NOTE: This trip was cancelled due to concerns about the SARS epidemic in Asia

College Students Will Visit Manufacturers that Supply Nike and Adidas

It’s been five years since Nike CEO Philip Knight made the astonishing admission that “the Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse,” and then pledged to improve standards for pay and labor conditions at foreign factories that supply Nike shoes. Nike was but one of several multinational companies that were the target of media exposes and consumer protests about overseas “sweatshop” labor in the 1990s. What have Nike and other multinational companies done since then to improve labor conditions in their foreign factories? And what can managers learn from such firms in order to make ethical decisions about global labor forces?

These challenging questions are explored in a forthcoming book about global labor management co-authored by DePaul University Business Ethics Professor Laura Hartman, who also will lead a group of 20 students on a study abroad tour of factories, including Nike and adidas suppliers, in Vietnam March 20-30.

The book, “Rising Above Sweatshops: Innovative Management Approaches to Global Labor Challenges” (Praeger Books, Summer 2003), is based on research conducted by Hartman and other professors who approached the global labor issue from a unique perspective. The professors traveled thousands of miles and logged hundreds of research hours over two years to identify and study consumer goods suppliers in Vietnam, China, Thailand, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica who have initiated beneficial labor management practices. Their groundbreaking study was sponsored by the non-profit and independent Ethics Resource Center.

“The research is based on our belief that it’s not enough to tell multinational corporations what they are doing wrong in managing their supplier workplaces and workforces overseas-there’s also an obligation to show them what’s right,” said Hartman, who also is president of the Society of Business Ethics, an international organization of business ethics professors and researchers.

“The goal of the book is to showcase innovative management programs that promote workplace health and safety, worker dignity and respect so they can be models for companies that need to improve their global labor practices,” she said.

Members of the research team met with the adidas compliance team in Hong Kong and the Guangzhou Province of China to study the global launch of the company’s new “Standards of Engagement” for athletic goods suppliers, vendors and other contractors. They also researched health and safety programs at a General Motors joint venture in Shanghai, visited four child labor mediation programs in Brazil, and studied labor-related programs and factories in Thailand and other countries.

The research brought Hartman twice to Vietnam to study Nike and adidas suppliers in Ho Chi Minh City. She explored the two companies’ child labor, health and safety, education, cultural diversity and micro-enterprise loan programs for workers, some of which were instituted before the Nike “sweatshop” scandal.

In March, she returns to Vietnam with a group of MBA and undergraduate business students to tour these factories again. They also will visit a factory, unaffiliated with the two firms, where no codes of conduct for workers have been implemented. The group will discuss labor issues with company workers and managers, area labor advocates, health and social service non-governmental organization (NGO) directors, and business and economic officials.

“The purpose of the seminar is to provide students with a firsthand understanding of the nature of global working conditions by exploring factories that one might consider ‘sweatshops’ as well as those that are not.” Hartman said. “We’ll explore what firms are doing to try to resolve challenging ethical dilemmas abroad, such as child labor, health and safety issues and worker education. We’ll also consider what organizations can do to have a positive impact on the lives of workers in other countries, both through individuals and through the corporate community.”

For their papers about the study abroad tour, Hartman has asked students to form their own conclusions about global labor challenges by weighing information in media stories, NGO reports and their prior coursework with what they observe on the tour. Their recommendations will be shared with executives at Nike and adidas who oversee the firms’ global labor standards.

Hartman said that Vietnam presents a complex labor and economic puzzle for students to sort out. She noted that the economy is supported by a workforce of 32.7 million people, but has an unemployment rate of 25 percent. The majority of workers - 65 percent - are in the agriculture sector, with the remaining 35 percent employed in industry and the service sector.

“Vietnam represents an economy where many of the world’s labor challenges are present, including child labor, health and safety challenges, subsistence wages and unworkable hour requirements, and low levels of education,” she said. “Vietnam also is on the road towards development with a strong and committed government, committed multinationals and a work force that strives for personal and professional improvement and development. In this manner, Vietnam truly represents a microcosm of the ethical dilemmas that workers face worldwide.”

The study abroad seminar is sponsored by the Driehaus Center for International Business at DePaul’s College of Commerce, which organizes 10 to 15 seminars each year that allow students to study international business issues firsthand all over the globe. Recent seminars have allowed students to study in Australia, China, Chile, Cuba, Greece, Italy, Thailand and the Czech Republic. The seminars are part of college’s emphasis on educating business students through practical, hands-on experiences.

Editor’s Note: Reporters interested in interviewing Hartman about the Vietnam study tour or the book can reach her at 312/362-6569 or lhartman@depaul.edu.