Richard Read, Tangerang – Shoe factory worker Dominguez Pirida strained Wednesday to comprehend workplace improvements pledged by Nike Chairman Phil Knight, a man whom he'd vaguely heard of half a world away. Better air quality inside plants sounded good. Improved independent monitoring of Nike's contract factories seemed fine. But high school classes, small-business loans, university research and increased minimum ages of workers seemed hardly relevant to Pirida's main desires: better pay, honest supervisors and decent restrooms.
"What can you expect from something grand like this from Nike?" Pirida said. "Factory managers lie so often, I don't think I can trust it." Master marketer Nike Inc. faces a tough sales job for its factory-improvement program, judging by skeptical reactions Wednesday from Indonesian workers who make sneakers for the Beaverton company.
Workers in Tangerang, a gritty factory town outside Jakarta, are traumatized by massive layoffs, skyrocketing prices and protests, riots and killings sweeping Indonesia. The Southeast Asian nation, which until recently enjoyed rapid economic growth, is the worst victim of the Asian monetary crisis that began last summer. Soldiers and police shot to death six people Tuesday amid demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Suharto, a 76-year-old dictator whose family members control much of the economy through lucrative monopolies.
Knight's promises, made Tuesday at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, D.C., strike many Indonesians as far-fetched and remote as this nation veers toward insolvency and revolution. The lukewarm reception also points up wide cultural gaps between East and West and the extent to which even the most well-meaning attempts to help can fall flat in translation.
"I don't really know what to think of Phil Knight," said Pirida, a seven-year factory veteran who supports a wife and child. "Even during Nike's heyday, the wage increases were meager."
Nike, the world's largest athletic footwear and apparel company, posted $9.1 billion in sales last year. But demand has slowed for its products, and stock prices have dropped, resulting in layoffs of 1,600 Nike employees. That does not include the workers who have lost their jobs at factories operated by contractors.
Nike has been dogged by continued reports of abusive conditions in the independently owned Asian factories where many of its products are made. Critics have protested low wages, long hours and working conditions they say are inhumane.
Workers at P.T. Hasi, a sprawling South Korean-Indonesian footwear plant that until recently employed 12,000 people in Tangerang, say they're tired of strikes, wage disputes and uncertainty about what they see as a declining industry. Many are ready to quit the factory, which is running at less than 70 percent of capacity with 8,500 workers. To Indonesian labor activists, Knight's initiatives appear convenient for Nike as its work force shrinks worldwide. They say the package seems crafted to appeal more to Westerners than to workers.
Activists react cautiously
Activists in Jakarta reacted cautiously compared with longtime Nike critics in the United States, who praised Knight's programs. "Saying and doing are two different things, so we will wait for the realization of these plans," said Indera Nababan, who heads Urban Community Mission, an Indonesian labor activist group.
Some lack of enthusiasm in Indonesia might result from the inability of many workers to grasp the full meaning of Knight's plan. Nike launched an elaborate factory training program to explain its Code of Conduct, a set of standards governing working conditions and compensation. Knight's new initiatives also will need full explanation before workers and managers can understand their implications.
Yet some workers welcome Nike's package. Despite deep distrust of factory managers, they said they were ready to give the sneaker giant the benefit of the doubt. "It sounds great, but it still depends whether the factory will really implement it," said Yunianti, a 24-year-old woman who has worked at Hasi for five years.
Yunianti, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, prepares Nike outsoles for attachment to midsoles. She earns about $24 a month at current exchange rates. Since Indonesia's rupiah has lost much of its value against the dollar recently because of Asia's economic turmoil, wages at the shoe factories have fallen in dollar terms. More important to workers, prices have surged, reducing their buying power.
Yunianti said most workers at Hasi had completed secondary school and were older than 18, meaning that high school equivalency classes and an increased minimum age would mean little. Fumes haven't bothered her since the factory provided proper masks two months ago, so improved air-quality standards don't strike her as important.
Worker dreams of moving on
Yunianti dreams of quitting the factory, marrying and living in a house, instead of the leaky 10-foot-square room she shares with two other workers. But she doubts she could pay back a loan of the sort Nike plans to offer women who start small businesses. "I would like the company to provide drinks in the factory and also bathrooms with running water," Yunianti said. "There's always a long line for the bathroom."
Knight didn't mention restrooms in his Press Club talk. But another worker, Amin Chaerudin, 23, also listed toilets far above air quality and hazardous solvents as concerns to address.
Other workers have a simple request for Knight, one he might have particular trouble fulfilling as demand slows for Nike shoes. "Tell him we don't need rules and regulations, we need as many orders as possible for shoes," said Endang, 22, a three-year Hasi worker. She misses the overtime pay she earned during Nike's boom times. Hasi joined other Nike contract factories in boosting wages April 1, adding an emergency increase of about $3 to monthly pay in response to Indonesia's recent price boosts. But prices are rising so fast in the country – fuel just jumped 70 percent – that they dwarf the pay increase.
Pirida, the seven-year worker, doesn't plan to wait around for Nike's improvements. With a 4-year-old daughter, the middle-school dropout figures it's too late for free classes and other programs. Factory work wasn't Pirida's idea in the first place. A foundation sponsored by Suharto's eldest daughter, Tutut, lured him from East Timor to Tangerang with the promise of a university education, only to place him in Hasi.
Pirida's wife, Maria Yasinta, glued midsoles in the plant until four years ago, when she fell ill for three months after fumes made her dizzy. He pressed molds until squashing his left thumb. He now loads trucks at the plant.
The couple plan soon to leave their 9-by-12-foot apartment, take their daughter, Kristina, and travel three days and three nights to East Timor. There they will settle in Balibo, the remote village of less then 4,000 people that Pirida hasn't seen for seven years. Pirida hopes to use his severance pay to start a business shipping traditional textiles to Jakarta. It's an ambitious undertaking in this shattered economy. "Everything," Pirida said, "has come too late."
[Note that Dominguez Pirida quoted in the beginning was lured from East Timor to Indonesia by a foundation linked to Suharto's daughter Tutut, with a false promise of higher education - Charles Scheiner, ETAN.]