Date of publication: November 17, 2008
Source: Fortune Magazine
Author: Eugenia Levenson
A decade ago the shoe giant was slammed as a sweatshop operator. Today it's taking responsibility to heart. Will it work?
Posing as a fashion buyer, an Australian TV reporter gained entry to a Malaysian T-shirt factory, where foreign migrant workers told a grim tale. They had been forced to surrender their passports while their wages were being garnished to pay off hefty recruiting fees. Worse still, they were living in crowded, filthy rooms.
When the broadcast aired on Aussie Channel 7 in July, it seemed eerily familiar, like stock footage from the anti-sweatshop campaigns that fueled public debate about outsourcing and globalization in the 1990s. And it starred a familiar villain of that era: Splashed across banners on the factory walls was the Nike swoosh...