Nike President Angry at University's Support of Workers' Rights Consortium

Nike President and CEO Philip H. Knight is taking his toys, and his wallet, and heading home in a huff.

In a statement, Knight said he received a shock on April 14 when he found out that the University of Oregon had joined the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an anti-sweatshop plan developed by students, unions, and human rights groups. Knight, an alumnus of the University of Oregon who has made generous contributions both personally and corporately to the university, says that while Nike will honor its contractual commitment, he will give "no further donations of any kind" to the university.

"I personally have given $50 million to the University of Oregon -- $30 million for academics, and $20 million for athletics," says Knight. "At this time, this is not a situation that can be resolved. The bonds of trust, which allowed me to give at a high level, have been shredded."

He points out that Nike, which, along with other companies and their practices at overseas manufacturing facilities, has been targeted by the WRC, "is the source of any dollars I am able to give."

He says that to accept the University of Oregon's endorsement of the WRC "would be to place my company, our employees, our university-related manufacturers and their employees in unknown hands under undefined monitoring that has no protocols, no credibility, no role for the companies whose businesses are being monitoring, and no independence. It would be a sell out of my company, my fellow employees and the progress we have worked so hard to make in our factories both here and abroad. I am simply not able to do that."

Nike announced earlier this year that it would break its endorsement contract with Brown University over Brown's strong stand on worker rights. In a letter to the university, Nike said it would not comply with the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC). Some 34 universities and colleges have joined WRC.

Student protests to bring universities into the WRC have intensified across the country, with sit-ins staged at the University of Oregon, University of Kentucky, University of Iowa, and Tulane. There were also protests ranging from hunger strikes to sleep-outs staged at Purdue University, the University of Rochester, and Yale University.

Eleven Kentucky students were arrested for occupying the university president's office as 75 supporters held a candlelight vigil outside. The students were charged with trespassing. Five Oregon students, including the student president and vice president, were arrested on April 6 after they brought anti-sweatshop demands to the university president and refused to leave until he addressed them.

"Nike. Our library is named the Phil Knight Library, and our new law school is named after Phil Knight's father. Needless to say, we are suffocating," said one Oregon student.

Knight says that while Nike did not invent the global economy, the company is determined to be a leader and to show its good citizenship. "We are very, very serious about providing good factory working conditions and continuously improving the work experience for all 500,000 people who make Nike products," says Knight. "We also have been consistent in calling for one strong external code and one monitoring system for the entire industry that puts us all on a level playing field."

Knight says he supports President Bill Clinton's and the Department of Labor's Fair Labor Association (FLA), which represents a coalition of human, consumer, and labor rights groups, industry, and universities, although he admits the FLA "is taking too long to get active."

Whether or not the FLA becomes a force in industry, Knight says his company is committed to having the best monitoring and remediation process possible, "and to be open." He said he directed Nike's labor practices department to begin a program to publish the results of all PricewaterhouseCoopers factory monitoring visits on Nike's Web site beginning in May, "warts and all," adding, "We have nothing to hide."

Knowing that the issue of sweatshops was important to students, Nike invited them to become factory monitors. The company plans to release the student monitors' reports on 32 of its college licensed apparel manufacturers today.

Saying that some critics had called his company "evil", Knight points to improvements the company has made to protect its workers. Among them:

• Increased minimum age requirements for footwear workers to an industry-high 18 years of age.
  
• Increased wages for Indonesian footwear workers by more than 70%.
  
• Established community-based micro-loan programs and on-site, after-hours continuing education for footwear factory workers.
  
• Significantly improved indoor air quality in footwear factories consistent with OSHA guidelines.
  
• Disclosed the U.S. and global locations of the 45 factories that produce collegiate licensed apparel.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the WRC proposals, according to Knight, is that according to WRC rules, no company can participate in setting standards for the workplace or monitoring its own facilities. He says the rules have an unrealistic living wage provision, and complains that it has a "gotcha" approach to monitoring that "doesn't do what good monitoring should -- measure conditions and make improvements."

Knight suggests that if the university was so concerned with workers' rights, then University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer should sign a pledge that all contractors and sub-contractors of the University of Oregon as well as the university itself meet the WRC's "living wage" provision.

"No university, including the University of Oregon, can meet the WRC living wage and other code standards for food service employees, grounds keepers, clerical personnel, or teaching assistants," insisted Knight.

Knight is obviously pained by the decision of the University of Oregon to join the WRC and seems to perceive the choice as a betrayal.

"My history with the University of Oregon goes back a long way," he says. "My father graduated from the University in 1934. From the time I was 14 years old it was the only college for me. The late Bill Bowerman, my mentor and co-founder of Nike, was a graduate as well as track coach there for 24 years. There is a strong emotional attachment for me with the university."

By Sandy Smith