Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights

REPORTS ON NIKE DEMOS: second installment

TUCSON, ARIZONA:

Thursday's protest held by the University of Arizona's Students Against Sweatshops was a huge success. "Christmas in April" featured a visit by Santa Claus, who greeted students on the UA Mall. Santa and several protestors proceeded to the President Likins' office to present him with 'presents' of old Nike sneakers that were rejected by their former owners. Each pair of shoes had a tale of Nike's abuse attached to them for the president to consider. Unfortunately, President Likins was in Washington DC. However, two newspapers and two television stations were there to provide coverage. Later that day, SASS hosted a teach-in on "free" trade and labor which was attended by 50 students and community members.

James F Tracy

CHICAGO AND DEKALB, ILLINOIS:

UNITE, Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, Jobs with Justice and others convened at Niketown in Chicago (669 N. Michigan). I'd estimate 150 people - one of our largest demos to date. We had about half a dozen TV channels and newspapers covering the event, and people told me that coverage appeared on Sunday in the Sun-times.

We didn't disperse for at least an hour and a half, so it was a long demo. Glenn Poshard (democratic candidate for Illinois governor) spoke about the downside of "free trade", as well as Guttierrez, an Illinois congressman. A student speaker and a member of AFL-CIO also spoke (Poshard, who is conservative on some issues such as abortion rights, had a few hecklers). The passersby seemed fairly receptive and we distributed at least a thousand leaflets.

All in all, a good demo.

Bruce Gould

Plus this:

At high noon of a gorgeous spring day, about fifty union members, student activists, human rights advocates and politicians staged a spirited rally for about one and a half hours, in front of Niketown in Chicago. Rally participants staged a boisterous, but orderly, march around some potted foliage, in front of Niketown, under the watchful eye of the Chicago Police, who tactfully ensured that access to the store was never impeded. Various unions were represented at the rally, including UNITE, the Teamsters, the UE, the UAW and the USWA. Among the speakers were: Ho Tran, Vietnamese-American Community; Father Tson Joyce, Eighth Day Center for Justice; Kathy Jordan, Coalition of Labor Union Women; Carlos Carrio, AFL-CIO; Carl Will James, University of Chicago Students Against Sweatshops; U.S. Rep. Luis Guitierrez; and Democratic Party candidate for governor, Glenn Poshard.

The rally, which was organized by Jobs with Justice and the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, was also attended by four students from the Marxist-Humanist Association at Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb, Ill., who, two days earlier, had participated in a spirited Anti-Nike rally on the NIU campus. About fourteen students and DeKalb peace activists had staged the rally for an hour, in spite of blustery weather with a wind chill in the low twenties.

Hal Sutton

BURLINGTON, VERMONT:

WCAX Channel 3 (Vermont's largest TV station), Burlington, VT from transcript of story on NIKE action

A protest was held today outside the new downtown Burlington Footlocker. Demonstrators want the University of Vermont to stop contracting for Nike products. The Vermont Coalition against Sweatshop Labor campaigned outside the Church Street Footlocker to gather support for a petition to UVM. The protestors say the school should terminate its contract with Nike for its sports teams. "And our point is just saying... Look, Nike has been shown to have abusive labor practices, child labor. And you can buy just as good products for our teams....and we are asking them to do that." They held their demonstration outside the Footlocker because they say the store is the largest retailer of Nike products. A spokesman for UVM says the protestors' concerns have already come to their attention. Officials are in the process of developing a policy regarding the school's relationship with all national manufacturers... in order to address concerns like the ones raised today.

[ sent by Philip, Fiermonte ]

BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA:

More than 5O activists staged a protest march through Bethlehem's South Side on Saturday. During a 9O minute walk through the city, punctuated by noisy anti-sweatshop chanting, the activists picketed Bethlehem Sporting Goods, called for Lehigh University to sever its ties with Nike, and stopped at Rep. Paul McHale's office to criticize U.S. government support for "free trade" pacts. The protest began at the United Steelworkers Hall and at each stop along the way, statements and press releases were issued which linked all of the day's issues. Flyers were distributed along the route.

"The rules of the game are stacked in favor of the corporate agenda," said Moravian College professor Gary Olson. "But these rules could be changed to favor a working families agenda if we had a government that truly represented us."

This event received extensive pre and post media coverage, including radio interviews with the organizers. The march was sponsored by the Brennan Chapter of the Labor Party and Moravian College's Student Labor Alliance.

Gary Olson

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA:

The local Jobs with Justice chapter, members of the central labor council and local activists leafleted in front of Target department store, in front of the Footlocker inside the mall, and finally at the Gus-Macker basketball tournament. We consisted of eight people, and distributed 1200 flyers, many going on shoppers' windshields in various parking lots. We were also asked to leave the mall by security but only after one hour of unfettered leafleting. We entered the store initially and proceeded to place flyers, rolled up, inside of all the Nike shoes, within plastic Nike advertising signs, and in the storefront window of the Footlocker. The manager seemed rather oblivious to us for quite a while until she asked me what it was that I was doing, I stated that I was here to agitate until Footlocker stop selling Nike products. She asked me to leaflet outside the store, I agreed and took up my spot outside of the store. My five other friends remained still handing out leaflets inside the store for five more minutes. The manager seemed absolutely clueless to the fact that half of all the people within her store were handing out leaflets. She finally asked all of us to leave the store. We took up spots outside the store where a security guard finally asked us to stop all activities. We decide to hit Gus-Macker three on three basketball tournament, after realizing that the main sponsor of the event was New Balance, one of the only tennis shoe companies making shoes inside the US, we decided to flyer the cars in the parking lot. [ Note added by Campaign for Labor Rights: As a matter of policy, Campaign for Labor Rights does not endorse any company. ]

Robert Deppert

MEDIA COVERAGE:

I think the Nike protest day went very well in the US. We got lots of press coverage including CNN 8 and 10 PM news which have footage from protests in SF and DC. (I did not check CNN Headline News) There were also coverage from AP in Portland which went to many local newspapers and ABC News.

I'm enclosing press coverage in AP, Chicago, Denver and Detroit newspapers.

Regards, Thuyen Nguyen Vietnam Labor Watch

MORE MEDIA COVERAGE:

Medea Benjamin, executive director of Global Exchange, and Trim Bissell, national coordinator of Campaign for Labor Rights, were interviewed for about 40 minutes on the Jerry Hughes talk radio show syndicated in 90 cities.

Other interviews: AP, Pacifica National News and a live spot of BBC radio.

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN:

Six of us went to the Woodland Mall to hand out Nike flyers. Two people stood outside the Foot Locker and the others walked around the mall. Within 10 minutes the mall security escorted the folks in front of Foot Locker, the rest took evasive action and were able to prolong their distribution for another 30 minutes.

In all, we handed out 300 flyers. The local police soon showed up and escorted us to the parking lot. When asked if private property rights ruled over free speech rights, the officer hesitated and then emphatically said YES!

We are planning another outing on the weekend of the 1&2 of May at the showing of Michael Moore's new film. Cooperation from the local theater is still not known.

Jeff Smith, Institute for Global Education

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