Did filmmaker Michael Moore make them do it? Heated criticism of Nike and its overseas labor practices came to a booming crescendo last month when the agit-prop comedian debuted his film The Big One, portraying Nike CEO Phil Knight as the chieftain of corporate greed and doublespeak. Last week Knight seemed to have gotten the message. Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club on May 12, Knight sarcastically called himself "the Great Satan," then proceeded to make news. He promised to allow independent monitoring of Nike's overseas shoe factories and to ensure that they meet U.S. health and safety standards. According to Nike spokesman Vada Manager, the company's decision had little to do with Moore and the bevy of Nike critics that includes college students and activists, New York Times editorialists, women's groups and Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Activists such as Medea Benjamin beg to differ. They take credit for changing Nike's position. Benjamin, executive director of Global Exchange, points to a specific private meeting earlier this year when Nike's stance changed from defensive to receptive. Benjamin is perfectly positioned to note a Nike attitude adjustment. Global Exchange, a nonprofit group that has coordinated anti-Nike actions at universities nationwide, has been badgering the company for the last two years to promote independent studies of its factory wages. Benjamin has been on the receiving end of Nike's swift rebuttals. In July 1996, when Benjamin brought Indonesian Nike factory worker Cicih Sukaisih to Portland, Phil Knight refused to meet with her ("Just Organize," WW, July 24, 1996). In a curt letter, Knight dismissed Global Exchange's campaign as "mean-spirited," saying, "We prefer to engage in dialogue with groups who are interested in constructive, proactive solutions." When Benjamin and Sukaisih showed up anyway, Nike called the police to remove them from company headquarters. In September '97, at Nike's annual shareholders meeting, Knight called Global Exchange an "extremist organization" and misrepresented its members as radical Marxists ("Seeing Reds," WW, Oct. 1, 1997). Now, rather than sicking the cops on Benjamin, Knight is sending company officials to meet with her. In January, Nike hired Maria Eitel to fill the newly created position of vice president for corporate and social responsibility. Global Exchange immediately put in a call to Eitel requesting a meeting. To the group's surprise, Eitel quickly called back and agreed to sit down with them. Still, Benjamin remained skeptical. Global Exchange had been burned before in meetings with Nike brass. "It was a lot of fast talk and there was never any follow-up," Benjamin says. Eitel's stints as a PR person for Microsoft and the Bush White House also led the activists to believe they were in for another high-power spin job. At first, Benjamin says, it seemed as if that's exactly what they were getting when Eitel showed up at Global Exchange's offices in San Francisco's Mission District on Feb. 12. Kim Miyoshi, Global Exchange's director of the Nike campaign, says the meeting started badly. Eitel came in on the offensive, saying Global Exchange was only interested in trashing Nike and would never be satisfied with anything Nike did. Responding to Global Exchange's accusations about low wages, she said, "Well, that's not what Nike told me." Benjamin says she told Eitel that toeing the corporate line wasn't going to get them anywhere. As the meeting progressed, Miyoshi says, Eitel changed her tone, taking the group's criticisms to heart. "She actually listened," Benjamin says. "This is the first time someone from Nike actually listened." Global Exchange outlined specific concerns about independent monitoring, wages and toxic glues, Benjamin says. Last week, Nike promised to take action on two of the three. Eitel, Benjamin says, had the "unenviable job of convincing Knight to use human rights and labor groups as independent monitors." Eitel did not return Willamette Week's calls. Manager scoffs at the idea that Eitel came back from San Francisco and told Knight what to do, but he acknowledges that for the first time a companywide effort to address the labor issue was put into play, and that Eitel coordinated the effort. Manager also acknowledges that something has changed at Nike. He said the company has been in "introspection" mode for the last several months and called Nike a company "in transition." "Like it or not," he says, "a mantel has been thrust on Nike. We had to accept that our position is broader than just making shoes. Everyone looks to what Nike has to say on this issue [overseas factory labor]." Still, Nike would rather downplay the effectiveness of activists, who claim that their campaign has hurt Nike's sales. The company says its sluggish sales have little to do with the controversy about its labor practices. Manager notes that in 1992 Nike was the first athletic footwear company to institute a code of conduct for its factories. He says Knight's six-point proposal had been in the works for months. Appearing on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer the day after his National Press Club speech, Knight conceded that "criticism has probably sped up some of our efforts." Like its labor policy, Nike's effort to change that policy has now become the centerpiece of an ideological debate. Activists at Global Exchange want the public to believe that their campaign is responsible for making Nike question its behavior--the ultimate message being that activism can change corporate policy. "They were out there hanging," says Benjamin. "They were in trouble with their stock price and sales. Logically, a company that's in trouble has to pull itself up. They had to answer to board members, and board members were probably asking about all the criticism of the company's labor practices." "Let's just say Knight knew he needed to make a high-profile announcement," says Jeff Ballinger, longtime Nike critic and director of Press for Change, a labor rights group based in New York. "We're very pleased." Knight's six-point proposal made no mention of the key issue--wages. Activists are pushing for a living wage of $3 a day; wages in Indonesia are currently about $.90 a day, according to Global Exchange. The day after Knight made his announcement in D.C., he returned
to Portland, where he was interviewed via satellite from Oregon Public Broadcasting for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Sources at OPB say Knight caused a minor flap by parking his black Acura NSX in a space reserved for disabled drivers. |
