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After moving manufacturing to the developing world to save on labor, Nike and other apparel brands are shifting employment in their Indonesian supply chain away from high-wage parts of the country and into less-developed areas.
Experts say there aren’t enough state and federal inspectors to adequately vet whether labor contractors who oversee farmworkers are following the rules. Nor is there broad political support to invest more resources to protect foreign workers.
An average worker at the foreign factories that make Nike’s goods earns 1.9 times the local minimum wage, the company says. None of the workers The Oregonian/OregonLive spoke with in Nike’s second-largest production hub said they earned that much.
In 1992, Cicih Sukaesih led fellow Indonesian factory workers in a strike, part of a movement that led Nike to create its first code of conduct. She reflects on her achievements and what’s happened since.