Zara takes action!

Business fighting poverty is nothing new, but it is refreshing to see that they do change their habits when things do not seem right. Zara, which came under attack for its working conditions in a factory in Brazil, took immediate action to rectify the situation. Zara also posted its comments on the popular Business Fights Poverty blog. Zara states that it has 'zero tolerance' for this kind of infrigement... hmmm.... what do you think? How much is likely to change on the ground? Send us your comments!

Nike: Ticks the right box

Not only has England actually made it to the World Cup this year but a very important issue has become a part of the great sporting event. Nike has produced environmentally friendly uniforms for the upcoming 2010 football world cup.

The kits are going to be made from discarded plastic bottles collected from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

When I first read on Ecouterre about this, I was a tad confused. “How on earth are they going to pull that off?” Well the plastic bottles get melted down into yarn first and are then spun into fabric.

Each shirt is made from 8 plastic bottles. Apart from just saving on raw materials, Nike managed to reduce 13 million plastic bottles from the landfill which is enough to cover a football pitch 29 times over!

Nike seems to have grown a corporate conscience since the late 1990’s. It feels like just yesterday that a photo of a Pakistani boy stitching Nike footballs started making its rounds...

Image Credit- James Temple on Flickr at Creative Commons 

Nike: Just sew it!

Nike has walked a rocky road between ‘leading sports retailer’ and ‘human rights violator’.

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