The following is reprinted with permission from The Associated Press. © Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Nike Supervisor Gets 6 Months for Abusing Workers
By Ian Stewart
June 29, 1997Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (AP) -- A floor manager at a Taiwanese-owned factory that makes shoes for Nike was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for physically abusing workers.
The Dong Nai provincial People's Court found Hsu Chin-yun, 27, guilty of mistreating workers at Nike subcontractor Pou Chen Company in Dong Nai, just outside Ho Chi Minh City.
Capitalizing on low labor costs, Nike has five manufacturing plants in Vietnam but has run into a whirlwind of adverse publicity over working conditions.
Hsu's conviction and sentencing came days after former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, hired by Nike to review its labor practices, said he saw no evidence of systemic abuse at the shoe company's factories in Asia. Young acknowledged incidents of abuse such as forced overtime, however.
Hsu was accused of forcing 56 female workers at the Nike plant run laps as punishment for not wearing regulation shoes. She was suspended by Nike in response to a labor rights report by activist Thuyen Nguyen.
At least 12 of the women fainted and were hospitalized, Nguyen said in the report.
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