Human Rights Violations of the Nike Corporation

Human Rights Violations of the Nike Corporation

There is a running battle with activists, especially on

the internet, to keep corporations and governments focused

on human rights and the environment. Recent activity has

centered around International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

A victory for these such groups came recently when Starbucks

Corporation agreed to a deal that could triple wages for

thousands of coffee farmers. One battle that has been going

on steadily for a long time with few signs of relief is

against the Nike Corporation.

Activists charge Nike with having unsafe working

conditions, treating its employees improperly, not paying

its workers enough wages and forcing people to work overtime

and without breaks. There have been several reported cases

of abuse at Nike factories in Vietnam.

One report claimed that on International Women’s Day of

1997 in Vietnam fifty-six women were forced to run around

the factory grounds at Pouchen. Twelve of the women fainted

and were taken to a hospital by friends. CBS News reported

that fifteen female workers were hit on the head by their

supervisor for poor sewing. Two of these women needed to be

sent to hospitals after the beatings. This report also

charged that fourty0five workers were forced to kneel on the

ground for twenty0five minutes with their hands in the air.

A Korean supervisor even fled the country after accusations

that he molested some of his workers surfaced.

Workers also told CBS News that the daily quota for

products made is purposefully set unrealistically high. The

workers are forced to work over 600 hours of overtime per

year. If the workers do not except the hours he or she will

get a warning and after three warning he or she will be

fired. One activist group found that Nike workers were

working about twenty-seven days per month plus forty to

sixty hours of overtime. There were even moths found when

workers were forced to work over one hundred hours of

overtime.

An activist group called Boycott Nike reports that

workers in Nike’s Vietnamese factories are not allowed to

use the bathroom more than once per eight-hour shift and

they may not drink water more than twice per shift. It is

common for workers in these factories to faint from

exhaustion, heat, fumes and poor nutrition during their

shifts.

Nike workers are reportedly paid an average of twenty cents

per hour or $1.60 a day. Workers told Vietnam Labor Watch

that the cost of three meals per day in CuChi is about $2.

This wage is even lower than Vietnam’s own minimum wage.

During their fist month as Nike workers earn $37.