Stakeholder Position: Nike Factory Worker
I do not know what to do about the issues I am having in life besides write about them and explain to you through words.
I grew up in a small town on the eastern side of Vietnam. I was born into a life with nothing. I had no clothes to change into when mine became dirty. I had no time to make friends or get to know my ancestry because I had to begin work at a young age if I wanted to survive. The work on the farm down the road from my home in Vietnam was tough and miserable, but I was taught that without the pay I would have less than nothing, if that was even possible.
I am the youngest of three children in my family. When I was seven years old my eldest sister left working on the farm to do ‘better things’ according to my parents. I was told that she had an opportunity offered to her that could improve her life as well as our family’s in the future, but I was never told any details.
Due to her newly found job I did not see her very much from that point on, and a year later I was informed of her death. It was discovered through word of mouth that her boss at work had made her and 51 other female workers run two and a half miles around the shoe factory in which they were working because two of the employees had worn their outdoor shoes inside (Campaign, 1997). My sister that I loved and missed already suffered in the heat and was not able to recover. I now have to face the reality that I am now the youngest of two siblings.
After my sister passed away the work on the farm became more tedious and demanding for my brother and I. The following year I was told that it was time for me to get a better job working in a shoe factory in town instead of staying on the farm. I was uneasy about the idea at first but with so many people in my life influencing me there was no way I would be able to turn down an offer that was believed to better my life.
I traveled the distance to Dong Nai, Vietnam alone where I began working for a shoe company called Nike at the Pouchen factory in 1996. Due to the long distance between my home and the factory, housing was provided. I currently live with the 13,000 other employees that live too far away to walk to work (Pou Chen and Nike, 2000). I began my factory career with the idea in my mind that I would be paid better than on the farm and experience a more enjoyable job, both of which I have learned were incorrect assumptions.
At first I was excited for my new job because I could sit next to the other women and young girls working and make friends while making money at the same time. Soon I learned that in order for me to leave at the end of a long days work I was required to make a specific quota (Nike Boycott, 2004), and if I did not meet the given quota I was forced to remain in the factory working without any compensation for my overtime work (Campaign, 1997). The days in the factory became more and more tiring and stressful. Over the course of the last 13 years I have trained my body that I cannot use a restroom more than once in an eight hour work shift, nor can I get a drink of water more than two times during my shift (VN Fact Sheet, 1997). I did not understand these rules at first, but I think I have simply forced myself to believe that there is good intention behind them because if I do not I am punished. I am aware of the sexual and physical abuse that has been occurring (VN Fact Sheet, 1997), and I refuse to do anything to cause myself to become a victim. Other forms of punishment to employees who misbehave that I have witnessed are standing in the direct sunlight for long periods of time, cleaning the bathroom facilities and floor in the factory, writing down a mistake that was made repetitively and kneeling on the floor with our arms in the air for hours (Campaign, 1997).
The pay I am receiving is $1.60 a day for the time I put in at the factory or 20 cents an hour (Third World Traveler). The average cost of three meals a day here in Vietnam is $2.00 so I am needing to borrow money from my family members outside of the factory. I have been raised in a way that has taught me not to ask for help and to make a life on my own so I find myself frequently skipping my meals and working overtime instead. I have recently been working an average of 40 hours overtime each week because I simply cannot survive on the pay I receive in the factory unless I nearly double my given hours in overtime.
I arrived at the Pouchen factory at age nine and I am now 22 years old. Throughout the years I have experienced many different positions inside the factory due to temporary replacements needed. The worst position that I worked in the factory was mixing the large barrels of glue used in the process of making the shoes. I was not given any breathing mask to wear nor was I in a well ventilated area (Pou Chen and Nike, 1997). The strong smell of this glue was so terrible that I used both of my water breaks and bathroom break to get fresh air before I fainted from the fumes.
My point in writing this letter to you is to inform you about the real conditions that real people are having to live in. This job I have in the factory is no longer a choice but a means of life. If I do not show up to my job on any given day I will be fired and never welcomed back to work. If I quit entirely I will not be able to find another job because they are all taken here in Vietnam by other individuals trying to survive. I am aware that the owner of the Nike shoe company that I am working for is wealthy for the average American as well as his company. My plea to any and all people that come across this letter is that you will at the least make an attempt to influence Nike’s decisions on a pay increase for the thousands of labor workers, like myself, living as slaves.
I wish that I did not have to ask for help because I have been raised not to, which is why I must remain anonymous. I have already lost my dignity and I cannot afford to lose the respect from my family. I feel as though this respect for working is the only thing in my life forcing me to continue this job.
Works Cited
Nike VN Fact Sheet
http://www.saigon.com/~nike/fact-sheet.htm
Pou Chen and Nike
http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nike/pou_chen_and_nike.htm
Campaign for Labor Rights
http://www.clrlabor.org/alerts/1997/nike_worker1.html
Nike Boycott
http://www.saigon.com/~nike/
Third World Traveler
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Boycotts/NikeThird_facts.html
