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IS NIKE'S SOLE ALL CORPORATE?
By LARRY A. COULTER and DAN R. PAUL
April 15, 1997 TuesdayRegarding the March 28 article on the Nike shoe company and its contractors in Asia:
All Americans should be appalled that one of our companies would conduct business like this. I urge everyone to write their elected officials and let them know that this kind of business is ethically and morally wrong. Evidently, Nike doesn't mind that the people who manufacture its products are not fairly paid or respected in the workplace. When it costs Nike about $2 for a pair of shoes and they retail them in the United States for up to $170, it speaks volumes about this great company.
LARRY A. COULTER
Strongsville
In the March 28 story regarding Nike, worker abuse at the company's factories in Vietnam and Indonesia were as follows:
Teenage girls paid 20 cents an hour to make $180 Nike sneakers, worked to exhaustion, fondled by their supervisors, forced to run in the hot sun as punishment for wearing nonregulation shoes (not Nikes).
A Nike spokeswoman stated that an accounting firm had been hired to inspect these factories. Nike's quarterly revenue last year topped $2 billion, but at no time was a raise mentioned for the workers. We ask the one person that has the ability to demand that Nike do something immediately. That person is Michael Jordan! Without Jordan, what would Nike's revenues be? Kathie Lee Gifford was forced to investigate her own company because of similar accusations. We realize that Nike is not Michael Jordan's company, however, I ask "Air Jordan" to help take some of the air out of Nike. If you endorse, you must enforce.
DAN R. PAUL
Rocky River
Nike in the News