Keep up the pressure on Nike

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Glenda Buya-ao Claborne

"Nike again!" you say, exasperated with this never-ending campaign against such seemingly innocuous, enormously popular products.

But the message is more important now than ever. Nike has invaded the coffers and conscience of the University of Arizona and this holiday season we must not forget we have a responsibility to be wise consumers of goods.

Do we still remember that our university signed a contract with Nike early this semester that not only will bring in $7 million spread out over five years for the Athletic Department but also included a clause which allows the UA to void the contract if there is a "material breach" of Nike's Code of Conduct as determined by a "mutually agreeable independent monitor?"

"It is a very substantial step to put a clause like that in a contract," said President Peter Likins in a Wildcat news report this September

Well then, let's make it more substantial by keeping our eyes and ears open to any "material breach" of the code that Nike has promised to adhere to this May after severe attacks of non-implementation as far back as 1992.

It's too easy to let our guard down. And too dangerous.

Consider for example a Nov. 18 article in The Washington Times that told the story of Nike workers at a news conference hosted by the National Labor Committee, a New York-based group campaigning against sweatshops. The accounts of abuses in new factories in Latin America and Asia include rules and strategies to extract as much work-time as possible from the largely young and female work force. These strategies include allowing only one trip to the bathroom within a 12-hour shift and giving shots of the contraceptive Depro Provera that the workers were made to believe were for tetanus.

The point here is the UA community has a responsibility to make sure that the monitoring clause in the contract goes beyond a "substantial step" of being included on a piece of paper. If there is any area in the relations of our university with private corporations where we can at least say we have a voice, it is in the area of monitoring the conditions under which the agreements in the contract are followed or violated.

We must do more than make accusations and be bleeding hearts for underpaid, abused workers overseas. We must be conscious that many aspects of our lives are co-opted by market forces and intertwined with the lives of people in faraway places.

This thought is especially important as we go on break and begin shopping this holiday season.

Monitoring is serious business but it is also a game. Keeping up the pressure is our move as consumers and citizens. Making known our expectations about the conduct of industry leaders like Nike is another move.

So if you are considering buying a nice pair of Nikes for yourself or for somebody else this holiday season, think of the hands that labored to make such quality shoes and think about whether the company that employs that person is giving labor its fair due.

Glenda Buya-ao Claborne is an undeclared graduate student and can be reached via e-mail at Glenda.Buya-ao.Claborne

@wildcat.arizona.edu. She invites everyone to join Students Against Sweatshops for a candlelight vigil to remember Human Rights Day at 8 p.m. Thursday on the UA Mall.