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Letter from China Labor Watch to
Shoe Companies
By Li Qiang, China Labor Watch
October 25, 2002
Dear friends,
China's workers need your help. Please write to Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance.
We hope Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance will improve Chinese workers living and working conditions so that the workers can have a decent and secure life. Our requirement is for these suppliers to abide by Chinese laws. Please support our requests to Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance. See our report on shoes made in China.
Please a send or fax the following letter to Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance.
Sincerely,
Li Qiang
Executive Director, China Labor Watch
Date:
Phil Knight
CEO and Chairman of Nike
Fax: (503) 671- 6300,
Dear Mr: Phil Knight,
I have recently read the report on factories producing for Nike in China by China Labor Watch (CLW). I am writing to express the wish that you will encourage these factories to respect all China’s labor laws and that you can find time to provide answers to the following issues raised in the report:
- Why have more than 12 workers committed suicide at the YuYuan factory (YY) plant in Dongguan since 1994?
- Why has Nike insisted that only media interviews arranged by itself may conduct interviews at shoe factories producing for your corporation?
- Nike has a Code of Conduct. Why do factories subcontracted by Nike still fail to observe the standards in the code? Why has the code not been fully implemented?
- Why are the workers’ wages still below the legal minimum set by the Chinese authorities? Why are they under thirty three US cents an hour?
- Why are union officials at the factories not elected by the workers? Why do the trade unions fail to represent the interests of the workers?
- Why do the factories fail to observe legal limits on working hours which are set at forty hours a week by China's national labor law?
- Why do workers not have pensions? They are left with nothing after they leave or lose their jobs.
- Why does the factory only employ women workers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five?
- Why does the factory have video monitors filming employees at work?
- Why have some workers been unable to return home for over six years?
- Why do factory managers sexually harass women workers?
- Why does the factory discriminate against women workers?
- The factories employ human rights managers. Why does the factory deduct workers wages as part of its “human rights management?”
- Why do some workshops at the factories still use toxic glue in the production process?
We hope that Nike will fulfil its responsibility to answer or explain the above issues and that in future Nike will provide humane, dignified working and living conditions for Chinese workers in your employ.
Yours sincerely,
CC: China Labor Watch (qiang@chinalaborwatch.org)
CC: Fax: (503) 671- 6300,Vada Manager, public relations representative for Nike on labor issues
Date:
Mr. Steve Winn
Adidas
9605 S.W. Nimbus Ave.
Beaverton, OR 97008
Phone: 800-289-2724
Fax: 503-972-2450
Dear Mr. Steve Winn:
I have recently read the report on
factories producing for Adidas in China by China
Labor Watch (CLW). I am writing to express the wish that you will encourage
these factories to respect all China’s labor laws and that you can find time to
provide answers to the following issues raised in the report:
1. Why have more than 12 workers committed suicide at the YuYuan factory (YY) plant in Dongguan since 1994.
2. Why do factories revealed in the media as having poor working conditions have their orders reduced or cancelled by Adidas as punishment? These measures simply lead to workers being made unemployed.
3. Adidas has a Code of Conduct. Why do factories subcontracted by Adidas still fail to observe the standards in the code? Why has the code not been fully implemented?
4. Why are the workers’ wages still below the legal minimum set by the Chinese authorities? Why are they under thirty three US cents an hour?
5. Why are union officials at the factories not elected by the workers? Why do the trade unions fail to represent the interests of the workers?
6. Why do the factories fail to observe legal limits on working hours which are set at forty hours a week by China's national labor law?
7.Why do workers not have pensions? They are left with nothing after they leave or lose their jobs.
8. Why does the factory only employ women workers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five?
9. Why does the factory have video monitors filming employees at work?
10. Why have some workers been unable to return home for over six years?
11. Why do factory managers sexually harass women workers?
12. Why does the factory discriminate against women workers?
13. The factories employ human rights managers. Why does the factory deduct workers wages as part of its “human rights management?”
14. Why do some workshops at the factories still use toxic glue in the production process?
We hope that Adidas will fulfil its responsibility to answer or explain the above issues and that in future Adidas will provide humane, dignified working and living conditions for Chinese workers in your employ.
Yours sincerely,
CC: China Labor
Watch(qiang@chinalaborwatch.org)
Date:
Doug Cahn Vice President, Human Rights
Programs
1895 J.W. Foster Blvd., Canton, MA 02021, U.S.A.
Phone: +(1-781) 401-4910
Fax: +(1-781) 401-4806
Email: doug.cahn@reebok.com
Dear Mr. Doug Cahn:
I have recently read the report on factories producing for Reebok in China by China Labor Watch (CLW). I am writing to express the wish that you will encourage these factories to respect all China’s labor laws and that you can find time to provide answers to the following issues raised in the report:
1. Why have more than 12 workers committed suicide at the YuYuan factory (YY) plant in Dongguan since 1994.
2. Reebok has a Code of Conduct. Why do factories subcontracted by Reebok still fail to observe the standards in the code? Why has the code not been fully implemented?
3. Why are the workers’ wages still below the legal minimum set by the Chinese authorities? Why are they under thirty three US cents an hour?
4. Why are union officials at the factories not elected by the workers? Why do the trade unions fail to represent the interests of the workers?
5. Why do the factories fail to observe legal limits on working hours which are set at forty hours a week by China's national labor law?
6. Why do workers not have pensions? They are left with nothing after they leave or lose their jobs.
7. Why does the factory only employ women workers between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five?
8. Why does the factory have video monitors filming employees at work?
9. Why have some workers been unable to return home for over six years?
10. Why do factory managers sexually harass women workers?
11. Why does the factory discriminate against women workers?
12. The factories employ human rights managers. Why does the factory deduct workers wages as part of its “human rights management?”
13. Why do some workshops at the factories still use toxic glue in the production process?
We hope that Reebok will fulfil its responsibility to answer or explain the above issues and that in future Reebok will provide humane, dignified working and living conditions for Chinese workers in your employ.
Yours sincerely,
CC: China Labor
Watch (qiang@chinalaborwatch.org)
You may also write to the following organizations to further assist this cause:
George
W. Bush
President of United States
The White House
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
Colin
Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
E-mail: secretary@state.gov
ILO Regional Office for Asia & the
Pacific in Bangkok (ASIE)
Phone: +(66-2) 288-1710
Fax: +(66-2) 288-3062
bangkok@ilo.org
Lorne W. Craner
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
U.S. Department of State
Fax: +(1-202) 647-5283
Jorge Perez Lopez
Acting Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs
U.S. Department of Labor
Fax: +(1-202) 693-4780