Still Waiting For Nike

The research I have done about Nike’s labor practices was very interesting. I looked up responses of Nike to accuses on them on the internet. I found a couple of publications at www.Nikebiz.com. After I read them, I realized that Nike proclaims the same thing in an exaggerated style in every single one of them. For example in a Nike statement regarding the working conditions in El Salvador, Nike says that their constant goal always used to be to improve the safety at the working place and the indoor air quality and they proclaim that they are spending $19 million for community services in the whole world. This all sounds very nice and responsible but when you start to read other Nike statements regarding the working conditions in China or Vietnam,
Nike produces only in third world countries because the wages they have to pay the workers, are much lower and they do not have to consider as many working-regulations as in industrialized countries. The whole book is an attack against Nike. I do not know if everything Tim Connor writes is the truth, but his information is based on research carried out by different people. So I believe a lot of his statements are credible. So after comparing the statements of Nike and Connor and other critics of Nike, the passage I quoted from Nike only seems pathetic to
Nike’s aim is to produce cheap and sell comparatively expensive. Kernaghan, for example, calculates, that the labor cost of shirts, which Nike sells in the US for $22.99, was 11 cents. Although Nike makes so much profit on their products, the workers are absolutely underpaid and overworked. Workers must work excessive overtime to get enough money to have any chance to make ends need. Work is reported to be very hard and several workers suffer from physical exhaustion because of the hard and intolerable working conditions. Workers are even punished for mistakes they make. They have to clean the factory for example. Nike manager Vada says that raising wages would hurt the workers, because Nike would have to increase the retail costs which would reduce the amount of items sold. This would lead to worker layoffs. Personally, I do not think that Nike would have to increase the retail costs if they paid the workers 22 cents instead of 11 cents. Nike would still make a handsome profit. Even if they increased the price of a shirt by 11 cents, customers would still buy