INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY: Sackings dispute hits Nike: Andrea Mandel-Campbell and Edward Alden on conditions at a Mexican factory:
Financial Times, Jan 19, 2001
By EDWARD ALDEN and ANDREA MANDEL-CAMPBELL
Aseries of sackings at a Mexican textile plant that makes clothing for Nike has thrown a spotlight on the US sportswear company's efforts to reassure customers that it does not condone so-called "sweatshop" labour.
Workers at Kukdong International, a Korean-owned company in Mexico's central Puebla state, say they were wrongly sacked after a one- day strike to demand better working conditions and the right to establish an independent union.
With riot police looking on, workers said they were barred from returning to work this week and were forced to sign letters of resignation.
The dispute at the factory comes less than a year after a Nike-sponsored investigation concluded there were no significant labour issues at the plant. A monitoring report in March 2000 by PricewaterhouseCoopers said management at the plant "has established relations with employees that were both flexible and transparent," and "workers felt that they could air their grievances in a fair and effective way".
Nike has established an elaborate programme to monitor its contractors after pressure from US universities, some of which have threatened to stop buying clothing from companies seen to employ sweatshop labour.
Kukdong is one of several contract manufacturers closely monitored by US workers' rights and student organisations since Nike promised to disclose working conditions at its contract plants.
The factory supplies sweatshirts to at least 14 US universities, including the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley.
About 800 of Kukdong's 850 workers went on strike last week and later occupied the plant after five labour leaders were fired, said Mario Nicanor, one of the sacked leaders. They had been trying to organise their own union after complaints of rotten food and physical mistreatment went unchecked by Croc, the current union.
"The union (officials) never wanted to show their faces," said Mr Nicanor. "Whenever we complained about the food or workers being fired they never did anything."
Hoon Park, Kukdong general director, said workers' complaints, which included the serving of meals of rotten meat and worm-ridden rice, have been addressed.
Rene Sanchez Juarez, Croc secretary-general for Puebla, charged that the conflict had been artificially manipulated by the leaders of a rival union, the independent National Workers Union, looking to get a toehold into Kukdong. He denied that workers had been sacked or that there had been any labour or human rights violations.
Mr Park also said that no workers had been sacked, although more than 100 had resigned out of fear of retribution by upstart labour leaders. About 550 of the 850 workers were back on the job, he said. "We are being falsely accused."
Nike said it intended to remain a Kukdong customer and to "facilitate the process of a fair and objective resolution to this dispute". A Nike compliance officer is monitoring the situation and the company will investigate allegations of worker mistreatment once the labour dispute is resolved.
The Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group funded by US universities, is sending an investigation team to the plant, which will arrive on Saturday.
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited