Hi!
I'm not sure if you wanted information about just Nike's lawsuits or
about their international problems as well, so I researched both!
Nike has been linked with many reports of physical abuse, sexual
abuse, salary below minimum wage across the world although, it seems
that most of these reports have never resulted in actual lawsuits -
yet.
Cases that I have found that have ended up in court include the
following:
June 6th 2000
Nicknamed the David vs Goliath case, an Australian union called The
Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (which is a small
union representing vulnerable Australian workers) took Nike to court
over the way it treats it's employees. This was the first time that
Nike had been called to account for its labour practices in a Court
anywhere in the world.
Nike admitted defeat and settled with the Australian clothing union.
You can read more about this court case at:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/legal/00-06-06-nike.htm
Nike has also been sued for allegedly lying about conditions in asian
factories:
"The suit, filed in San Francisco superior court April 20, accused
Nike of violating California's consumer laws by willfully misleading
the public about working conditions for the hundreds of thousands of
Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian laborers who produce the footwear
with its distinctive "Swoosh" logo.
"We feel that Nike has one of the worst track records," said Patrick
Coughlin, one of the lawyers on the suit. "The conditions are just
horrendous."
The suit alleges that, contrary to statements by Nike, Asian
"sweatshop" workers are regularly subject to physical punishment and
sexual abuse.
It says Nike factory workers are often exposed to dangerous chemicals,
forced to work overtime, sometimes without pay, and often unable to
earn a "living wage" despite workdays that can be 14 hours long.
"Nike has failed to tell Californians the truth about their business
practices," said Alan Caplan, another lawyer in the group. "They are
using deception for profit."
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9804b/nikesuit.html
Nike rejected the charges, and argued that the case should not proceed
because all of the statements cited in the lawsuit were protected as
free speech but on May 2nd 2002 the Californian Supreme Court ruled
that Nike could be sued after all.
"In a split decision, California's top court found that Nike's efforts
to defend its Asian business practices were in essence commercial, and
thus not subject to the free speech protections guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution."
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/nike02-05-02.htm
Nike's response to this lawsuit can be found at:
http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/news/pressrelease.jhtml?year=1998&month=04&letter=d
Nike have also been accused of violating Japan's antitrust laws:
"Japan's Federal Trade Commission raided Nike's Japanese offices last
week as part of an investigation into local retailers' claims that
Nike is violating antitrust law. Japanese retailers say sales of Nike
shoes have slumped, and they claim the company has tried to prevent
them from lowering prices by threatening to stop supplying the shoes.
It is a violation of Japanese antitrust law to tell retailers how much
to charge."
http://www.wweek.com/html/scoreboard120397.html
By far, the best site I found on Nike's treatment of it's employee's
is on the BBC's website. A factual programme called Panorama was
screened on October 15 2000, it investigated the conditions in both
Nike's and GAP's factories in Cambodia. The reporter shows how both
Nike and GAP are breaking their own code of conduct and are still
employing children. The site includes a 19 minute webcast with the
reporter of the programme and a complete transcript of the show.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/panorama/newsid_970000/970385.stm
Nike reacted to the show by terminating it's contract with the
textiles factory and claiming that it had no knowledge of children
working there.
"Nike UK's head of corporate communication, Yvonne Iwaniuk, said: "We
are painfully aware of the situation at the June factory in Cambodia
and upon reviewing the situation we have decided to pull out of the
factory.
"We deeply regret what has happened there and are doing everything to
address the issues that allowed this to happen.""
http://www.nikeworkers.org/october_00/child_labor_drop.html
Other links which you may find helpful:
CorpWatch article, Court Says Nike Must Defend Its PR:
http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=2571
Clean Clothes Campaign, The complete overview of the Nike case:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/nikecase.htm
Nikeworkers.org, includes articles about Nike and it's employees:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/nikecase.htm
Community Aid Abroad - the NikeWatch Campaign:
http://www.caa.org.au/campaigns/nike/
I hope that this has answered your question and if you need any
clarification
then just let me know.
Kind regards,
Karen |
Clarification of Answer by
karenuk-ga
on
28 Jun 2002 04:55 PDT
Hello again,
This is what I found out about Adidas and Reebok while searching about
Nike:
Although Nike are probably the most well-know company that have
international problems due to the way they treat their employees, they
are not alone. Other companies such as Reebok also use the same
contractors in the same countries as this statement reveals:
"As US human rights activist, Max White, puts it:"Nike is not the
worst company on the planet. Reebok and others use the same workers
and contractors in the same countries. Nike is, however, the largest
such company and has set the precedent for apparel giants 'race to the
bottom.' If Nike reforms, they will trumpet the change and other
manufacturers will have to follow."
The reason to focus on Nike is as White makes clear, based on the fact
that Nike is the number one in sportswear. With, profits, turnover and
marketing (sponsoring, endowments and advertising) figures that
surmound all other sportwear companies. But also because Nike not only
refers to it's position as a marketleader, but also sees it self as
leading the industry in labour practices initiatives. They take their
leading position very seriously. On their website, Nike says they are
the first one to implement independent monitoring and the only one to
pay minimum wage in Indonesia."
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/nikecase.htm
So, as you can see companies like Adidas and Reebok are doing the same
thing as Nike but it is not as well known.
Adidas have had a lot of international-relations trouble recently as
this excerpt shows:
"ABC, 12/8/99 - About 50 Vietnamese workers went on strike at a
company used
by sports manufacturer Adidas after a worker was allegedly struck by
Taiwanese supervisors.
A union official says work was stopped for several hours at Shenyee
Corporation last week to protest against the alleged slapping of a
Vietnamese woman shift leader by two Taiwanese male boses"
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/adidas99-12-08.htm
The US subsidiary of Adidas have also been sued by Chinese prison
inmates:
"Chinese dissidents are sueing the US subsidiary of Adidas, accusing
the company of using prison labour to produce footballs (among which
were balls used at the recent World Cup). Bao Ge, a famous Chinese
dissident says that during his imprisonment between 1994 and 1997, he
was forced to work on producing balls by the prison guards. He,
together with other former political prisoners, is demanding
compensation from Adidas for all the prisoners involved."
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/adidas5-98.htm
Here is a report on conditions in an Adidas factory north of Jakarta
between January and April 1999:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/tainan99-11.htm
Here is a report on conditions in a Reebok factories in China between
June 2001 and January 2002:
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/reports/reebok.htm
I hope this helps! Please let me know if you need more clarification.
Kind Regards,
Karenuk-ga
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