However, there are problems with Nike's noble words. First, the minimum age rule has a grandfather clause (so to speak), and underage workers currently at work in the factories will remain there. More importantly, a 1996 audit by Ernst & Young was made public only after being leaked to the media, and the results of the audit cited "desperation, physical exhaustion and pressure to work overtime to meet high production quotas," chemical exposure, and physical punishment for mistakes.
The audit has become the basis for the individual private action: a class action lawsuit. Last April, a civil suit was filed against sneaker giant Nike for lying about the conditions in their Southeast Asian factories. The California lawsuit accused Nike of violating state consumer laws on disclosure of working conditions. "We feel that Nike has one of the worst track records that has been exposed for a major corporation in this country on worker's rights overseas... The conditions are just horrendous," said Patrick Coughlin, a lawyer working on the suit.
The civil suit stands little chance of succeeding and even less chance of reforming the industry, but it might put pressure on Nike and companies in similar situations to improve their standards. This method of pressure might, in the end, be the best way of helping sweatshop workers. Private pressure might be insignificant in terms of each isolated pressure point, but as a whole, threats of lawsuits, government attentiveness fueled by voter awareness, and constant reminders of the horrendous conditions in some sweatshops might be the best way of forcing industry to improve.
Improvement will be slow and gradual, which is the best way to improve. Oddly, a quick rise in wages would be more harmful than beneficial to a local economy. Most American manufacturers actually pay more than the local wages, but not much more. Suddenly paying much higher wages (comparable to American union wages) would likely trigger further inflation in countries that have had too much of that recently. But slightly higher wages, and much better working conditions, would certainly help change the systematic abuses of the sweatshops, and turn them from sweatshops into factories. Pressure from both governmental and private channels, along with the passage of time, will help make these changes reality.
