Nike

Today Nike is valued at 10.7 billion dollars. It is the biggest shoe shop in the world and puts itself as an industry leader. I can say that we in the UK at least owned or own a shoe made by Nike. Nike sells 5 million shoes a year all made by someone who can’t afford to buy them.

In the 1970S Nike shoes were made in South Korea and Twain as the workers gained more freedom they demanded higher pay. Nike moved to China, Indonesia and Vietnam where the law prohibits workers from forming independent trade unions. Nike says it is in the business in marketing not manufacturing as Nike contracts the work of various other factories around the world.

 Many Nikes workers in Indonesia have complained to be physically or verbally abused and women sexually abused. The New York Times reported one factory supervisor who had been convicted for physically abusing workers and another had to flee the country during a police investigation of sexual abuse charges.

During the 1990s Nike had been accused of using child labor in the production of footballs in Pakistan. Pakistan does have laws against child labor but they do little to enforce these laws.



  
April 1997, 10,000 Indonesian workers went on strike over wage violations. In the same month, 1,300 workers in Vietnam went on strike demanding a one-cent-per-hour raise and in 1998, 3,000 workers in China went on strike to protest not only low wages, but hazardous working conditions.

Nike is one of the richest companies in the world and should supply a stable wage for their workers. At the moment Indonesian workers make $2.46 a day, in Vietnamese workers make $l.60 a day and in Chinese workers make $1.75 a day and it costs 5 dollars to make a shoe and Nike can sell a shoe in the UK for up to 100 pounds. Nike could increase their workers wage by 10% and still make a profit. The workers are happy and Nike is still making a big profit.