Progree in the Industry
Simon Pestridge
Manager of Labor Practices, Nike Inc.
Nike is glad that Notre Dame's "sweatshop symposium" is raising awareness about the complex issues associated with global manufacturing and we only wish we were given an opportunity to participate. We know students and faculty are concerned about the conditions under which products bearing their university's logo were made. And we rely on close scrutiny to show us where we need to improve.
Jim Keady has said that he resigned from his position at St. John's because of his conviction that, based on what he had read of our labor practices, he could not wear our products. At Nike we hope you will seek the truth and judge us by our actions , not just what you read or the criticisms of individuals.
Nike is making every effort to be transparent so that people can best judge us by what we do. That is why Nike will begin to disclose the factory locations where university licensed goods are made as individual universities say that is what they want.
In addition to voluntary disclosure, Nike has joined groups like the FLA and the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities, which are partnerships of cooperation, human rights groups, universities and non-governmental organizations. In fact, St. John's recently joined the Global alliance, too — the first university to do so.
We know these solutions aren't perfect, and we won't stop here. But the FLA and the Global Alliance, along with our internal oversight and Price Waterhouse-Coopers' auditing of every factory every year, is a good place to start.
At Nike we know we are on the right path but we aren't kidding ourselves — there is still so much more to do. Still, the steps we have taken are paying off for workers and their communities. To quote two students from BYU following their visit to various factories in Vietnam — including ones producing Nike, "If we were citizens of Vietnam, there is no other firm for which we would want to work."
There is more to do and Nike is committed to seeing it through, To learn more about what we are doing, please visit our Web site at www.nikebiz.com.
Simon Pestridge
Manager of Labor Practices, Nike Inc.
October 8, 1999
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, October 12, 1999
