REEBOK
unveiled.info
Recently I spent many hours looking for some comfortable shoes in Plymouth, Devon. I wanted some light summerish shoes, like deck shoes for boats. Rubber non-slip sole with a canvas upper. I managed to find some reduced from £19.99 to £9.99, although cost wasn't the issue. I had been looking at some shoes made by Catterpillar @ £60 but part of the shoe was made of leather and I avoid using animal products.
Sadly on returning home and looking more carefully at the shoes I noticed they were Reebok, and I thought, oh! shit.
I'd bought them on comfort and tried many pairt in the same shop more than twice. When I found these, they were by far the most comfortable, I bought them quickly, not to piss off the assistant who had been running around getting me this and that. I didn't think of who made them or pay any attention to such, comfort was the issue.
So next I search to see what Reebok are up to.
The first issue I come across is the sales issue.
With a sluggish and depressed market during the
90's I can see they may want to exploit cheap labour. This in
turn lead me to an instance of the Reebok HUMAN RIGHTS
Award.
Go to http://cbae.nmsu.edu/%7Edboje/AA/academics_reebok.html for an extended exposee of it.
Figure 2:
Reebok manufacturing by country. (Worldwide Market Share,
1990-1999)
Source, Landrum & Boje 2001) http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/AA/academics_STUDIES.htm
BACKGROUND: The Annual Human Rights Award is an annual spectacle. For 13 years it has been a huge symbolic image builder for Reebok.Be honest, its a PR tool, a way for executives to distract attention form their own corporate human rights record. Reebok's shoes and clothing are manufactured in Indonesia, China, and elsewhere by sub-contractor companies who exploit workers into the cheapest wage conditions possible, and fight or run away whenever workers try to organize. In Reebok's sub-contract factories in Indonesia, mostly young female workers are typically paid about $ 1.50 a day. And with inflation these workers make less than they did five years ago. "The real test will be when independent unions come knocking at Reebok’s door" (MSN, May, 1999 Vol. 4 #2).
There are two actors recruited to play in the Reebok annual Spectacle. The first are people who are doing legitimate actions to bring about more human rights for oppressed people. Most Reebok Human Rights Award winners, the actors recruited by Reebok, have refused to comment on the irony of Reebok giving a Human Rights Award, while having some of the most exploitative conditions for women workers in its global factories. Most recipients grab the $50,000 award-grant and flee the stage, hoping the reporters will not notice the irony. For the past 13 years, between four and six grasp these annual Reebok awards. Each person is a fine organizer and activist, but they are being used to promote a Human Rights image of Reebok Corporation. One woman, Dita Sari, has refused to be complicit in the Reebok annul spectacle.
By Dita Sari
The driving forces of globalisation are the movement and expansion of capital and technology, through multinational companies. Globalisation, some people argue, has contributed a lot to the creation of a new world, with a global welfare and justice for all.
But in practice, globalisation is
producing neither universal welfare nor global peace. On the
contrary, in reality, globalisation has divided the world into
two sides, which are 
antagonistic towards each other. There are wealthy
creditors and bankrupt debtors, there are super rich countries
and underdeveloped countries, super wealthy speculators and
impoverished malnourished children. Globalisation intensifies,
not a higher paid and a better life for workers in the third
world, but the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
And this also happens in Indonesia, among Indonesian workers who work in multinational shoes companies, including Reebok.
In November last year, I was informed that I was selected as one of the awardees of the annual Reebok Human Rights Award program and ceremony. The Reebok Human Rights Foundation then has officially announced the names of the awardees.
I have taken this award into a very deep consideration. We finally decide not to accept this. On the one hand, this is a kind of recognition of the struggle and the hard work that we have done for years. But on the other hand, we are very conscious of the condition of the Reebok workers from the third world countries, such as in Indonesia, Mexico, China, Thailand, Brazil and Vietnam. As a trade union, we strongly put a lot of pressure to achieve what every worker deserves: higher wages, better working conditions and a brighter future for their children.
In Indonesia, there are five Reebok companies. 80% of the workers are women. All companies are sub-contracted, often by the South Korean companies such as Dung Jo and Tong Yang. Since the workers can only get around $1.5 a day, they then have to live in a slum area, surrounded by poor and unhealthy conditions, especially for their children. At the same time, Reebok collected millions of dollars of profit every year, directly contributed by these workers.
The low pay and exploitation of the workers of Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam are the main reasons why we will not accept this award. Some of our members in the union work in companies producing Reebok shoes.
The decision I have made is not merely based on data, report, statistics or assumptions. In 1995, I was arrested and tortured by the police, after leading a strike of 5000 workers of Indoshoes Inti Industry. They demanded an increase of their wages (they were paid only US$1 for working 8 hours a day), and maternity leave as well. This company operated in West Java, and produced shoes of Reebok and Adidas. I have seen for my self how the company treat the workers, and used the police to repress the strikers.
We believe that accepting the award is not a proper or a right thing to do. This is part of the consequences of our work to help workers improve their life. We cannot tolerate the way multinational companies treat the workers of the third world countries. And we surely hope that our stand can make a contribution to help changing the labor condition in Reebok-produced companies.
Dita Sari is an organizer with the National Front for Workers Struggle in Jakarta, Indonesia.