts say that hourly production wages in Cambodia are now US$ 0.28, compared to US$ 0.24 in nearby Vietnam	Many college students know what it's like to be low on cash, but very few could live on $ 1.25 a day. According to human rights activists Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu, Nike factory workers in Indonesia are paid that amount to work eight to 15 hours a day and must make that wage stretch to support themselves and their families.	Nike's Web site, www.nikebiz.com, said the impressions Keady and Kretzu received from their time in Indonesia are inaccurate and that workers are adequately compensated for their work.		1/2 day pay for talking
Tier 4- China - assembly using low technology	$1.80 a day (See 1, 2, 3) Pay is by quota system (Footnote 3).	12 hours days (See 1, 2, 3, 4) See Footnote 1 12 ½ hour days and 7 day work-weeks (1) Few days off (Footnote 2)	2 to 5 hours of forced overtime (See 1, 2, 3)	One month's deposit held to keep worker hostage (1, 2, 3)	1 day's pay for talking (see 1, 2, 3) 1 day's pay if refuse overtime (1, 2, 3) Fines for quitting, littering, breaking sewing needle (1) (Footnote 6	Fingers lost (1, 2, 3) Dust (1, 2, 3) Noise (1, 2, 3) Fumes (1, 2, 3) See Footnote 4) Fire hazards (1, 2, 3)
Tier 5-El Salvador, Honduras ...--Assembly using lowest technology
Tier 6-Hidden Factories - These are factories not being reported by Nike and factories the subcontractors send products to be worked on. ---
TOTAL NIKE FACTORIES: 620 TOTAL WORKFORCE: 610,000

Note: There are examples of other corporations with major Working Condition problems

1 - CHINA - According to the Chinese Labor Law, the work day should only be eight hours long, and the four extra hours of work should be counted as overtime (Source). Wages are often lower than the Chinese minimum wage of $1.93 per day (Source). "Reports based on interviews with Nike workers in China reveal inhumane working hours including 12-hour days and 7-day weeks, low wages, illegal deductions, and use of the notorious dormitory system. " (Source). "Workers report that they are required to work 12 ½ hour days and seven day work-weeks, with one day off per month at one Nike contractor (Hung Wah/Hung Yip garment factory)" "... The National Labor Committee estimates that a living wage in China would be over 87 cents per hour."(Source).

2- Workers only get 2-4 days off every month. This violates both China's Labour Law and Nike's Code, which states that workers are entitled to at least one day of rest every week (Source).

3-In China, the quota is very harsh, and often cannot be fulfilled in a day's work. This is Wellco Plant. Australian scholar

4-According to the research by CIC in summer 1999, the Sewon Shoes factory which produces Nike sports shoes in Jiaozhou had poor fire installation. Iron cages covered all windows of the factory. Workers lost one of main ways to escape once fire comes. This case was publicized in the open letter to Phillip Knight, the CEO of Nike, in late September 1999. A big fire engulfed in the Sewon Shoes factory in 1995. (Source HKCIC http://www.cic.org.hk/ce_00feb.htm )

Dr. Anita Chan reports that workers in many factories are exposed to carcinogenic glue solvents (e.g. benzene, which is banned in the U.S.) without protective gear or proper ventilation, She also notes a high level of accidents and illness: fainting due to heat and fumes, skin irritations, headaches, dyspnea, and loss of fingers in machines. These factories seriously violate Nike's own code of conduct, international human and labor rights conventions, and Chinese labor law (Source, 1998).

5- Nike has bragged about wage increases at its Indonesia footwear plants. These claims
are wildly misleading. Workers' real inflation-adjusted wages have actually fallen at these plants. The
"increases" touted by Nike did not keep up with the deterioration of the Indonesian currency and
rapidly rising costs for basic products such as food and clothing. In July 1997, workers paid the minimum wage were earning the equivalent of about $70 U.S. dollars a month in basic wages. Now, after recent minimum wage and pay adjustments, workers are making the equivalent of about $41 U.S. dollars. Prices of essential goods rose rapidly in the wake of the Asian financial meltdown of 1997 and 1998; Nike- and government-mandated minimum wage increases lagged far behind (Source).

6 - "At one plant (Tong ji) workers face deductions for medical care, and face fines and penalties. There is a littering fine. There is a penalty for being fired — half a month's wages are deducted ... Tong ji factory report that the company has fined workers as much as one half of a worker's approximate average monthly wage in retribution for a production mistakes. " (Source, 2000 HKCIC).

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