(Fwd) Shoe factory wage dispute resolved, Nike says

["Curtis Price" <cansv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Sat, 26 Apr 1997 23:43:15 -0700
From:          NewsHound <speak@xxxxxxxxx>

Reply-to:      speak@xxxxxxxxx
Subject:       Shoe factory wage dispute resolved, Nike says



Here is your NewsHound news article from your "STRIKES" hound with a score "76."  For more information, visit the NewsHound website at http://www.newshound.com or send an email to speak@xxxxxxxxxx


Posted at 10:01 p.m. PDT Saturday, April 26, 1997
------------------------------------------------------------

Shoe factory wage dispute resolved, Nike says

By Ali Kotarumalos
Associated Press Writer


JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A wage dispute at a factory that makes Nike
shoes was resolved Saturday, with employees winning a 10.7 percent pay
increase, a Nike spokesman said.

In demonstrations on Friday, >>workers<< burned cars and ransacked the
factory's offices, saying the company wasn't paying them a $2.50 a day
minimum wage. The factory was closed for the weekend while officials met
with union representatives. Nike was monitoring the talks but was not
involved in the negotiations.

Almost half the factory's 10,000 employees took part in the demonstration
at Tangerang, an industrial town outside Jakarta, according to Indonesian
media.

It was the second protest in a week against PT Hardaya Aneka Shoe Industry,
which owns the factory that makes shoes under contract for Nike Inc., based
in Portland, Ore.

There was no immediate confirmation from Indonesia that the dispute had
been resolved.

Nike spokesman Jim Small, speaking Saturday night from Miami, said the
settlement was a relief, but raised concerns.

Small said wages in Indonesia have increased threefold in the last two
years and ``there's concern what that does to the market -- whether or not
Indonesia could be reaching a point where it's pricing itself out of the
market,'' Small said.

He said the new salary figures would vary depending on each >>worker<<'s
pay scale, and did not have precise figures on what people would earn.

Nike will not pay more to contract with the factory as a result of the
increased wages, Small said.

>>Workers<< are expected to be back on the job Monday.

Two women were hospitalized after police broke up the Friday melee, in
which protesters burned two cars and smashed windows, doors and furniture
at the factory, according to the Republika newspaper. Several police
officers and soldiers suffered minor injuries. No arrests were reported.

The >>workers<< complained the company was failing to pay a
government-decreed minimum wage of $2.50 a day that took effect April 1.

``They are ignoring the rights of the >>workers<< to get a decent salary,''
said Jusuf Makatita, a local labor activist.

Small, however, denied that, saying strikers already were making more than
the minimum wage and had been upset because they expected a larger pay
raise than they were initially given. He said the >>workers<< had expected
at 10.7 percent increase but in an agreement earlier in the week had
received only 7.25 percent. Saturday's agreement gave them the pay raise
they had been seeking, Small said.

He said that >>workers<< would be paid for the three days the factory is
shut down.

On Tuesday, 13,000 >>workers<< from the same factory and other neighboring
shoe and apparel plants held a 6-mile-long protest march to demand higher
wages.

Indonesia, which allows only one government-controlled labor union, has
been accused of holding down wages to attract foreign investment.
Independent labor organizers have been arrested, beaten and sometimes
killed.

The government acknowledges that its minimum wage is sufficient to pay only
about 90 percent of the living expenses of a single person.

Nike and its competitor Reebok have denied accusations that they pay
Indonesian >>workers<< too little and tolerate poor working conditions and
other abuses at Indonesian factories run by contractors.

Both companies have taken foreign reporters on tours of their factories,
which appeared clean and orderly. Nike refused to let the U.S. civil rights
leader Jesse Jackson visit a factory in another town near Jakarta last
July.

In southern Vietnam on Friday, about 3,000 >>workers<< unhappy with their
contract staged a one-day walkout at a Nike factory in one of the largest
>>strikes<< in the country's recent history. It was the second >>strike<<
at the Sam Yang factory in less than a month.

There was no apparent connection between the rampage in Indonesia and the
>>strike<< in Vietnam.



------------------------------------------------------------
NewsHound is a service of Knight-Ridder, Inc.
For more information, write to: speak@xxxxxxxxx

This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission
of the originating newspaper or wire service.
------------------------------------------------------------
+



     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---