Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Nike -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Adam Nash who wrote (2290)	2/5/1999 11:08:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2403

Nike lawsuit thrown out Company says suit alleging it lied about sweatshop conditions is dismissed February 5, 1999: 7:37 p.m. ET SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nike Inc. scored a legal victory Friday when a San Francisco judge threw out a lawsuit claiming the athletic gear giant lied about "sweatshop'' conditions at its Asian factories. Superior Court Judge David Garcia found no legal basis for charges that Nike had violated California law by willfully misleading the state's consumers about working conditions for the thousands of Vietnamese, Chinese and Indonesian laborers who make the footwear with its distinctive "Swoosh'' logo. "The court ruled in our favor, saying that the complaint as written did not state a legal cause against Nike or the individuals named in it, and hence the case was meritless,'' David Brown, a lawyer representing Nike, said. "Their multiple pages of allegations don't amount to a legal claim that we recognize.'' Alan Caplan, one of a group of San Francisco lawyers who filed the civil case in April, said the judge's ruling was a blow but that the fight against Nike would go on. The original suit demanded that Nike turn over any profits made in violation of unfair business practice laws and undertake a "corrective'' advertising campaign to explain how its shoes are produced. "We're really disappointed,'' Caplan told Reuters. "We don't understand the rational for dismissing it. We intend to appeal.'' The lawsuit was one of a series of attacks on Nike for conditions at Asian factories subcontracted to produce most of its shoes, where most workers are women aged 18-24. Critics say that, contrary to assurances by Nike, these ''sweatshop'' workers are regularly subject to physical punishment and sexual abuse, as well as exposed to dangerous chemicals, forced to work involuntary overtime, and are often unable to earn a "living wage'' despite workdays that can be 14 hours long. Nike has repeatedly and heatedly denied charges that it implicitly condones worker maltreatment, and in 1992 published a "Code of Conduct'' which the company said was intended to ensure that specific guidelines on pay and working conditions are followed at all Nike factories. Nike President and CEO Philip Knight said Friday that the dismissal of the San Francisco lawsuit would help the company to redirect resources toward "its initiatives for continuously improving factory working conditions around the world.'' He went on to enumerate a series of new policies Nike has instituted over the past year since the suit was filed. Among these are a new requirement that all workers at Asian footwear factories now be at least 18 years old, and orders to substitute safer, water-based adhesives in the manufacturing process in an effort to improve indoor factory air quality. Entry level workers at Nike's Indonesian factories have also had their wages boosted by 40 percent, Knight said. Jim Carter, Nike's general counsel in the Americas, said Knight's list of improved labor conditions should not be read as an admission that previous standards had been poor. "I think its a recognition that Nike is committed to improving the conditions that exist there now,'' Carter told a telephone news conference.