Ever heard of Nike? Who hasn’t? According to the Current Research on Nike Inc it’s the world’s number one shoemaker, and it sells its product throughout the U.S. and in more than 160 countries. Nike also designs and sells shoes for volleyball, tennis, football, hiking, baseball, cheerleading, and soccer. As an international trademark, Nike does face some issues. With consistency of image, they also deal with an issue that can tarnish the brand worldwide. For instance, Nike received bad press for using sweatshops to manufacture the shoes. Articles and outrage showed up in many countries around the world creating the need for a global response to the issue. Unfortunately, Nike’s motto of "Just Do It" has affected their business practices right up to using sweatshop labor in Indonesia and Vietnam. There was a huge controversy when the public knew that Vietnam factory workers were being paid a dollar a day and also receiving corporal punishment. About 15 Vietnamese women told CBS news that there were many occasions were they were hit over the head by their supervisor for poor sewing and 2 Vietnamese women were sent to the hospital afterward.When CBS News come within reach of Nike's representatives at Nike Vietnam's headquarter, the man basically covered the camera with his palm and said he had things to. In America, Nike's response do this allegation did not get much better. In front of several hundred shareholders, after announcing record earnings and a stock split, Nike's Founder and Chairman, Phil Knight diminished the problem in Vietnam as simply an incident in which a single worker was hit on the arm by a Korean supervisor. On CBS News Roberta Baskin said, this incident turns out to be that Nike has clearly no idea of what actually happens inside these factories.
It’s not only this but women also told CBS news that they are forced to work over time. They have to work 600 plus hours of overtime in one year when the legal limit is 200 plus hours of overtime a year. If they didn’t obey to work overtime they would get one warning and after three warnings they will get fired. Based on CBS analysis of paystubs “Nike factory workers are working 26 to 27 days per month plus 40 to 65 hours of overtime. We found months when workers were forced to work over 100 hours of overtime per month” (Nike/sweatshops). There are also heartless working conditions. The factories workers are not permitted to use the restroom more than once in an eight hour shift and they are not allowed to drink water twice per an eight hour shift. So it’s common for workers to faint because of exhaustion, and also because of poor nutrition throughout shifts. The health care is very inadequate not to mention there is only one doctor that works only two hours a day when there are about 600,000 workers. The night shift unfortunately does not have on site medical attention services.
I just don’t understand how Nike is paying multi-billions dollars to celebrities like Michael Jordon to sponsor their merchandise. Is this fair? So much hard work and long hours in making the shoes and they are only getting compensated with a dollar a day and working in inhuman working conditions. The Founder of Nike and Chairman, Phil Knight defended this accusations by stating this “the fact that they endorse our products allows us to sell more products and create more jobs” (Vann). This just makes me believe that corporations are just after money. So what about money? Nike should at least try to improve the working conditions in these factories. It’s so unfair that they have to go through this because it maybe their only source of income and they risk everything including their health and the corporal abuse they receive. I think the consumers have forgotten they have the ultimate power by buying the wrong products.
