Nike sweatshops

Since the 1970s, Nike, Inc. has been accused of using sweatshops to produce footwear and clothing items. Nike has denied the claims in the past, suggesting the company has little control over sub-contracted factories. Beginning in 2002, Nike began auditing its factories for occupational health and safety issues.

Nike has been accused of using sweatshops since the early 1970s, when it produced goods in South Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. As these countries' economies developed, workers became more productive, wages rose, and many moved on to higher paying jobs. Nike found cheaper labor in the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, which prohibited labor unions. When workers demanded additional rights and benefits in these countries, the Nike factories closed and moved to a different location that would enable them to continue operating at a low cost.

Throughout the 1990s, Nike was criticized for selling goods produced in sweatshops. They originally denied claims against them. However, in 2001, Nike director Todd McKean stated in an interview that the "initial attitude was, 'Hey, we don't own the factories. We don't control what goes on there.' Quite frankly, that was a sort of irresponsible way to approach this. We had people there every day looking at quality. Clearly, we had leverage and responsibility with certain parts of the business, so why not others?" In 2005, protesters at over 40 universities demanded that their institutions endorse companies who use "sweat-free" labor. Many anti-sweatshop groups were student-led, such as the United Students Against Sweatshops. At Brown University, Nike went so far as to pull out from a contract with the women’s ice hockey team because of efforts by a student activist group that wanted a code of conduct put in place by the company.

Team Sweat is one of the largest groups that specifically tracks and protests against Nike. Team Sweat is "an international coalition of consumers, investors, and workers committed to ending the injustices in Nike’s sweatshops around the world" founded in 2000 by Jim Keady. While Keady was conducting his research about Nike at St. John’s University, the school signed a $3.5 million deal with Nike, forcing all athletes and coaches to endorse Nike. Keady publicly refused to support Nike and was forced to resign his position as soccer coach in 1998. Since resigning, Keady has done original research into the conditions in Nike’s Sweatshops. He traveled to Indonesia and for a month lived among the Nike factory workers, surviving on $1.25 per day like they do.

...
Wikipedia