Just do… Child Labor????
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Founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight as Blue
Ribbon Sports
Bowerman was a track coach at the University of Oregon and
Knight was a track athlete under Bowerman
Became Nike in 1978 after the Greek goddess of victory.
Publically traded sportswear and equipment supplier
Headquartered in Beaverton, OR
World’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel
Manufacturer of sports equipment
Has other brands including: Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Air Jordan,
Hurley International, Converse
What generally comes
to mind when
someone hears Nike?
What generally comes
to
mind
when
and child labor…
someone hears Nike?
Child labor is widespread in Pakistan.
In 2006 it was estimated that 11 million children
under 14 work six days a week, nine to ten hours
a day.
 While it is widely known that it occurs, the
government of Pakistan does not act against it
nor is there substantial international action
against it.
 Around half of the soccer balls in the entire world
are manufactured in Pakistan
 Nike has been known for the use of child labor in
the production of soccer balls in Pakistan.
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Children are often used for work that takes
advantage of their nimble fingers and agile hands.
 A child working on stitching leather pieces together
for a soccer ball would earn only 60 cents a ball and
one ball typically would take an entire day to make.
 Many if not all of the children were indebted to the
factory owners by around $150-$180. The children
often never make enough to pay off their debts.
 A typical soccer ball costs $6 to make and sells for
$30 in the United States. That is a 400% markup.
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 Difficult
to monitor because many
factories allow workers to bring soccer
ball panels home to stitch which allows
“stitching sheds” to exist where child
laborers work.
 In June 1996 Life Magazine published an
article about Nike’s child labor in
Pakistan.
 Nike
who capitalized on the low prices of
the labor to achieve high profits on their
products?
OR
 The parents who may have sent their
children to the factories in order to make
money for the family?
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Following the several scandals in the ‘90’s, one of Nike’s
owners, Philip Knight, promised six things:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
All Nike shoe factories will meet the U.S. Occupational
Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) standards in
indoor air quality
The minimum age for Nike factory workers would be
raised to 18 for footwear factories and 16 for apparel
factories
Non-government organizations will be included in Nike’s
factory monitoring
Nike will expand its worker education program
Nike will expand its micro-enterprise loan program to
benefit 4,000 families overseas
Nike will fund university research and open forums on
responsible business practices
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While Nike did come out with promises on how they were going to
rectify the situation, certain labor rights groups still had demands
that weren’t met on labor standards. Some examples are the
following
• Protect workers who speak honestly about factor conditions
• Have a standardized set of confidential and independent procedures to monitor
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factories and investigate worker complaints
Adequate wages
Reasonable working hours
Safe and healthy workplaces
Respect for worker’s rights to unionize
The human rights group, Community Aid Abroad-Oxfam urged
athletes who were competing in the Sydney Olympics to rethink
any Nike sponsorship that they might have had.
Different student groups around the United States petition to no
longer use Nike soccer balls if there is evidence of child labor.
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Although Nike owners make promises to remove child labor,
investigation has found conflicting evidence:
• Just in 2001, a documentary revealed occurrences of child
labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian Nike
factory
• Investigations in 2008 uncovered a number of cases of
forced labor in one of the company’s largest factories in
Malaysia
• Nike continues to make statements saying they are taking
corrective action to ensure these incidents do not occur
 According
to Nikebiz.com:
• Although it has taken over a decade, the company has
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learned that monitoring alone doesn’t solve problems
in their factories
Many problems of child labor are recurring
Nike’s new focus is to get to the heart of the problem
The company is sharing select contract factory
auditing tools to increase transparency on how Nike
factories are evaluated
Nike is constantly trying to improve the state of their
factories
 Nike
has also been accused of abusing
workers at factories in Indonesia
 The abuse included bullying, forced
overtime, limited access to healthcare,
cruel punishment for tardiness, sexual
harassment, etc.
 The average worker at these
plants were women around 23
years of age.
 Stop
buying products that have been
made using child labor.
• The downside of this is that while you may help
to fight child labor at one stage of production,
you also can harm other stages of production
that use legal means.
 Buy
only fair trade products.
 Support an organization that fights child
labor, such as Free The Children.
 http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/worke
rs_and_factories.html
 http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/nik
e.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc.
 http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/s
weatshops/nike/stillwaiting.html