Strikes at Nike factories in Indonesia and Vietnam

• Jeff Manning, The Oregonian
• Workers ransack Nike plant offices
• Press statement released by Vietnam Labor Watch

PORTLAND, April 24 (Jeff Manning, The Oregonian) - More than 10,000 workers at a Nike Inc. Sneaker factory I Tangerang, Indonesia, have returned to work after briefly walking off the job to protest wages. The one-day strike Tuesday at PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry (HASI) ended after HASI management agreed to pay a newly increased minimum wage and agreed to partially restore a perfect attendance premium. The wildcat strike came just days after Nike put its name to a groundbreaking anti-sweatshop pact between labor, human rights groups and apparel makers. Nike voed that all workers in its factories would be paid the minimum wage in thier respective countries and that the workweek wouldn't exceed 60 hours.

But enforcing the agreement promises to be as difficult as crafting a pact that the disparate interests could agree on. Nike and other footwear-makers face a bevy of subcontractors eager to maximize profits, workers eager to improve their lot and a circulcing pack of critics who think Nike embodies much that is wrong with the role of Western multinational corporations in the Third Word.

The troubles at HASI began when management eliminated an attendance premium of 18,000 rupiah or about $7.75 a month. It did so to offset the expense of paying the new minimum wage. The Indonesian government mandated that the minimum wage in the region increase from $56.77 a month to $76.77 a month. But every shoe factory in the country apparently applied for a waiver to the new wage claiming they couldn't pay it and remain competitive, Nike spokesman Jim Small said. Nike is demanding that all of its 14 Indonesian factories pay the higher rate, Small added.

Emplyees returned to work after HASI management agreed to pay the higher minimum wage and partially restore the pervect-attendance bonus. Instead of paying $7.75 a month for perfect attendance, management agreed to pay $6.88. Nike claims with the bonus and other ncentives, the average entry level wage at a company factory in Indonesia is just more than $105 a month.

Nike on Wednesday blasted one particular critic -- San Francisco-based Global Exchange -- that had trumpeted news of the strike to the Western press. The sneaker-maker said Global Exchange's press release was the third "inaccurate or misleading attack in the last month." "Once agin it (Global Exchange) is either not aware of the facts or chooses to ignore them when makeing these reckless and inflammatory statements," Small said in the written statement.

Medea Benjamin, executive director of Global Exchange, said Nike should be more concerned with facotry workers and less with activist critics. "The fact that 10,000 workers go on strike shows that they have big problems."

Labor activism in Indonesia is frowned upon by the gobvernment. In the past, prganizers have been arrested and detained for leading walkouts. In light of that, Benjamin said, Nike should take the strike seriously.

Workers ransack Nike plant offices

JAKARTA, April 26 (Associated Press) - Officials ordered a factory that makes Nike shoes shut down Saturday after workers burned cars and ransacked its offices, saying the company wasn't paying them a $2.50 a day minimum wage. Almost half the factory's 10,000 employees took part in Friday's demonstration at Tangerang, an industrial town outside Jakarta, according to Indonesian media. It was the second protest in a week against PT Hardaya Aneka Shoe Industry, which owns the factory that makes shoes under contract for Nike Inc. Two women were hospitalized after police broke up the melee, in which protesters burned two cars and smashed windows, dorrs and funiture at the factory, according to the Republika newspaper. Several police officers and soldiers suffered minor injuries. No arrests were reported.

A factory official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the plant would stay closed Saturday and Sunday, normal working days, although production would restart Monday. The workers complained the company was failing to pay a government-decreed minimum wage of $2.50 a day that took effect April 1. "They are ignoring the rights of the workers to get a decent salary," said Jusuf Makata, a local labor activist. In the United States, Nike spokesman Jim Small said Saturday that the workers who struck the factory already were making more than the minimum wages and were upset because they expected a larger pay rise than there were given. He said the workers had expected a 10.6 percent pay raise but were given a 7.25 percent raise. He said all sides in the dispute planned to meet Monday. "Nike officials are meeting with the factory management and are encouraging a solution to this," Snmall said. "It obviously is disturbing to us but at the same time it's part of collective bargaining." He said the workers would be paid for the three days the factory is shut down.

On Tuesday, 13,000 workers from the same factory and other neighborng shoe and apparel plants held a six-mile-long protest march to demand higher wages. Indonesia, which allows only one government-controlled labor union, has been accused of holding down wages to attract foreign investment. Independent labor oerganizers have been arrested, beaten and sometimes killed. The government acknowledges that its minimum wages is sufficient to pay only about 90 percent of the lving expenses of a single person. Nike and its competitor Reebok have denied accusations that they pay Indonesian workers too little and tolerate poor working conditions and other abuses at Indonesian factories runn by contractors. Both companies have taken foreign reporeters on tours of their factories, which appeared clean and orderly. Nike refused to let the U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson visit a factory in another town near Jakarta last July.

Press statement released by Vietnam Labor Watch

1300 Nike workers in Vietnam went on strike refusing to yield to the company's intimidation.

Despite Nike's recent signing of President Clinton's Apparel Industry Agreement, nothing has changed in Vietnam for Nike factory workers. According to our interviews with officials at the Hochiminh City (HCMC) Confederation of labor and factory workers, on April 26 the SamYang Vina Company, a Nike contractor in HCMC, threatened to fire workers from the gluing, PU-Sole, and finishing sections unless they agreed to sign an unfavorable contract. Each worker was brought to the office, and was told to either sign the management's contract or to sign a letter of resignation. A few workers were intimidated and signed the contract. But approximately 1300 workers refused to submit to such unfair tactics and went on strike instead . These intimidating tactics happened while Nike expatriates were working in the factory. Such despicable action by a Nike contractor demonstrates that Nike is still not enforcing its own Code of Conduct in Vietnam. The Nike contractor then forced many striking employees to remain within the factory's lunch area, preventing them from leaving to contact officials of the HCMC Confederation of Labor or to notify other employees. Since the beginning of April, Sam Yang and Nike representatives have been negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the HCMC Confederation of Labor. Negotiations have not been going well, but the Vietnam labor officials were shocked at such underhanded attempts by a Nike contractor to coerce workers into signing contracts that have not been approved by the HCMC Confederation of Labor.

Sam Yang is a 100% foreign-owned company in Vietnam which has been making shoes exclusively for Nike for 18 months. Sam Yang is notorious in Vietnam for many labor abuses. In a report released in March, Vietnam Labor Watch provided paystubs as proof that this Nike contractor has systematically cheated workers out of overtime and holiday wages as well as paid workers below the minimum wage during the first three months of employment. The paystubs were given to Nike representatives in Vietnam as well as to Nike's auditor, Ernst & Young. Sam Yang was also the company whose supervisor hit 15 workers for poor sewing in March 1996. The workers at Sam Yang have conducted many strikes protesting this Nike contractor's treatment of employees. The last strike at Sam Yang happened a month ago and called for a consistent overtime policy and hazardous compensation.

The main dispute in this strike is over wages. The workers wanted a 10% increase to their current salary of $47 per month, and the Nike contractor only offered 5%. This is a dispute of 7 cents per day per worker. Michael Jordan's contract with Nike is approximately for $ 56,000 per day. Other disputes include excessive overtime, compensation for working in hazardous areas, and the lack of medical emergency services for night shift workers.

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