Nike in Indonesia

In 1913, when a member of the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations asked him how Pullman porters were supposed to live on $27.50 per month, L.S. Hungerford, Pullman’s general manager, replied: “All I can say is that you can get all the men you require to do the work.” Eighty-five years later, Nike CEO Phil Knight trotted out the same line to a crowd at the National Press Club, who had come to hear him talk about plans to improve labor conditions at contractors’ factories in Indonesia. He cited a report from the field by Jill Ker Conway—the best-selling author, first female president of Smith College, and paid member of Nike’s board. Conway, who was seated on the dais with Knight, had reported that she’d observed over three hundred job applicants lined up outside an Indonesian factory that produced Nike sneakers. As it happened, I knew something about Conway’s report; I had called her shortly after her return from Asia. She freely admitted that she’d been on a Ni...