Friday, August 28, 2009

Don't think I'm gonna let Sub Pop off the hook for doing business with Nike!

Nike has a long history of child and slave labor violations and currently uses sweatshops to manufacture its shoes. Why exactly would a record label like Sub Pop with a history of supporting fairly worthwhile organizations (The Vera Project, Northwest Film Forum, Hollow Earth Radio) want to do business with Nike? Nike under tremendous pressure from activists for decades finally gave in and stopped most of it's child labor practices--and crazy, when it got more ethical, sales went up! But the company still readily uses factories that abuse worker's rights and drastically underpays them, just one example: 20,000 Vietnamese workers in a Nike factory went on strike last year because they were only making $59 a month salaries. The sale of of pair of Nike's Sub Pop shoes can pay a factory worker's salary for 3 months!

What gives Sub Pop? Does the cool factor of having your own tennis shoes outweigh going into business with a corporation that seems to constantly violate worker's rights? Think again.

4 comments:

Holy Moly! said...

nike's improvements to its practices were actually pretty small steps. international watchdog groups like oxfam have noted that they're still lagging way behind, failing to follow up on their promises.

Dan 10Things said...

I'm sure for Nike it's been more about solving a public relations problem--the perception that they have horrible labor practices--rather than an actual desire to provide a fair, safe and non-exploitative workplace.

Derek Jordan said...

that's definitely interesting. I've always found the subject of sweatshops interesting, because although the conditions are inhumane, would the workers have work without the factory and is that $59 a month more than they would earn anywhere else in their community?

Dan 10Things said...

Derek, I would bet it really depends on where the sweatshop is located on whether it's wages are higher than other local jobs or not. It's hard to make a blanket statement about the economics involved and ultimately, I'm not sure that that is very relevant to the conversation. If they pay more than the going rate, does that make deplorable working situations like child labor somehow more acceptable?