Working Conditions in Sports Shoe Factories in China Making Shoes for Nike and Reebok
The last 30 years have seen tremendous changes in the production of sports shoes. When the costs of production began to rise in the United States and Europe, and workers organised and exercised collective bargaining power, sports shoe companies relocated their factories or sought subcontractors in Asia where wages were much lower and where systematic repression of labour movements promised a 'docile' workforce. Companies like Nike and Reebok began to subcontract to medium and small-scale companies in East Asia, particularly Taiwan and South Korea.
China is now the biggest shoe producing country in the world, producing over one-third of the world's top brand-name sports shoes. In many ways it is an ideal setting for the sports shoe multinationals and their subcontractors. Massive unemployment, low wages, the lack of enforcement of labour laws and standards, repression of independent union organising, and the role of the state-run All China Federation of Trade Unions in supporting management, are combined with local governments whose policies and interests lie in attracting foreign capital and ensuring the best conditions for the accumulation of profit.
Companies like Nike and Reebok benefit in every way because they do not have to deal with production: they distance themselves through subcontracting, benefiting from low production costs without any direct lines of responsibility. Subcontracting also allows these sports shoe multinationals to respond quickly to changing styles and fashions, while passing on all of the uncertainty and insecurity to their subcontractors and ultimately to the workers themselves. [author]
