Fat shoe contracts built on backs of slave workers
Prep basketball sensation LeBron James signed a $90 million endorsement deal with Nike last week.
Photo by Associated Press
Thirteen-year-old prodigy Freddy Adu, born in Ghana but now an American citizen, signed a $1 million deal with Nike this week.
Photo by Associated Press
Teenage soccer sensation Freddy Adu should know better, having been born in the West African nation of Ghana.
Teenage basketball bonus baby LeBron James should know better, too, being an African-American by birth.
Slavery is wrong.
It doesn't matter whether an individual is "owned" as property or whether an individual is enslaved to another through a job with substandard wages and deplorable working conditions.
Slavery is wrong.
Certainly, Adu, even at the tender age of 13, should know that. Ghana, where he spent the first 7 1/2 years of his life before his family moved to Washington, D.C., is located on what once was known as Africa's Slave Coast.
James, at 18, should know it, too -- if not from stories passed down through the generations, then from reading about it in history books at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.
Slavery is wrong.
Apparently, neither Adu nor James noticed when they recently agreed to lucrative shoe contracts with footwear giant Nike that May had been designated Month of Global Action Against Sweatshops by, among others, Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization.
No. 1 on the 15-year-old organization's hit list: Nike.
Citing documentation that Nike has only marginally improved pay and labor conditions for factory workers in Indonesia, China and Vietnam, where its extensive line of shoes is made, Global Exchange has been soliciting protests at Nike outlets or Nike-selling stores across the country through the end of this month.
Longer, if the mood strikes you.
While Global Exchange hasn't publicly condemned the likes of James, the basketball phenom who last week came to terms with Nike on an estimated $90 million, multiyear shoe contract, or Adu, the soccer prodigy who agreed this week to a $1 million endorsement package, the irony that these black athletes are making fortunes off the stooped backs of workers getting paid between $3 and $4 per day isn't lost on organization officials.
"This is the question I pose to people and that I would pose to the two (athletes) you've mentioned to me: Would you want your sister to work in one of these factories?" says Kevin Danaher, co-founder of Global Exchange. "The answer, of course, is no. Well, if you wouldn't want your sister to work there, then why would you want to benefit from it?"
Danaher's tone grows angry as he furthers his thought.
"I'll tell you what it is," he says. "These people end up blocking their consciousness about where the money is actually coming from."
Following a CBS News report in 1997 that claimed Nike was paying its Southeast Asian work force, most of it female, no more than $2 per day, company chairman Philip Knight promised there would be changes. Pay rates did improve, but only slightly -- to $4 per day in Indonesia and to $3 per day in China and Vietnam.
However, it costs about $2 per day in Vietnam just to purchase basic food items -- rice, beans, fish -- for a family of four.
"After Knight's promises, we sent an investigative team over there (Southeast Asia) to check things out," Danaher says. "What we found is what he promised was pure bullshit. He lied. He was counting on the public to forget about it.
"We haven't."
As documented in a 100-page book Danaher says will soon be released.
"To all of these athletes who sign these million-dollar deals with Nike -- and that includes guys like (golfer) Tiger Woods -- I say think what it's called that you're doing. It's called `branding,' " Danaher explains. "Once that Nike swoosh is your logo, on your hat and shirt and shoes, that's your brand.
"Think of what you're saying to the youth of this country about what you stand for with that brand. Sure, I guess you can rationalize it to yourself because of the money. But, again, it's `whose poor pay and poor working conditions did you make that money off of?' "
For LeBron James, something specific to consider: To cover his $90 million endorsement deal, 1,000 Vietnamese factory workers making $3 per day would have to toil 30,000 days each -- or 82.2 years apiece -- without a day off.
Maybe a grown-up James, 100 years old at that point, could appreciate the fact that slavery hasn't disappeared.
It's only changed skin color. :nooo:
Joe Hawk reviewjournal
Prep basketball sensation LeBron James signed a $90 million endorsement deal with Nike last week.
Photo by Associated Press
Thirteen-year-old prodigy Freddy Adu, born in Ghana but now an American citizen, signed a $1 million deal with Nike this week.
Photo by Associated Press
Teenage soccer sensation Freddy Adu should know better, having been born in the West African nation of Ghana.
Teenage basketball bonus baby LeBron James should know better, too, being an African-American by birth.
Slavery is wrong.
It doesn't matter whether an individual is "owned" as property or whether an individual is enslaved to another through a job with substandard wages and deplorable working conditions.
Slavery is wrong.
Certainly, Adu, even at the tender age of 13, should know that. Ghana, where he spent the first 7 1/2 years of his life before his family moved to Washington, D.C., is located on what once was known as Africa's Slave Coast.
James, at 18, should know it, too -- if not from stories passed down through the generations, then from reading about it in history books at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.
Slavery is wrong.
Apparently, neither Adu nor James noticed when they recently agreed to lucrative shoe contracts with footwear giant Nike that May had been designated Month of Global Action Against Sweatshops by, among others, Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization.
No. 1 on the 15-year-old organization's hit list: Nike.
Citing documentation that Nike has only marginally improved pay and labor conditions for factory workers in Indonesia, China and Vietnam, where its extensive line of shoes is made, Global Exchange has been soliciting protests at Nike outlets or Nike-selling stores across the country through the end of this month.
Longer, if the mood strikes you.
While Global Exchange hasn't publicly condemned the likes of James, the basketball phenom who last week came to terms with Nike on an estimated $90 million, multiyear shoe contract, or Adu, the soccer prodigy who agreed this week to a $1 million endorsement package, the irony that these black athletes are making fortunes off the stooped backs of workers getting paid between $3 and $4 per day isn't lost on organization officials.
"This is the question I pose to people and that I would pose to the two (athletes) you've mentioned to me: Would you want your sister to work in one of these factories?" says Kevin Danaher, co-founder of Global Exchange. "The answer, of course, is no. Well, if you wouldn't want your sister to work there, then why would you want to benefit from it?"
Danaher's tone grows angry as he furthers his thought.
"I'll tell you what it is," he says. "These people end up blocking their consciousness about where the money is actually coming from."
Following a CBS News report in 1997 that claimed Nike was paying its Southeast Asian work force, most of it female, no more than $2 per day, company chairman Philip Knight promised there would be changes. Pay rates did improve, but only slightly -- to $4 per day in Indonesia and to $3 per day in China and Vietnam.
However, it costs about $2 per day in Vietnam just to purchase basic food items -- rice, beans, fish -- for a family of four.
"After Knight's promises, we sent an investigative team over there (Southeast Asia) to check things out," Danaher says. "What we found is what he promised was pure bullshit. He lied. He was counting on the public to forget about it.
"We haven't."
As documented in a 100-page book Danaher says will soon be released.
"To all of these athletes who sign these million-dollar deals with Nike -- and that includes guys like (golfer) Tiger Woods -- I say think what it's called that you're doing. It's called `branding,' " Danaher explains. "Once that Nike swoosh is your logo, on your hat and shirt and shoes, that's your brand.
"Think of what you're saying to the youth of this country about what you stand for with that brand. Sure, I guess you can rationalize it to yourself because of the money. But, again, it's `whose poor pay and poor working conditions did you make that money off of?' "
For LeBron James, something specific to consider: To cover his $90 million endorsement deal, 1,000 Vietnamese factory workers making $3 per day would have to toil 30,000 days each -- or 82.2 years apiece -- without a day off.
Maybe a grown-up James, 100 years old at that point, could appreciate the fact that slavery hasn't disappeared.
It's only changed skin color. :nooo:
Joe Hawk reviewjournal
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