cambodia

ACADEMICS STUDYING CAMBODIA - NIKE and the ATHLETIC APPAREL INDUSTRY SUBCONTRACT FACTORIES

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

NEW We also want to find comparable factories where working conditions are better. For example,

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 at Academics Studying Nike, if you know where they are.

Africa

El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

Korea

Factory List

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Ongoing Labor dispute in Cambodia (Source, CCC)

BBC VIDEO - Cambodia - BBC VIDEO - Cambodia ;BBC 2 Cambodia/BBC 3nd Interview

4/4/2005 Cambodia's sales pitch: Sweatshop-free products reports David J. Lynch, USA TODAY

Note: this is another example of Nike propaganda machine. To put a spin on the murder of ILO organizers, we are supposed to buy the views of the Nike spokeswoman that all ELSE is well in the sweatshops of Cambodia. Is Dickensian misery no more in these factories. I understand that due to the anti-sweatshop movement that conditions have improved, but Lynch seems to carry it too far.

Excerpts "Cambodia's sweatshop-free sales pitch is laser-focused on U.S. buyers. Gap
is the Southeast Asian country's largest customer, with purchases last year
of about $350 million, according to Ken Loo of the Garment Manufacturers
Association of Cambodia. In 2004, Wal-Mart says it bought about twice as
much from local suppliers as it did two years ago, though the undisclosed
total remains low. Nike, Levi Strauss, J.C. Penney and Sears also buy
shirts, jeans and sweaters here."

"...In the 1980s and 1990s, factory conditions here, including widespread
compulsory overtime, were typical for a developing country. In 2000, Nike
pulled out of Cambodia temporarily after a British documentary found
underage workers in one of its contractor factories."

"...Some of the 230 garment factories still violate the law by
forcing employees to work overtime. Last year, two labor union officials,
including a member of the ILO's advisory committee, were killed in what
Amnesty International suggests were politically motivated shootings. "

"... "We are very impressed with these programs, and we are fully
supportive of the ILO project," says Carolyn Wu, a Shanghai-based Nike
spokeswoman. The company, which returned to Cambodia in 2002, buys T-shirts,
tennis skirts and shorts here." etc.

Nike axes 'sweatshop' after BBC investigation Marketing; London; Oct 19, 2000; Tania Mason; Page: 5 "Nike has pledged to pull out of the factory it uses in Cambodia and the Gap has suspended orders there, following Sunday's BBC Panorama program, which uncovered the use of child labor by both companies... June Textiles Co in Phnom Penh, which produces clothes for both brands. Hidden cameras smuggled inside showed children who appeared to be younger than 15 years old working on the shop floor, while other employees admitted working seven-day weeks. "

2nd Source - ASIAWEEK: SIGNS OF THE TIMES Asiaweek; Hong Kong; Oct 9, 2000; "Nike pulled out of the June Textiles sweatshop factory in Cambodia after discovering it used child labor. Undercover investigators filmed children sewing shirts for just a few cents a day."

Anita Roddick argues that instead of pulling out Nike should stay and face its responsibilities - "Somehow, we have to persuade these retailers and the media on the rare occasions when they publicise the issue - that the right response is to take responsibility. That means sticking with the factory to sort out the abuses, sending the child-workers to school and paying them while they're there. If everybody washes their hands of the whole problem, we won't get anywhere" (Diary, New Statesman; London; Oct 16, 2000; Anita Roddick; Volume: 13 Issue: 627, Page: 8)

October 6, 2000 - Underage Labor - Nike Cancels Cambodia Deal - US-based sportswear company, Nike Inc has canceled a contract with a Cambodian factory, June Textiles, because of its employment of underage labor.

19 October, 2000 - Clean Clothes Campaign update on June Textiles

Global Exchange Coverage of - Gap and Nike: No Sweat? BBC, Panorama October 15, 2000 By Paul Kenyon

Unite Interviews with Workers in Cambodia

BBC Transcript - Cambodia aired October 15, 2000.

EXCERPTS:

Kenyon: This is Sun Thyda she's 12 years old. She told the factory she's 18. No one is properly checked. This is Chan Sita she's 14, she too lied to get the job…

Chea Sokhom: (via translator, another woman worker) We're not allowed to sit, we have to work standing up until the end of the shift at 10pm so at meal times we try to rest by sitting down a little, but when I'm caught I have clothes thrown at me and I'm badly scolded.

Kenyon: How old is this girl here?

Sun Thyda (via translator) I'm 12 years old…

Kenyon: Nike has only been producing in this factory for three months, it says conditions are improving. On the wall nearby a - Nike code of conduct. So why is it being broken?

Do you accept then that Nike has been breaking the law and breaking its own code of conduct in this factory?

Todd McKean: (Nike): I think, as we found, that that is an area that the factory needs to improve upon. We've told the factory that that is a change that they need to make. In fact, we're...

Kenyon: But up until now you've been breaking the law and breaking your own code of conduct?

McKlean: I think we found in our most recent code of conduct Price Waterhouse Cooper's audit, that that is something that they did not come up to speed on and we've actually told them when we do our next audit in 3 months time, if they have not stuck to that standard that actually we would be forced to dismiss them.

Note: The day after the BBC program aired, a Nike official confirmed that the Beaverton, Ore. company was going to stop using June Textiles. Nike canceled its contract within the week, rather than fix the problem.

March 7, 2001 - Nationwide Financial News

HEADLINE: ANALYSIS CAMBODIA S NEW TEXTILE INDUSTRY CHALLENGED BY VIETNAM

DATELINE: PHNOM PENH.

Analysts say that hourly production wages in Cambodia are now

US$ 0.28, compared to US$ 0.24 in nearby Vietnam