Thursday, March 22, 2012

Nike at it again!!

In the article “Nike Spends $25 Million on CSR Annually; Refuses to Pay $2.2 Million in Severance to Honduran Garment Workers” Nike refuses to pay its Honduran Garment Workers 2.2 million dollars after shutting down 2 sweatshops. They refused to pay there severance and legally required benefits which was a mere $1300 for each of the 1800 employees, in America this would be 15000-20000$ per worker.

Is Nike really that cheap to not pay 2.2 million dollars when they spend 100s of millions on athletes and sponsorships? Why does Nike even have a CSR department if they can’t even start to begin practicing CSR with their employees who make them the millions of dollars? The people who work for Nike in Honduran work under the worst conditions, very poor wages and ridiculously long shifts. They work to survive; if they don’t work overtime they might not eat one day of the week. Nike being the giant company that it is couldn’t afford to give these workers respectable wages and working environments.

After watching Behind the Swoosh it really puts into perspective what is actually going on in these sweatshops and what it’s like to live and work for Nike in 3rd world countries. What Jim Keady started has sparked a public view on how Nike operates and runs its company. When he got fired for standing up to Nike and refusing to wear their products when coaching the university soccer team, I am glad to see that other universities are stepping up and refusing to wear their products. The University of Wisconsin-Madison became the first college in the country to cut its Nike contract over sweatshop abuses. I’m sure many Universities will one day look beyond the greed and stand up for what is right and to not promote such a greed powered company. I would like to see Nike step up and do what’s right because the amount of money that they make is astronomical. They need to “Just Do It”.

http://www.justmeans.com/Nike-Spends-25-Million-on-CSR-Annually-Refuses-Pay-2-2-Million-in-Severance-Honduran-Garment-Workers/22753.html

Dave Armstrong

1 comment:

  1. Is it not obviously clear that even after all these articles and documentaries about how Nike treats their employees horribly (especially in 3rd world countries)we still as society accept their brand in our schools, sports icons, and in our everyday lives. What is it going to take to stop their path of destruction is a question activists are trying to solve, and the answer is simple, it’s as simple as NOT BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS until they have shown that they can be Corporately Responsible to the environment. Most importantly is to find a way to help their employees, who have consistently been treated this way for years because no one big enough has stood up Nike to fight them. It’s shown in "behind the swoosh" that as an individual you can’t take on these billion dollar corporations, BUT as a community fighting against these corporations have shown to have great success. Example, "Wal-Mart: the high cost of low price" movie, the community stepped into the way of Wal-Mart's path to stop them from continuing on their path of destruction. And we can do the same with Nike, we just need the people, effort and drive to complete this mission. As Nike and the post above says "Just Do it".

    Shane Cunningham

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