The Nike Nine

Guess what?  Turns out that there is yet another big business with dirty little skeletons in the closet.

Nike says it respects its employees' rights to join a union 'without harassment, interference or retaliation.' But it fired nine workers in Indonesia for doing exactly that.

The 'Nike Nine' formed a union at Nike's Chang Shin shoe factory to negotiate for better wages, better health insurance and the payment of promised bonuses. First management ignored their demands. Then when demonstrations began, the bosses started to intimidate them. Ultimately, they were all fired, and the police were called on the group's leader, Ato.

It's ridiculous for Nike to allow its factories to crush workers' demands for decent pay and conditions. The global sportswear giant made $25.3 billion in revenue last year. It can afford to pay its employees a living wage, even if it has the decency to pay it's taxes.

After they were fired, Ato and the other eight workers set up camp outside the Chang Shin factory gates. They were soon joined by other union members for a peaceful solidarity demonstration. This was met by a heavy and intimidating security presence, including police, Indonesian military, factory security and hired thugs.

This is blatant union-busting. Nike claims it is building a 'more empowered and equitable supply chain' but the reality for its workers on the ground is disempowerment, fear and intimidation.
It's vital that we stand up for the Nike Nine, to show this hypocritical company that the world is watching, and it can no longer build its empire on exploitation.

This sort of behaviour belongs in the history books of the eighteen hundreds (1800), when the Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union.  If you want to you can use the link below to put this over sized business back in its place.  In the mean time, I'm not buying anything from Nike.

Tell Nike: reinstate the 'Nike Nine' with full back pay, and clean up your supply chain so that joining a union is genuinely respected.