I hope that this email finds you well and enjoying the Holiday Season.
It has been ten years since I first started advocating on behalf of workers that produce Nike's products in sweatshop conditions. Over the years, Nike has made claims that there has been significant progress and that consumers should feel good about how Nike's products are made.
Should we take their word for it? Shouldn't we get the facts for ourselves?
As I did in 2000, 2001, and 2002, I want to get the facts firsthand, and then come home and share them with you, the American consumers. I am going to need your support to make this happen.
The research and filming that I have planned for 2008 will cost $11,000. To date I have received over $5,000 from supporters like you.
This research trip can only happen with your supoort. Your gift, no matter the size, will get me closer to the $11,000 goal.
To donate online, please visit:
www.educatingforjustice.org/donate.htm
If you would like to donate by check, please make your check payable to Educating for Justice and mail it to:
Educating for Justice 601 Bangs Avenue, Ste. 601 Asbury Park, NJ 07712
I have included my research proposal with this mailing to give you a more complete idea of the work I will do in Indonesia. I have also included the proposed budget so you will know how your donation will be utilized.
Thank you in advance for your continued support. And again, Happy Holidays and have a great New Year!
Peace,
Jim Keady Director, Educating for Justice
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
QUESTION: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED FOR NIKE'S WORKERS? LOCATION: TANGERANG, INDONESIA RESEARCHER: JIM KEADY, DIRECTOR, EDUCATING FOR JUSTICE
PROPOSED RESEARCH While Nike has spent millions on their "monitoring" and "social responsibility" efforts, has anything truly changed for the people who produce their products in places like Tangerang, Indonesia?
Jim Keady wants to find out.
In 2000, Keady, and fellow Educating for Justice Director, Leslie Kretzu, utilized unique methods to document that the people producing Nike's products in Indonesia were truly laboring under sweatshop conditions.
"They slept on thin mats placed atop a concrete floor and woke up hungry in the savage heat of the Indonesian summer. They ate rice, vegetables and noodles painstakingly cooked atop the same kerosene heater they used to boil drinking water. They dealt with football-sized rats as fumes from burning trash mixed in the open air with the scent of the village's open sewer system. Funny thing is, this is the life St. Joseph's University graduates Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu chose for themselves this past summer.
The St. Joe's grads had a motive for spending their summer in such distress: to give the Nike sweatshop issue a human face." (Philadelphia Weekly, November 1, 2000)
Keady and Kretzu conducted additional research in 2001 and 2002. They have also spent the past seven years, lecturing on more than 300 campuses across the United States, sharing the facts with students about Nike's operations in Indonesia.
This year, Keady will return to Indonesia to answer the following questions:
1. Has Nike cleaned up their environmental abuses (ex. the dumping and burning of scrap shoe rubber) in and around Tangerang?
2. Has Nike eliminated the practice of union-busting in the plants where their products are produced?
3. Have wages for the people producing Nike's products risen to level that allows these men and women to meet their basic living needs?
4. Has the practice of forcing women to prove they are menstruating to get a legally guaranteed day off been eliminated in the plants where Nike's products are produced?
5. If any changes have occurred, can they be attributed to the cross-border activism undertaken by Educating for Justice and their colleagues in Indonesia?
This research trip will also be used to shoot footage for the final act of EFJ's feature length documentary, SWEAT.
BUDGET
Airfare and Hotel 3,000.00 Translators 1,200.00 Field Producer 1,000.00 Cameraperson 2,400.00 Driver 900.00 Meals - Staff 300.00 Meals – Workers 600.00 Tape Stock 440.00
SUBTOTAL 9,840.00 10% Contingency 984.00 TOTAL 10,824.00