NIKE IN VIETNAM: an eyewitness
account
written by Thuyen Nguyen,
Vietnam Labor Watch
All the credits should go to
Global Exchange, Tony and
Medea, who managed to organize
a press conference a coast away
and somehow convinced the
press people to come. I sent out
press release before and no one
even called me.
Enclosed is my speech and
highlights of my report. For those
of you who wants a copy please
send me your mailing address or
email (in zip format). I will try to
put the report on the web site
soon.
BTW, This report would not have
been done without the help of
many: Medea who worked many
hours on it, Max who sent me last
minute suggestions, Jeff, Tin,
Trim, Ky Anh, Thong, Tam,
Trinh, the Nike protest group on
Saigon.com, Justice-do-it-Nike
group in Teleport.com, Campaign
for Labor Rights and those
people who do not want to be
mentioned by name but who sent
me many valuable information
about the conditions of these
Nike factory workers in Vietnam.
Keep those paystubs coming,
keep those eyewitness reports
coming, and please keep coming
to the protests.
Regards, Thuyen Nguyen
http://www.saigon.com/~nike
1
Last Wednesday, I returned from
a 16-day trip to VN. I went there
originally at Nike's invitation to
investigate working conditions in
Nike factories. Since October
1996, I have been reading dozens
of Vnese newspapers, studying
pay stubs, and speaking to
several people who had talked to
Nike factory workers. Even
though I am glad that Nike is
providing needed jobs in
Vietnam, the information I
gathered pointed to grave
violations of labor laws and labor
rights. I discussed these concerns
with Nike representatives. I had
wanted to work cooperatively
with them to improve conditions
in Vietnam. In December, Nike
invited me to visit its factories in
VN. So I arranged a trip for
earlier this month.
Here is what I found.
Unfortunately, I discovered that
the labor conditions in Nike shoe
factories are worse than I had
expected. Nike has a good Code
of Conduct, but Nike cannot
control its contractors under the
current system of monitoring.
Nike contractors are exploiting
workers in terms of wages and
working conditions.
I spoke to 35 workers
individually and at length. Most
Nike workers are young women
from poor rural areas of VN.
They have no work in the
countryside and their families
cannot support them, so they are
forced to come to HCMC to look
for work. These are young
women used to working on
farms, used to poor living
conditions. Yet they told me that
their lives working in Nike
factories are even worse.
Many of them work up to12
hours/day. They work in noisy,
hot factories that are filled with
the smell of paint and glue. In an
8-hour shift, they are not allowed
to go to the bathroom more than
once; they are not allowed to
have a drink of water more than
twice.
Worse than the physical
conditions are the management
practices. The men and women
supervising factory workers
routinely engage in conduct that
is specifically designed to
humiliate these women, to take
away their human dignity and to
make them feel worthless. Some
examples of "personnel
management" that I have heard of
are: forcing workers to kneel on
the ground holding their arms in
the air; forcing workers to stand
in the sun; forcing them to write
down mistakes they made over
and over again. They are being
treated as if they are recruits in
some boot camps.
In VN, International Women's
Day is a real holiday: women in
VN are honored, festivities are
held; women often get bonuses at
work. On IWD this year, at one
Nike factory, 56 women were
sent outside to run around the
2
factory grounds, a distance of
4km. 12 of them fainted and were
taken to the hospital by their
friends. Their offense? A few of
them had worn outdoor shoes
inside the factory. Other incidents
are detailed in my report. I want
to remind you that these young
women did not sign up for boot
camp. They signed up to work for
a shoe factory. They are factory
workers making shoes for us
Americans. They should not be
treated as recruits in the military.
Many of the things I learned
during my two-week visit I had
already known from earlier
reports. But meeting these
workers face-to-face made me
realize just how bad the
conditions are. I cannot describe
to you these women's sense of
desperation. Many of them told
me they had lost weight since
coming to work at the Nike
factories. They complained of
being tired all the time. Most of
the women I spoke to work ten to
12 hour days, six or seven days a
week. But the real problem is the
pace of their work: they are
forced to meet very high quotas,
so the assembly line is very fast-
paced. There is also a lot of
stress, stress from the fear of
corporal punishment, stress from
enduring daily indignities and
stress from the fear of sexual
harassment.
Another problem is pay. Every
single Nike worker that I spoke
to told me that she could not live
on her wages. The basic wage for
a factory worker is $1.60 per day
but the cost of eating is about $2.
None of them save enough
money to send home to their
families. All of them require
some help from family members
in terms of money, food or
housing.
I want to be clear about Nike's
responsibility for these
conditions. Nike does not run
these factories directly; Nike
contracts with foreign companies
to run them. Nike's responsibility
is this: It has known for a long
time about the conditions in its
factories, yet Nike has
consistently refused to take an
aggressive stance to end the labor
violations routinely occurring in
Viet Nam. Nike has the upper
hand; the contractors need Nike's
business.
Nike has a good code of conduct;
if it wanted to, the company
could enforce that code. It could
set up an independent monitoring
board to help Nike monitor
conditions more closely, to get
better information and to provide
the workers a trusted neutral
party. Nike could give its
contracts to factories that provide
better working conditions.. It
could insist on contract
provisions to allow for monetary
fines each time a code violation
occurs. It could cooperate with
the Vietnam General
Confederation of Labor to
enforce local labor laws and
wage standards. Nike could hold
upper management accountable
for the behavior of lower level
managers. The problems are
systemic, and Nike need to
address them in a systemic way.
3
Nike needs first to stop denying
that the problems exist on a wide
scale. Nike can no longer insist
that each incident of abuse is an
isolated incident, that each
underpayment of workers is a
simple miscalculation. Rather
than trying to avoid blame for
them, Nike should admit to its
responsibility.
Nike has the means to improve
working conditions for ALL its
overseas workers. It is not a
fledgling company struggling to
stay in business. Nike has posted
record profits for the past several
years. Its CEO, Mr. Phil Knight,
is the 6th richest man in America.
Certainly this man and this
company can do better.
The one thing from this trip that I
would not forget is listening and
watching this young women
telling me when asked how she is
being treated, "They treated us
like animals." Nike told
Americans that it is proud of its
overseas factories. What I found
was nothing to be proud of.
Highlights of the Vietnam
Labor Watch report on Nike
factories
The workers are not making a
livable wage. They make an
average of 20 cents per hour, or
$1.60 a day from their factory
jobs, but the cost for eating three
simple meals is $2.10 a day.
Ninety percent of the workers we
interviewed told us they received
extra help in terms of money,
food or housing from their
families to make ends meet.
Workers cannot go to the
bathroom more than once per 8-
hour shift and they cannot drink
water more than twice per shift.
It is a common occurrence for
workers to faint from exhaustion,
heat, fumes and poor nutrition
during their shifts.
Verbal abuse and sexual
harassment are frequent, and
corporal punishment is often
used. One day during our two
week visit, 56 women workers at
a Nike factory were forced to run
around the factory's premise in
the hot sun because they weren't
wearing regulation shoes. 12
fainted during the run and were
taken to the hospital. This was
particularly painful to the
Vietnamese because it occurred
on International Women's Day,
an important holiday when
Vietnam honors women.
Other forms of punishment used
are forcing workers to stand in
the sun (sun-drying), kneel on the
floor with hands up in the air,
write down their mistakes over
and over again like parochial
school children, clean the toilet
and sweep factory floors. In
November 1996, 100 workers at
the Pouchen factory were forced
to stand in the sun for an hour
because one worker had spilled a
tray of fruit on an altar.
Women workers have
complained about frequent sexual
harassment from foreign
4
supervisors. Even in broad
daylight, in front of other
workers, these supervisors try to
touch, rub or grab their buttocks
or chests. One supervisor told a
female factory worker that it is a
common custom for men in his
country to greet women they like
by grabbing their behinds.
Health care is inadequate. At the
Sam Yang factory, with 6000
employees, one doctor works
only two hours a day but the
factory operates 20 hours a day.
We found numerous examples of
workers making below the
minimum wage of $45 per
month, and have pay stubs as
evidence. Moreover, all 35
workers we interviewed in depth
said they received below
minimum wage for their first 90
days at the factory, a clear
violation of the minimum wage
law.
Forced and excessive overtime to
meet high quotas is the norm.
While Vietnam's labor laws say
the maximum yearly overtime is
200 hours, on average Nike
workers are forced to work 500+
hours per year. If workers refuse,
they are punished or receive a
warning. After three warnings,
they're fired.
Workers say they do not get the
legally mandated compensation
for overtime wages, night shift
wages or Sunday wages, and
their pay stubs confirm this. Over
60% of the workers we
interviewed complained that
when they did not meet their
daily quota, they were forced to
work extra hours until reaching
the quota - with no overtime pay
at all.
Almost all the workers we
interviewed told us that they had
lost weight since working at Nike
factories. They complained of
poor nutrition, frequent
headaches and general fatigue.
Other non-Nike shoe factories we
visited in Vietnam pay higher
wages and have much better
working conditions.
Given the distressing conditions,
the relationship between factory
managers and workers in the
Nike factories is extremely tense.
We believe that if this
antagonistic relationship
continues, there could well be
very serious clashes.
IN AMERICA / By BOB
HERBERT
March 28, 1997
Brutality in Vietnam
"That was horrible," said
McClain Ramsey, the chief
spokeswoman for the Nike
footwear empire. "That was
definitely horrible. Nike is
definitely outraged that that was
allowed to happen in a factory. I
know that the manager has
already been suspended. Nike has
called for a full investigation, as
have the authorities. That was
5
just totally outrageous. I mean
Nike is completely horrified."
Cynics might say that Nike is
horrified that the story got out.
But give Ms. Ramsey the benefit
of the doubt. For whatever
reasons, Nike wishes the incident
had never occurred.
On March 8, which happened to
be International Women's Day,
56 women employed at a factory
making Nike shoes in Dong Nai,
Vietnam, were punished because
they hadn't worn regulation shoes
to work. Factory officials ordered
the women outside and made
them run around the factory in
the hot sun. The women ran and
ran and ran. One fainted, and
then another. Still they ran. They
would be taught a lesson. They
had worn the wrong shoes to
work. More women fainted. The
ordeal didn't end until a dozen
workers had collapsed.
Thuyen Nguyen, a Vietnamese-
American businessman who has
been studying conditions at
factories that make Nike shoes in
Vietnam, wrote in a report
released yesterday: "Vietnamese
all over the country were
outraged that on International
Women's Day, when most
companies in Vietnam give
women workers flowers and
other gifts, 12 Vietnamese
women were so abused they had
to spend the day in the
emergency room."
Mr. Nguyen, a partner in a
financial services company in
New Jersey and a former vice
president of the Bankers Trust
Company, became interested in
the treatment of workers in
factories that make Nike products
in Vietnam after watching a
television report last fall about
the abuse of such workers.
He contacted a number of
organizations familiar with the
plight of foreign sweatshop
workers. And he called Nike.
Nike officials invited Mr.
Nguyen to tour a factory run by
one of its contractors in Ho Chi
Minh City. Mr. Nguyen accepted
and the tour took place early this
month.
On the surface, conditions in the
plant seemed more or less
satisfactory, although the workers
appeared tired and Mr. Nguyen
got the impression they were
afraid to speak candidly to him.
What Nike officials probably did
not expect was that Mr. Nguyen
would return later and, on his
own, talk to workers away from
the intimidating grounds of the
factory. He would then go on to
investigate conditions at plants
run by three other Nike
contractors.
What he found were the same
kinds of demoralizing and
debilitating abuses that a wide
array of Nike critics have been
spotlighting for a long time. Nike
set up shop in Vietnam because
labor there is even cheaper than
in Indonesia. But apparently not
cheap enough. Mr. Nguyen found
that in some cases Nike
contractors in Vietnam didn't
even bother to pay the locally
6
established minimum wage. And
even when the minimum is paid
it is not enough to cover the cost
of three meager meals a day.
He found that the treatment of
workers by the factory managers
in Vietnam (usually Korean or
Taiwanese nationals) is a
"constant source of humiliation,"
that verbal abuse and sexual
harassment occur frequently, and
that "corporal punishment is
often used." He found that
extreme amounts of forced
overtime are imposed on
Vietnamese workers. "It is a
common occurrence," Mr.
Nguyen wrote in his report, "to
have several workers faint from
exhaustion, heat and poor
nutrition during their shifts. We
were told that several workers
even coughed up blood before
fainting."
Rather than crack down on the
abusive conditions in the
factories, Nike has resorted to an
elaborate international public
relations campaign to give the
appearance that it cares about the
workers. But no amount of public
relations will change the fact that
a full-time worker who makes
$1.60 a day is likely to spend a
fair amount of time hungry if
three very simple meals cost
$2.10.
Nike has hired former United
Nations representative Andrew
Young to oversee -- and
presumably attempt to improve --
the conditions in the factories of
its contractors.
"Mr. Young," said Mr. Nguyen, Copyright 1997 The New York
"has a lot of work to do." Times