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FACT #8. Nervous, Nike insults everyone�s intelligence with its intensive campus PR using Nike-paid "reports": Andrew Young�s "GoodWorks": Young interviewed workers only with their supervisors present, naively using Nike�s translators; he spent a piddling 3-4 hrs., preannounced, in each factory visited; and he completely ignored the crucial issue of wages [TNR]. The report includes faked photographs of Young with "union representatives", and lies about "consulting" human rights experts [WP, TNR]. Dartmouth Business School: This Nike-paid "study" is a glorified class project of inexperienced MBA students, working for a grade! What little is known about the methods used�see, e.g., Fact 1�renders it instantly dubious. Ernst and Young: For years Nike has paid this accounting firm to "monitor" its factories and issue confidential reports, and for years Nike has said the reports were positive. Now, thanks to a leaked report [NYT3], we know they have been lying. Andrew Young�s team apparently also knew of the damning report (prior to its being leaked) but failed to act on this knowledge [NYT3]. Price Waterhouse: Occasionally, Nike PR appeals to the paid, secret reports of this other "highly respected" accounting firm. The secrecy is suspicious enough, but one gets a sense of PW�s objectivity from its primary boast [www.pw.com] that "[f]or 150 years, Price Waterhouse has helped the world�s leading companies implement solutions to their complex business problems".
List of references ... To get involved, email nikerights@umich.edu |