Let me take you back in time.....
When Nike started out they operated in Taiwan and South Korea because of the low wages and laws that restricted workers from forming unions. Over a period of 20 years workers from these countries lobbied to amend the law and managed to win the right to form unions and had a right to better wages.
People living in poverty could finally stand up for themselves and be treated like human beings. Well it turns out it doesn’t make much business sense to remain in a country as liberated as this. So Nike ran quicker than you can say “what about the developing nations needs?”
Nike thought it would make more ‘business sense’ to move their factories to China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Here Nike could maintain paying Michael Jordan millions and millions of dollars to stand and take pictures and keep paying the women and children less than how much the CEO of Nike makes in an hour!
Nike did some damage control after all this info became public knowledge, and in 1999 Nike increased the wages of all their workers from the Indonesian factories. Nike also agreed to allow random factory inspections from the Fair Labour Association, and to set up independent monitoring with both US and international organizations.
Nike can now pat itself on the back as they have added their own on-staff of one hundred workers who are responsible for performing inspections of the company's partner factories. Inspectors score the factory on factors ranging from employee safety to humane working conditions.
In 2002, Nike devised a Code of Conduct to all its factories, regulating the conditions and safety requirements that work should be conducted by. The company's 2004 Responsibility Report was considered a major victory for workers and many human right's groups, because Nike included a full list of its factories and their addresses throughout the world. This has allowed for independent monitoring and investigations. While this is a positive effort on Nike's part, the human rights campaign against the company has not ended.
Between 50 and 100 percent of Nike factories require more working hours than those permitted by the Code of Conduct. In 25 to 50 percent of factories, workers are required to work 7 days a week, and in the same percentage of factories, workers are still paid less than the local minimum wage.According to the Educating for Justice group
Corporations care what the public thinks about them. With more people like you and me making a stand against companies who are not practicing fair wage practices, one day the term ethical fashion won’t have to be an irony.
Image Credit- Labour behind the Label on Flickr at Creative Commons
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