Notes

Nike employees continue to face poverty, harassment, dismissal and violent intimidation despite its pledge three years ago to improve conditions. Imagine having to work in an environment where you were treated as less than a human; had to deal with extremely harsh working conditions and were unable to speak out without the risk of losing the only job you were able to get to survive or even risking death of you and your family.
Our reporters Jim Keady and Michelle went to Indonesia to live in the torturous conditions the workers had to live in for 1 month.
"Since I visited the factories, I wanted the workers to stop living in fear and misery but to stick up for their basic human rights. Everyone needs to know about Nike behind the swoosh". - Jim
Both Michelle and Jim struggled to survive on minimum wage with only 1 meal a day and living in a 9x9 cement box.
"As soon as you enter a village you can see the fear of the workers. They didn't want to speak out for their basic rights. They were treated like animals. With only earning $1.25 a day for a 15 hour shift, they can't send their children to school or afford the money for medicine with means they would have an early death. This has a huge impact on their children as they would never get to spend time with them meaning the child would grieve on such little memories they spent together. Everyone at the factory would be exhausted meaning any spare time they do have will be spent sleeping. If they can't do the full shifts then they can't get by. Many workers have said to me "Is life even worth living anymore?" This made me really emotional."
As well as the horrible affects on the family, it's also damaging our environment. All the "bad" soles are made into a huge pile in a local village then are burnt away. This is causing pollution and killing all the nature and wildlife as well as making young children sick. In China, the discharge from the factories have left the rivers undrinkable making many citizens be dehydrated.
The worst thing about all this is that Nike isn't being stopped. Nobody cares about how the products are made but instead they care who is wearing it. Tiger Woods makes $100,000,000 for just wearing it. It is just unacceptable. There is very little information about the factories as the bosses are keeping them in privacy with high amounts of security. Also, no one wants to talk about it and denies it but on the Nike website it says they have nothing to hide. Many have suffered and no one is putting a stop to it.