Can the title be more misleading? Well as the story goes the workers at a Nike factory went on strike for about 2 days. The strike ended but as the workers wre on their way back to work, there was a fight.
About 17,000 of the Ching Luh plant’s 21,000 employees reported to work Wednesday morning after the labor union and management of the Taiwanese-owned plant reached an agreement to increase monthly wages by 100,000 dong (US$6) amid record-high inflation, said Pham Thi Lap, head of the labor union of southern Long An province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where the plant is located.
But after a brawl broke out following a spat between a former worker and a security guard, police were called in and the plant was closed, Lap said. No one was seriously injured, but several workers were beaten during the melee, she added.
I found somewhere how much it costs for Nike to make its sneakers and it seemed legit. It was something like 10 dollars a shoe. If I find a link or a video about it, I’ll post it here. The workers and their union managed to get a raise and now get 65 dollars an hour week month. I don’t know how much 65 dollars a month goes in Vietnam but in NYC it would get you 2 slices of pizza and a drink. Damn sure wont get you a 184.99 pair of Jordans. But they do get free lunches according to the article (and according to the workers the lunches before the deal sucked lol).
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“I don’t know how much 65 dollars a month goes in Vietnam”
It goes a long way, my friend. You dont fill a factory with 17000 workers making $65/month unless its enough to live off of. Not going to see them going out and buying ipods and armani jackets like you but when doctors in the country make chump change as well, you have to pay the going wage or risk upsetting the balance of society (ie, doctors quitting to work in a shoe factory).
If you want to know the cost of a shoe, divide by 4 and add a little. Bear in mind that the retailer generally doubles the cost Nike sells for…so their markup is twice Nikes!