I did a search on Google (www.google.com) on "Vietnam sweatshop" and got 1,173 hits. All of these sites deal with sweatshops in all countries, not just Vietnam and China.
Here's the "Boycott Nike" page:
http://www.jps.net/dcasner/SFSANikeChronology.html
And while we're on the subject, here's stuff from the National Labor Committee on China:
http://www.nlcnet.org/China/contents.htm
http://www.nlcnet.org/China/app/app7.htm
And finally here's the infamous story about the Nike plant:
http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/corner/worldnews/other/other30.html
VIETNAM: Nike Abuses Vietnamese Women on Women's Day
Originally posted in IGC member conference: women.labr Date: March 23, 1997 Posted by: clr2 at igc.apc.org
/* Written 3:57 AM Mar 23, 1997 by clr2 at igc.apc.org in women.labr */ /* ---------- "Nike campaign: new developments" ---------- */
Labor Alerts a service of Campaign for Labor Rights
UPDATE ON THE NIKE CAMPAIGN
Nike Abuses Vietnamese Women on Women's Day:
Just returned from a fact-finding delegation, a Vietnam Labor Watch representative reports the following story concerning Nike's operations in Vietnam. A member of the delegation, Thuyen Nguyen, verified this incident by interviewing witnesses from the factory:
The Pouchen factory in Dong Nai has production contracts with Nike and other shoe companies. Recently, a Taiwanese supervisor forced 56 female workers to run twice around the two-km (1.2-mile) factory perimeter as punishment for failing to wear regulation company workshoes. Twelve of the women suffered shock symptoms, fainted and were hospitalized -- one of them still unconscious. All 12 spent the day in the hospital.
This incident took place on March 8th, International Women's Day, a major holiday in Vietnam when Vietnam honors its women and many Vietnamese companies give gifts to their women workers. Nguyen noted that Nike factory managers all knew that there were Americans currently in Vietnam to investigate abuse in their factories, and even so they allowed this incident to occur. "Just imagine what happens under normal conditions," said Nguyen. "It is clear that under the current system Nike cannot control its contractors in Vietnam."
While the Vietnam Labor Watch delegation was in the country, there also were two strikes at Nike facilities in Cu Chi. These disputes concerned issues of overtime pay, arbitrarily firing of employees and firing of employees without the presence of a union representative. During Nguyen's stay in Vietnam, the Worker newspaper published several articles about those strikes and one about another Nike factory (Sam Yang) with a history of labor abuses. The latter story concluded that Sam Yang still has several problems with its labor practices, including wages, overtime and treatment of employees.
During his stay in Vietnam, Nguyen interviewed 35 Nike workers and 25 Reebok workers with the help of Vietnamese officials. Since the Nike workers were too fearful of retaliation to talk while inside factory confines, Nguyen waited outside the gates and conducted interviews there. He received help from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, local confederations of labor, local unions at the factories and reporters. Everyone he encountered was upset about abuses at Nike factories and went out of their way to help.
Labor union officials in Vietnam said that they were urging criminal charges against the Taiwanese supervisor at the Pouchen Nike shoe factory. Vietnam has accused foreign factory managers of worker abuse on several occasions. A Korean woman manager was given a three-month suspended jail term last year for hitting Vietnamese workers on the head with a shoe.
. . .
Coming Up:
UCLA protests: The UCLA Vietnamese Student Union's Advocacy Committee is preparing for a multi-event Boycott Nike Campaign to take place during the first and second weeks of April. There are approximately 1200 Vietnamese students at UCLA.
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