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Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor RightsMORE CRITICISM OF NIKEposted January 29, 1999In this alert:Letter from AIP NGOs to NikeILRF letter re Nike Letter from Nike spokesperson
[ The signers of the following letter to Nike are the non-governmental organization (NGO) members of the White House task force on sweatshop abuses (AIP - Apparel Industry Partnership). ] January 29, 1999 Mr. Phillip Knight Dear Mr. Knight: We have followed the deeply disturbing reports of the January 11, 1999, letter from Nike Vice President Joseph M. Ha to Mr. Cu Thi Hau, President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. This letter alleges that "a few U.S. human rights groups, as well as a Vietnamese refugee who is engaged in human rights activities, are not friends of Vietnam" and further, that their criticism of labor practices in Nike's factories is "the first step for their political goal which is to create a so-called 'democratic' society, modeled after the U.S." As the NGO members of the Apparel Industry Partnership, we worked with Nike and a number of other companies to create a Fair Labor Association that would incorporate civil society organizations in the monitoring of production for the member companies. We find this letter to be completely at odds with the principles underlying the AIP agreement, and to cast grave doubt on Nike's stated commitment to that agreement. It has served to undermine the fragile cooperation between Vietnamese Nike workers and NGOs seeking to assist them to secure the rights your company pledged to afford them by adopting your Code of Conduct and agreeing to the AIP Workplace Code. In Vietnam, it has created a cloud of unfair suspicion over all organizations that engage in much-needed advocacy for universal human rights. And the expression of anti-democratic and authoritarian values by a senior Nike official raises serious questions about Nike's commitment to the principles embodied in the Fair Labor Association. We have seen press statements to the effect that other Nike officials have disowned the statement by Vice President Ha, and have tried to imply that he spoke only for himself. Such statements are simply inadequate. The damage that Ha has done on the ground in Vietnam remains unchanged by these statements. The only way that Nike can recover its integrity in this matter is to reverse publicly, in Vietnam, its position and make clear to the Vietnamese government and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor that Nike values the work of human rights monitors in general and that, in particular, it recognizes and respects the positive work of the Vietnam Labor Watch organization headed by Mr. Thuyen Nguyen. For this step to carry sufficient weight, it is necessary for Nike to encourage Mr. Thuyen Nguyen publicly to continue his important advocacy work in Vietnam, and to accompany him in meetings with Vietnamese officials to correct the wrong done to him by the letter from Joseph Ha. It is also important that Dr. Ha be sanctioned sufficiently by Nike, by demotion, dismissal or transfer, to convey convincingly to a skeptical public that he did not, in fact, speak for Nike, only for himself. We await your immediate response to this letter, including a complete copy of Vice President Ha's letter and any subsequent press statements or retractions issued by the company. We regard this as an extremely serious situation. We strongly urge Nike to take all appropriate steps, including those outlined above, to remedy the damage that has been done by this unfortunate letter. We seek to meet with you or other senior Nike officials within the next few days to discuss your remedial actions and the consequences with respect to the AIP process. Sincerely, [ contact information deleted for this alert ] Linda Golodner Pharis J. Harvey Michael Posner James Silk cc: Brad Figel [ Nike executive ]
[ The following letter submitted to the Financial Times was written by AIP member Pharis Harvey, Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Fund and is in response to a letter to the Financial Times written by Nike spokesperson Hannah Jones. ] January 28, 1999 Dear Sir, Hannah Jones' Letter to the Editor of January 25, which disowns the statement of Nike Vice President Joseph M. Ha regarding human rights activists in Vietnam, is simply not credible. No vice president of a major corporation would commit in writing to a highly-placed official statements that did not reflect company policy. Dr. Ha's statements are therefore evidence of Nike's embrace of anti-democratic values. We have worked with Nike for the past two years as a non-governmental partner to the White House Apparel Industry Partnership. We are therefore particularly dismayed at Ms. Jones' use of the Apparel Industry Partnership as "evidence" of Nike's labor-friendly corporate practices. The Apparel Industry Partnership, after two years of difficult negotiations, has only recently succeeded in developing a charter for a Fair Labor Association to monitor and accredit companies. Even after the Association is established, it will be three years before any company can be certified as having good labor practices. There is no guarantee that Nike will receive such certification. Therefore, as we stressed repeatedly during the negotiations, no company should use its participation in the Partnership as evidence of good labor practice. The fact that Nike has ignored our concerns on this point hardly bodes well for future cooperation with the NGO community. Sincerely, Pharis J. Harvey [ contact information deleted for this alert ]
[ The following letter to the Financial Times was written by Nike spokesperson Hannah Jones and was published on January 25. ] Dear Sir, Nike regrets that excerpts from private correspondence made by Nike executive Dr Joseph Ha, which were published in the Financial Times ("Nike accuses its critics," January 21), were interpreted as our corporate attitude towards human rights groups. Dr Ha's statements are inconsistent with Nike's commitment toward forging partnerships with human rights organisations and improving labour conditions for the more than 500,000 people who manufacture, distribute and sell Nike products in over 35 countries. Nike has worked extensively with national governments and a wide spectrum of human rights, labour groups and international organisations to design programmes aiming to improve labour conditions overseas. In addition, it has benefited as an active participant in President Bill Clinton's Apparel Industry Partnership - a partnership of human rights groups, consumer groups and other companies that agreed to an independent monitoring mechanism for holding global companies accountable for their manufacturing processes. Nike has also collaborated with local and international non-governmental organisations, to award loans to women in Vietnam and other developing countries for the purposes of establishing their own businesses, to provide education and healthcare for workers. In addition, Nike has implemented numerous reforms in overseas contract factories including: increasing the minimum age to18 in footwear factories; increasing wages up to 40 per cent for individuals in entry level footwear manufacturing jobs in Indonesia and improving indoor air quality in footwear factories by using water-based adhesives instead of more harmful petroleum-based adhesives. We urge people to judge us by our actions and not by private correspondence of an individual employee. We welcome ongoing and productive dialogue with our critics to move us towards our common goal of protecting the rights and dignity of all people. For information about these and other important human rights issues, please visit our website at www.nikeworkers.com. Hannah Jones, director [ contact information deleted for this alert ]
ACTION REQUEST: letter to NikeThis is the same letter we included in our January 26 alert. If you have not yet sent it, please print, sign and send this letter to Philip Knight, CEO of Nike. It would be very helpful if you would send us the signature portion of the letter (with your name and address) so we can gauge the level of response. Send that information to Campaign for Labor Rights by email clr@clrlabor.org. Please take copies of the letter to your friends, your workplace, your union, your place of worship, your school. LET'S FLOOD NIKE WITH THIS LETTER. If you collect multiple signatures, please let us know how many you have gathered. Thank you! Philip H. Knight Dear Mr. Knight: On January 11, Nike Vice President Joseph Ha (your special assistant) sent a letter to the President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. Ha's letter stated that international human rights advocates "are not friends of Vietnam." In his letter, Ha implied that international advocates for the rights Nike shoe workers in Vietnam want to impose their own form of government on that country. In particular, Ha singled out Vietnamese-American Thuyen Nguyen of Vietnam Labor Watch - not naming him but describing him in terms which no knowledgeable Vietnamese could fail to recognize. The effect was instantaneous: Nguyen's sources of information dried up. Vietnamese who previously had been willing to tell Nguyen what was happening inside Nike shoe factories are no longer willing to do so. Just as Ha apparently hoped, those sources now fear being branded as political activists - a threatening accusation in Vietnam. When news of Ha's letter became public, Nike spokespeople rushed to distance the company from his statements. Such informal retractions may play well in the U.S. press, but they do nothing in Vietnam to alleviate the chilling effect of Ha's remarks. In November, Nike and other members of the White House task force on sweatshop abuses signed an agreement to set up a system of monitoring for their production facilities, with a stated goal of improving labor conditions. No monitoring system - no matter how good its structure looks on paper - will provide reliable information if workers are intimidated from giving honest answers to monitors. Ha's letter now virtually guarantees that Nike workers in Vietnam will equate the reporting of labor abuses with illegal political activity. If Nike wants to demonstrate that Ha's letter does not represent company policy, a decisive response is needed. You personally, Mr. Knight, as the ultimate voice of Nike labor policy, need to issue a formal retraction of Ha's letter and a formal apology to Thuyen Nguyen of Vietnam Labor Watch and you need to make every effort to see to it that your statement is published and broadcast widely where Nike workers in Vietnam and their Vietnamese advocates can see it. Until I hear from credible human rights groups that you have taken such steps, I will assume that it is the official policy of Nike Inc. to terrorize your workers into silence. Sincerely, NAME: |
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