By James Cook
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 4, 1998

UA can do better than Nike

To the Editor:

While it is encouraging that the Wildcat has devoted coverage to student concern about the UA-Nike deal, some of that coverage has been inaccurate.

Specifically, Craig Anderson wrote on Feb. 26 that "there's no recent proof Nike is still exploiting workers." ("Likins gives impromptu talk to Nike protestors.") Actually, Nike's tradition of exploitation has continued unabated. Two days before Christmas, one month after Nike spokesfolks and UA administrators touted Nike's effort to improve, more than twenty workers at Nike's Dong Nai plant in Vietnam were beaten with shovels by security guards. Nike also continues to pay its workers pennies an hour. Even in Indonesia, where pay is highest, the government acknowledges that the Nike wage is not enough to live on. Meanwhile, Nike rakes in millions in profit every day. Exploitation is still the name of Nike's game.

Anderson also writes that Nike "has been accused" of inundating its factories with cancer-causing chemicals. Actually, Nike has confirmed this debacle itself. It was Nike's own internal audit which reported the presence of carcinogens at up to 177 times the local legal standard. If a disgruntled Nike employee hadn't leaked the report, none of us would ever have known. After the leak, Nike's spin doctors promised that the use of carcinogenic glues would be halted in 50% of its factories by the end of the year. One wonders when they'll get around to the other half.

In light of these problems, we should be especially skeptical of Peter Likins' new deal with Nike. Likins says Nike promises to abide by its code of conduct. Well, they've made promises before - promises they haven't kept. Do they really mean it this time around? Besides, that code of conduct has loopholes the size of a pickup truck. It's OK by the code to pay your workers pennies an hour, it's OK by the deal to beat workers and make them sick, so long as Nike headquarters doesn't give the orders and Nike factories keep it quiet.

Nike can do better than this, and so can the University of Arizona.

James Cook
Graduate Student, Sociology