ACADEMICS STUDYING the FAQ of Athletic and Campus Apparel

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Question At 0419 PM 2/5/2003 -0500, you wrote

I attend XYZ University and am intersted to learn more about your website, and to find out if my school is selling clothing that is manufactured by children. I called my school and found out that the clothing in the bookstore is from Jansport and Russell. What should I do as far as my next step in answering my questions? Please email me back.

Thank you,

Hi Sarah (not real name)

Dear Sarah:

Glad you are a person with a heart for others. You can do a lot with a bit of basic research.

My suggestion is to go to the bookstore and look at the labels of each clothing item sold. Write in a notebook, the garment (e.g. cotton long sleeve shirt), who (Russell), and get the location (e.g. El Salvador), and on the tag are usually codes (write these down. You can then go to the web and do google.com searches ("Russell" and "El Salvador"; "Russell" and "sweatshop).

For example, you get, from the last search, -- (click here).

For example, the first link is http//www.sweatshopwatch.org/swatch/codes/russell.html which is a list of all known Russell factories. You can match this info to your notebook info on bookstore items.

From another site on the above search http//www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2002-3/issue9/fe-ns3.html you can see What another University (San Fran) is doing and saying about Russell.

"Russell, who makes SFU's jogging pants, has a history of forced overtime, union busting and paying their factory workers extremely low wages. In response to public pressure, both Gildan and Russell have made recent changes to their policies in order to comply with the increasing number of universities that are implementing no sweat policies. These changes include third party monitoring and more readily disclosure of factory locations. However, they will only disclose to universities who directly inquire and only for products relevant to that school."

This gives you lots of ammunition to go back to your bookstore manager and ask them for a listing of factory locations, since these are only disclosed to universities. You of course, already know them from the list in the first google link. The point is to get a dialog going with the manager and staff of the bookstore, so they will begin to get curious to find out about factory wages, and and conditions. You can contact other universities to see how USAS students their are working on Russell.

You can then go to the corporate website of Russell (and each manufacturer) and see what they say. They will no doubt tell you how they have changes, what there code of conduct "says" they do, etc. You can then match this to recent reports of their behavior.

I hope this is helpful.

David Boje

Question October 4, 2001: I am a student at California State University, Chico. I have been assigned a paper having to do with Nike. I am in the process of looking over your site and would like to know what your authority is. It appears at first glance to be thurough, however it contradicts some of what I have been reading elsewhere. According to articles I have found in several trade journals there has been improvement by the company is this untrue? I would appreciate your taking the time to answer these questions. --- Denise

Dear Denise,

Not sure what you mean by authority, but here goes. http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/academicsstudyingwriting.htm lists the journal articles and presentations I and scores of other professors and grad students have given on the topic. At http://business.nmsu.edu/mgt/dir/faculty/vita/boje you can find my other qualifications.

On the issue of Nike. Yes, there have been improvements, but defining the extent, scope, duration, and hype are all different questions. For example, when there is a major expose, there is a speech and rush of press releases, etc, and sometimes this is a material improvement, but often that is in the one factory. There are some 730 factories, and while the rhetoric applies to all, the material changes in wages, right to organize, safety, and non-abuse are not proven to be there. There have only been 4 of some 106 academic students that testify to improvements. I am therefore calling for more academic field work that could compare and contrast conditions in model factories and all 730 factories and compare these results to factories of Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance. In this way we will be able to empirically validate the improvements. I would like to add that due to the spotlight of critical academic scholarship and student organizing efforts such as USAS and WRC, and work by a score of dedicated NGO activists and advocates, there has been gradual and grudging improvement in Nike factories. Most recently there is a little know gain in the Kukdong factory (now renamed SITEMEX) in Atlixco, Mexico. See http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/kuk_dong_story.htm The young working women have won the right to have their own independent voice and organization. It is the first time such a thing has ever happened to Nike, Reebok, or the Korean-owned Maquiladora in Mexico. The response by Nike and Reebok at this juncture is very important. Nike at least has made it know to universities, that they may cancel their contract with Kukdong. If you care, please send Nike and Reebok to please keep the factories open. See http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/kukdong/kuk_dong_workers_win_independent.htm

To continue what improvements we can locate, people such as yourself can be involved. Begin a USAS chapter on your campus http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/usas/

Thanks for your question, David Boje

QUESTION: Are consumers willing to pay more if Nike raises the wages of its workers?

Why pay more? - Cut the inflated AD budget of 3/4th of Billion dollars annually. Nike already makes enough money to pay living wages to its 730,000 (mostly female) workers. Phil Knight has a net worth of $5.8 Billon and Tiger Woods gets $55,555/per day; how much more sweatshop money do they need? Nike makes record profits by gouging both the worker and the consumer. Nike could pay its workers a living wage without raising prices by even one penny; just cut Phil's salary and Tiger Woods endorsement fee by 10% and that's will pay the living wages to people who make your clothing (See http://nikewages.org/index2.html for more).

QUESTION: What is the labor cost of Nike shoes?

A pair of Nikes selling for $90.00 has a labor cost of $1.20 (From Campaign for Labor Rights, Info Pack #6). [See breakdown of cost of Nike Sneakers].

QUESTION: Are there sneakers NOT made in sweatshops?

	Pangea says that Saucony shoes are made under fair labor conditions--no abusive Third World sweatshops and no animal products (completely Vegan)!
	Saucony - http://www.saucony.com/ Saucony was acquired in 1968 by the Hyde Company. John Fisher is Saucony’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Certain Saucony (and New Balance) styles are labeled as being made in U.S., within federal laws and paying fair wages and benefits. However, BUYER BEWARE, since there is currently no monitoring, no reports, or lists of factory locations where such claims of no-sweatshops, living wages, etc. can be verified. Many of Saucony's shoes are mode outside of the US.
	Nike says call (800) 344-NIKE for a list of animal product-free shoes (Buyer Beware of the claim of no sweatshop).
	New Balance says it is MADE IN THE US, but in point of fact, 80% of their production comes from sweatshops in China (Check the label).
	For More Vegetarian clothing choices http://www.cowsarecool.com/alt3.html
	MONTRAIL - What shoe does Boje use? I tried New Balance and Saucony, till I found out they are mostly non-U.S. shoes. Now I am trying Montrail - Men's Leona Divide: They claim to be made in the US. http://www.altrec.com/shop/dir/9/132/359/

QUESTION: What is a sweatshop?

A sweatshop is a workplace where workers are subject to (Adapted from S11):

	extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or benefits and forced overtime,
	poor working conditions, such as health and safety hazards, and
	arbitrary discipline including physical and mental abuse, fines for talking, taking of worker-wage deposits to keep workers from leaving.

The word 'sweatshop' was originally used in the 19th century to describe a subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned their profits from the margin between the amount they received from a contract and the amount they paid workers with whom they subcontracted. The margin was said to be 'sweated' from the workers because they received minimal wages for excessive hours worked under unsanitary conditions" (From USAS Sweat-Free Campus Campaign: organizer's Manual, 2001: 6).

For more on what is a sweatshop, Please See "Are Sweatshops Misogynistic Revenge?" http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nike/sweatshops_overview.htm

QUESTION: Are New Mexico State University garments sold in the book store made in sweatshops?

NMSU belongs to Fair Labor Association (FLA), which it relies upon to certify monitors of apparel sold in the book store. FLA is a front organization of Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and many of the garments made for sale in our book store.

	For example, many products carry THE GAME brand name and the NMSU logo: "In violation of THE GAME's [own] code of conduct, one Asian Sourcing factory in Shanghai reports their work week is 55 hours and on average employees work an additional 10 hours. The Korea factory works 49.5 hours with .5 weekday overtime and 2.5 weekend overtime." NOTE: The Game is relying upon factory managers to self-monitor. Studies consistently report that self-monitoring is about as good as no monitoring.
	For example, Jansport Backpacks are produced at: Keng Tau Handbag Company Keng Tau Industrial Zone, Panyu Village, Guangdong Province, China... Why don't the workers leave? Workers are instructed not to punch their time cards for evening or Sunday work. So any company records shown are just fabrications. Upon entering the Keng Tau factories workers are illegally charged a 60 rmb job deposit and their first month’s wages.
	For example, GEAR FOR SPORTS - In one factory, workers told us "base pay was approximately $20 per week. However, most operators earned around $26 per week. That means that for a 59-hour work week, workers received approximately 44 cents an hour!
	FLA and Collegiate Licensing Corporation (CLC) are not doing an adequate or reliable job of monitoring factory conditions in the companies selling products on the New Mexico State University Campus. What to do? Quit FLA, join the Workers Rights Consortium. See Resolution proposed by Dr. Boje. See full report: Are NMSU products bearing NMSU logo made in Sweatshops? http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nmsu/nmsu_products.html

QUESTION: Transnational corporations have budgets bigger than countries, what can consumers do?

Why not try a consumer class action suit. Sweatshop Watch reports that on January 13-14, 1999, three separate lawsuits were filed challenging the unlawful sweatshop conditions in the Saipan, CNMI garment industry. This first case, was filed in San Francisco state court, was brought by Global Exchange, Sweatshop Watch, UNITE, and the Asian Law Caucus against 18 U.S. garment retailers - including such companies as The Gap, Inc., Target Corp., J.C. Penney, Lane Bryant, and The Limited. Plaintiffs charged that all of the defendant companies engaged in unfair business practices (a violation of California Business and Professions Code §17200) by advertising their garments as being "Sweatshop Free," by violating the
federal law prohibiting the shipment of "hot goods" in interstate commerce, by aiding and abetting their Saipan garment factories' violations of the laws against involuntary servitude, and by other misleading labeling and advertising practices. The case was assigned to San Francisco Superior Court Judge Munter. (From Sweatshop Watch).

QUESTION: Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance all claim to pay the minimum wage in each country, what's the problem?

Poor nations lower their minimum wages in order to attract transnational corporate sweatshop contracts. The result is a wage that is not enough to live on, forcing workers to work 14 hour days, 6 and 7 days a week to make what is still not enough to buy food and shelter. The solution is to pay a living wage in each country.

QUESTION: Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance say that no one can figure out what is a living wage?

Living wages can be calculated, and when you do, you find that these corporations could raise wages just a little bit. For more on wage calculations see http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/academicsstudyingwriting.htm or Boje (1998) critique of Amos Tuck wage study http://business.nmsu.edu/mgt/handout/boje/bnike/index.html

QUESTION: Is this a boycott?

No. We support the women working in sweatshops, who are attempting to negotiate a living wage, a voice in their work life, and better working conditions. If you as an aware consumer, stop thinking it is cool to wear logos of corporations that subcontract to sweatshops, then sweating women workers will vanish from the face of the earth. Till that day, you can write letters, pass out leaflets, stage anti-sweatshop fashion shows, form blockades in front of stores selling sweatshop goods, and become actors in street carnival. This brings awareness of the hidden conditions to the masses, and all the advertising dollars and sports heroes in the world will no longer be able to cover it up. These corporations conduct monthly opinion polls and focus groups; as soon as the consumer mood changes, they know abut it.

QUESTION: If Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance workers don't like their jobs, why don't they find employment somewhere else?

The global economy is rapidly turning the world into one global sweatshop, where workers have fewer and fewer options except to work in sweatshops such as those run by Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance subcontractors.

QUESTION: What about Nike's Virtual Tour of a Factory in Vietnam, it looked clean and tidy, and workers did not look mistreated?

You believe in advertising! Don't believe everything you see in virtual reality. In Magic, this is called "slight of hand." Nike (Reebok, Adidas & New Balance) distract you with images of clean, orderly, machinery, and you do not see the trickery. The machines look well cared for, but in virtual reality you can not feel the heat or inhale the fumes of toxic work conditions. Sure the workers smile on the Virtual Tour. Wouldn't you smile, if you were told you'd be fired if you didn't (Ask any Disney employee). Bottom line, these are corporations addicted to greed money that comes from sweating workers; they care more about quality shoe production, than quality of working life.

QUESTION: Do Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and other sports stars know what is going on?

Over one hundred anti-sweatshop and women's rights groups have contacted them in letter writing campaigns. We think they know. Michael Jordan, made numerous promises in the 1990s to visit the factories in Asia (maybe he did). Tiger Woods saw the protest signs in Thailand (See Thailand). Check out the Tiger Woods Interview (with photos).

QUESTION: What has Nietzsche got to say?

Phil Knight (Nike), Paul Fireman (Reebok), Robert Louis-Dreyfus (Adidas) and Jim Davis (New Balance) are the Nietzschean Supermen with wills to power that are beyond comprehension, and the Sweatshop working life is the plight of the truly heroic Superwomen, attempting to gain her human rights and voice in confrontations with some of the major corporate transnational giants on this planet (See Paper on the Superwomen of Sweatshops by David M. Boje, January 1, 2001).

QUESTION: Where are these corporations on Kohlberg's Scale of Moral Development?

Corporate PR would put them at level 6, historically they each began at level 1, but now are between 3 and 5 (See Paper on Moral Development and Sweatshop Corporations by Boje December 29, 2000).

QUESTION: Aren't women and children better off with the Athletic and Campus Apparel jobs? Otherwise, they would be unemployed? Look at Haiti...

	Child labor (age 4 to 13) is a serious problem with over 250 million children working around the world. In 1996 the Look Magazine article on Soccer Balls made by quite young children became every school child's term paper. The pressure of these children put on congress and shareholders has changed history. Now the Soccer industry giants put money into schools for the children and have modernized production. This has not ended child labor. Since 1997, public pressure force Nike to raise its minimum age of workers to 16 and Reebok to 14, but each has hundreds of secret factories where we do not know what is going on. In Australia, home workers make the apparel, and in China there are still reports of widespread child labor.
	85% of workers at Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance factories are women, some 3 million of them. Some are pregnant, and when pregnant women work with toxic chemicals, in poorly ventilated factories, without safety training or equipment, you get birth defects and miscarriages.
	"Concrete action ... lagged behind debate over child labor. Only in 1992 when Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the Child Labor Deterrence Act, which sought to ban products made with child labor from importation to the U.S., did the action begin" (CW profiles on child labor).
	In China, there are problems with force Prison Labor. Is it ethical or moral to have forced labor make our clothing?
	In Haiti, the news media played up the plight of garment workers making products for Disney and Nike. The factory contracts were terminated and the subcontractor and the work went to China. This is a good point, yet around the globe, women are organizing and demanding their rights. It is much like the early history of the suffrage movement.
	Subcontractors oftentimes keep workers on a short leash (even lock the gates or prohibit leaving the compound) and then take out deductions for talking, broken sewing needles plus the usual deductions for food and shelter. Not much is left to feed anyone.
	The question assumes that child labor is the only viable option.

QUESTION: Should we in the First World practice "cultural relativism" and deny the Third World the pathway to economic progress? Or isn't this basic economic theory?

	What kind of progress are we complicit in if we continue trends of child, forced, and sweat labor that were everywhere in the industrial revolution? Is it progress if they are everywhere today? Are we not global citizens with answerability for the plight of people who make our clothes?
	The question questions the existence of universal human rights, pointing out that such rights are relativistic. It is a very (liberal) postmodern question, and a reason why rejecting all universal narratives (Lyotard, 1984) is rejected by "critical postmodernists" (See Amnesty International's definition of successful monitoring, as one example of a universal standard that goes beyond cultural relativism).
	Adam Smith the Father of modern capitalism in The Wealth of Nations argues that a worker is due a livable wage. Smith recommended paying a person enough to support themselves and a family instead of cutting their pay to the bone.
	Keep in mind - Nike made announcements at National Press Club, of sweeping changes to its behavior, only after enormous public pressure. According to Connor, Tim (2001) "Still Waiting for Nike to Do It," Nike's Labor Practices in the Three Years Since CEO Phil Knight's Speech to the National Press Club - Released May 2001, Published by Global Exchange

QUESTION: Is not the business of business to maximize shareholder value?

The questioner makes interesting assumptions. First, that business can not be profitable with out child, forced, and cheap (non-living wage) labor. This is what the Robber Barons said during the onset of the industrial revolution; they managed to prosper anyway; what use is all our management knowledge if we must resort to sweatshop labor? Second the questioner assumes that shareholders only invest in corporations who are maximally exploitative of their workers (and ecology)? Yet there are many investors who put their money in socially and ecologically responsible corporations. Third, since the 1970s there is the "stakeholder" concept; there are more people who have a stake in the life of a corporation than just the investors. That would include the workforce, the communities and the ecology.

QUESTION: What can we do about any of this?

	Get the facts. Study up on the issues, the research, and the proposals.
	If you are on a college campus, begin a United Students Against Sweatshops Group. Find out where the goods you buy are made and the monitoring that takes place.
	If you are in middle or high school, know this, the anti-child-labor campaign among North American schoolchildren resulted in changes in the lives of children stitching Soccer Balls in Pakistan.
	Join a UNITED STUDENTS AGAINST SWEATSHOPS club on your campus, or start one. See NMSU USAS

QUESTION: What can I do to stop global corporations from using child labor?

I suggest writing letters to the companies that use child labor like Adidas, McDonalds, Gap, Nike, Wall-Mart, and Disney. And tell friends and family not to buy their products until they stop employing children.

QUESTION: If Ford did it then, why not do it today? In 1922 Henry Ford offered workers $5.00 a day (double that of any other car factory) to work for him for 12 hours a day and follow his rules: no talking, no singing, no leaning or sitting, no smiling, no whispering, no drinking, etc. Men jumped at the chance to work for Ford. Ford could not get people to work in his Draconian factory for less than $5 and when immigrant workers (mostly) flocked to the factory to get $5 they found many stings attached. The same is the case today, workers find illegal wage deposits withheld, fines for talking, etc.

Are knock-offs were probably made under worse conditions? The question presupposes that there have been valid and reliable studies proving conditions in indigenous factories are better than those subcontracting to logo corporations. Where are these studies?

QUESTION: Don't the Third World workers need the money otherwise, they wouldn't take these jobs? This question assumes the duality of "work now, human rights later" versus the "rights now, or nothing at all" position. Human Rights and livable wages do not need to be mutually exclusive. People seem drawn to one of three positions:

One conservative position is that each Third World country must go through the worst Draconian and Dickensian conditions before its economy can find the road to economic prosperities and can afford human rights.
The liberal position is that moral and ethical issues matter here and now; taking a Draconian or Dickensian road now will insure you remain there.
The moderate center position is where most end up, just plain apathy. Forget the roads and buy the goods without moral reasoning or reflection.

QUESTION: Are these corporations demented?

"The problem is not with individual factories or evil managers. The problem is a global production system that drives contractors to cut costs, increase productivity, and meet shorter and shorter delivery times, all of which further squeeze workers" February 27, 2001 - (Boston Globe). To fix sweatshop conditions in factories, we must listen to workers By Dara O'Rourke

IN THE NEWS - FAQ

GLOBE PROJECT: Find the non-disclosed locations of Athletic and Campus Apparel factories. Where are the secret Athletic and Campus Apparel factories? As soon as we systematically identify where they are, we can monitor what they are doing.

We want to find comparable factories where working conditions are better.

What are the condition of factories where New Mexico State University Campus Story buys its garments with our logo on them?

Contact dboje@nmsu.edu if you know where they are.

	Australia
	Bulgaria
	Cambodia
	Canada
	China
	El Salvador, Guatemala
	Indonesia
	India
	Korea
	Mexico
	Pakistan
	Philippines
	Taiwan
	Thailand
	Vietnam
	USA

Factory List

Hot Spots

Mexico is HOT HOT HOT

Statistics

Working Conditions

ACADEMICS STUDYING ... What are the Studies?

The Studies focus on the Way Women are organizing to demand LIVING WAGES, SAFE WORKING CONDITIONS, and COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. The Global anti-sweatshop movement is a WOMEN'S MOVEMENT. A reaction to male dominated global capitalism. We are studying this as a Global Movement:

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Our Research Project includes Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc. and ATHLETIC and Campus APPAREL INDUSTRY. We seek to go beyond just the study of NIKE to look at Reebok, Adidas, and other players in Athletic and Campus Apparel. 45 Academics from around the world are meeting at conferences on two continents to get at several important research questions.

	We submitted in October, 2000 RESEARCH by 4 Academic study teams to research Sweatshops in Athletic & Campus Apparel Industry
	February 23, 2001 - We updated this proposal in February, expanding its focus to study the entire industry -- please comment on it

LINKS

	SWEATSHOPS press release
	MAJOR RESEARCH PROJECT BEING REVIEWED BY NIKE from Boje et al. September 16, 2000 And now in February, 2001 we make the proposal to foundations and the other corporate and campus logo purveyors.
	See Academy of Management Showcase 2000 Session on "Time and Nike"

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