Vietnam is a poor country in southeastern Asia which has been struggling in a capitalist economy. At times, the Vietnamese government has opened its doors to sweatshop labor in order to decrease poverty and unemployment (Doan 2). Nike, which employs

In 1998, the effects of Nike’s tarnished image began to be felt by the company with a drop in share prices and weakening sales. C.E.O. Phil Knight stated, “The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse (Beder 3).” In order to patch its reputation and repair its image, Nike launched a carefully planned public relations campaign to make it appear as though it was a caring company that was concerned with the factory conditions to which its workers were subjected (Beder 3). In reality, Nike did and still is only making a half-hearted attempt to improve the harsh conditions under which its employees work. Nike has not completely followed through on commitments toward improving labor practices in Asian countries. Nike promised its factories would meet the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards for indoor air quality. In 1998, Nike announced its plan to replace petroleum-based solvents with safer water-based compounds (Global Exchange 3). Yet, Nike managers are notified of the testing well beforehand, giving the managers time to change chemicals in order to pass the test, and the results of these tests are also not open to the public (Doan 4). Though an independent expert in Vietnam confirmed that safer, less harmful chemicals were being used in manufacturing, other health and safety issues also arose. In order for Nike to meet U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration standards as it pledged, Nike needs to make sure all plant workers are kept away from hazardous chemicals which still exist in some sections of its factories, and also that workers are not overexposed to high heat and noise levels. Respiratory illness rates are still a problem (Global Exchange 3). Nike had also promised to raise the minimum age of its factory workers to eighteen, but there is still evidence of children as young as sixteen laboring in Nike plants ( Doan 4). Nike pledged it would include non-governmental organizations to its factory monitoring, but so far has only contracted one. Instead Nike has used for-profit accounting firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, firms many activists feel are not trustworthy and are too closely linked to Nike to be considered independent (Global Exchange 3). Also, Nike agreed to expand its micro-enterprise loan and worker education programs. In Indonesia, Nike has spent just one hundred thousand dollars since 1998 on these education programs and $150, 000 on small loans (Beder 1). Considering Nike spends millions on “cause-related” marketing in the United States such as providing schools and universities with all kinds of sports equipment, donating to children’s television and the Boys and Girls Club of America, and giving unneeded products to charities, it seems Nike could do a better job of helping its employees (Beder 1). Though Nike has funded these programs, workers are still not being paid enough to afford school, and the loan program does not promise a better life (Doan 5). Lastly, Nike has funded university and private research on responsible and fair business practices, but has not allowed these groups to research Nike factories themselves (Doan 5).

The daily quota is usually unattainable, forcing workers to work overtime. Most workers work well above the two hundred hours of legal overtime per year; some work more than six hundred hours. If they choose not to work overtime, they receive a warning, and after three warnings, they are fired. Nike factory workers, including overtime, are working between six hundred and one thousand hours each month. A Vietnamese labor law states, “The labor user and the laborer may agree to work overtime, but not for more than four hours a day, two hundred hours a year.” (48 Hours). Nike is clearly violating this article.

Workers are subject to inhumane conditions. They are not allowed to use the bathroom more than once every eight h

Some topics in this essay:
Global Exchange, Women’s Day, Sweatshop Watch, Rights Consortium, Phil Knight, Ma Wei, Southeast Asia, Labor Committee, Considering Nike, Lastly Nike, global exchange, exchange 1, global exchange 1, living wage, national labor committee, factory workers, national labor, labor committee, sweatshop watch, “no sweat”, 48 nike, nike factory, worker rights consortium, global exchange 3, nike factory workers,