Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

The medieval Crusades were ‘Holy Wars’, European Christians defending their religious realm against expansionist Muslims. Atrocities were committed by both sides, a situation which has persisted for nigh on a thousand years, as can be witnessed on an almost daily basis here in Indonesia.

However, in labelling 40 year old Jim Keady as “a Crusader”, I am referring to the fourteen (count ‘em!) years of his single-minded efforts to achieve basic human rights for the workers in the Indonesia’s sweat shops producing Nike sports goods for export, goods that the workers cannot afford on their earned income. As I will point out a bit further on, it is worth noting that many of the companies sub-contracted to Nike are Korean, albeit with Indonesian partners.

The workers are mostly Muslims whereas Jim is a committed Christian and sometime teacher of religious education to American high school students.

Having supported Jim’s work through this blog for a few years, we finally met up last Sunday for a couple of hours. Much of what follows is gleaned from our chat, as well as the immense coverage on the internet of his fine work.

I knew that he was forced to resign from his New York university; he was studying for his master’s degree in pastoral theology) when he refused to wear the sponsored sports gear from Nike because of their operation of sweat shops, i.e. cheap labour working onerous hours. Also exacerbating matters was the title of his thesis: “Nike and Catholic Social Teaching: A Challenge to the Christian Mission at St. John’s University,” examining the company’s business practices and challenging the university’s sponsorship agreement with Nike.

He was also not given a renewed contract by his semi-professional football club where, he told me, he was ‘understudy’ to Tim Howard, the current Everton FC goalkeeper, as well as being an assistant coach. Jim told me that he would have been satisfied to have been on the bench as reserve goalie at a major match, but it was not to be. He also told me that, unlike me, he had visited Charlton’s new stadium at the Valley and was a fan of Charlton, having also visited their training ground.

He still looks very fit; he had been for a workout that morning and was tucking in to a substantial meal at Ya ‘Udah when I arrived.

With a core of supporters who donate to Team Sweat, a not-for-profit organisation, Jim works alone, highlighting the appalling conditions endured by workers in factories in Indonesia sub-contracted to Nike, albeit with an expanding group of supporters who through their donations support him. I asked a number of questions, which arose through our conversation rather than having been thought out beforehand.

For example, I wondered whether there were any prominent sports stars prepared to be associated with him. Tiger Woods of Planet Golf and Roger Federer wear Nike gear, but neither were doing very well in June 2010 when I listed the football stars featured in TV ads coinciding with the World Cup in South Africa. None of them did very well: Theo Walcott of England and Ronaldinho of Brazil didn’t get to go and Cesc Fábregas played just 59 minutes of Spain’s four matches.

But I digress, and my question was somewhat naive anyway. After all, who’d want to bad-mouth their kit sponsor when they’re paid vast sums to wear it? In 1998, for example, Nike paid Tiger Woods $28 million. (Contrast that with the $100,000 spent in Indonesia from 1998 to 2000 on continuing education programmes for Nike workers and $150,000 on small loans to unemployed and disadvantaged people.)

I did wonder why Jim works alone and also why he focusses on the Nike sub-contractors in Indonesia; wouldn’t a broad coalition be more effective? As the Nike Anti-Sweatshop campaign says, it is but “one branch of a larger global movement aimed at raising awareness about labor conditions in manufacturing zones of developing nations where major global corporations increasingly contract for the manufacture of their products. There are hundreds of web sites concerning these issues.” (Actually, many thousands.)

Furthermore, Nike isn’t the only American corporation whose products are produced in factories abroad which operate free of the health, safety and labour laws in force, but not always enforced, in the USA. (Think Apple: they knowingly used child labour and outsourced workers in China whose “horrendous” working conditions were such that at least 19 were driven to suicide.)

One factor Jim mentioned to me was that it is common for NGO’s to be sucked in by the perks offered by such conglomerates as Nike. Offers of all-expenses paid factory tours abroad and round table meetings can be seductive. You can see that first hand here in Jakarta. I’ve often thought it strange that I should be paid no more than an adequate amount for teaching the children of rich parents, whilst international NGO staff obstensibly working on behalf of the downtrodden masses live in upmarket areas with the usual expat perks.

Jim’s approach is radically different from the better financed and/or sponsored NGOs: he spends time living with Nike factory workers on a typical wage of c.Rp.44,000 ($4.70) per day, which, pegged against inflation, is less in real terms than the c.Rp.11,500 (c.$1.25) a day they earned in 2000 when Jim first came here.

He has had meetings with union officials such as Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB), who is deeply appreciative of Jim’s efforts, as this letter makes clear.

Union officials at PT SM Global, managed by Koreans, in Tangerang, “received pressure, repeated rotation of their positions, [were] downgraded, and [were] blamed by the management of the factory in front of all the workers saying that the factory will be closed as a result of the action of union officials … [thus] … making the union officials as the public enemy for the workers.”

The “workers were requested to sign a pre-arranged statement stating that they were in good condition, have no problem, and will not demanding anything.”

“Good conditions”? Only if the workers were prepared to accept an obligatory three hours of overtime per day, and that the women workers would show blood-stained sanitary towels when seeking their mandatory two days menstrual leave.

That last degrading action has long been a practice in factories managed by Koreans. I first heard of it during a football match some 20 years ago when one of the opposing team highlighted the issue, and stated that the women were forced to stand in the open, under the tropical sun, whilst undergoing the inspection. On that occasion, the managers were deported.

Maybe that is also the standard practice in Korea; Koreans are not noted here for much beyond their kimchi, and brutality which I witnessed at first hand when a teacher at the Jakarta Korean International School (JIKS) for three years until Xmas 2003. I was horrified at their use of the euphemistically named “love stick” (and occasional fists) to administer corporal punishments.

As for focussing on Nike, Jim says that if the market leaders change then others will have to follow.

Indonesia is Nike’s third largest manufacturing base, behind China and Vietnam, with 140,000 workers in 14 factories, and productivity is high. For example, 18,000 workers at PT Nikomas in Serang produce more than 2,000,000 pairs of Nike sneakers per month. If you discount the administrative and warehouse staff, drivers, security guards, and other non-assembly line staff, that’s c.four+ pairs a day per worker sold retail for anywhere between $50 to $500.
(See comments for updated stats.)

For 18 years workers at Nikomas complained about forced overtime and wage cheating, but it is only now, after a year’s hard work of research, lobbying and negotiations that a breakthrough has been achieved with Jim Keady’s help, lobbying and single-minded focus.

He is now proud to report that following almost a year of investigation and negotiation, 4,437 Nike factory workers will be paid $1 million dollars for overtime they were forced to do without payment. The settlement between SPN and the factory management reflects 593,468 of unpaid overtime hours that workers put in sewing Nike sneakers at the plant during the past two years.

But his work is not done yet; Indonesian law only allows redress for the past two years so that’s 16 years of unpaid overtime owed by Nikomas, with a further few thousand workers who are not part of the deal. There are also another 42 factories which are not yet party to such a deal.

I’m not a psychoanalyst, nor am I particularly enamoured of the notion of having another’s hang ups hung on you, so I can only surmise that Jim’s single minded-focus and self-sacrifice comes from his wellspring of Christian faith. That may be why his chosen position in a football team was goalkeeper, a position which demands the utmost concentration and patience, with a readiness to spring into action when required.

I’ve generally played as a defender, and I’m happy to have such a role supporting Jim in his humanitarian crusade.

One further point, as friend Oigal asked in a previous post of mine about Nike’s lack of oversight of their sub-contractors here: When do countries like Indonesia have to take responsibility for their own affairs?

Whilst employers here often ignore the prevailing labour law,Act No 13, 2003, and seek amendments to their advantage regarding severance pay,  this week the Constitutional Court annulled Articles 59, 64-66 regarding contract and outsourced workers, stating that “every company carrying out short-term projects had an obligation to treat their contract workers and permanent staff equally.“

I’ll leave it to Jim and the union representatives to examine the ramifications, if any, for the workers they are trying to help.

And I wonder if that ruling will be of any benefit to expatriates on fixed-term contracts?