Catholic Soccer Pro Takes On Nike for Human Rights Abuses

December 17, 2000 - 12:00 PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY

He's Crusading for Workers - by Rev. Alex Santora Nike activist Jim Keady, 29, was feeling forlorn recently as he sat in his parents' comfortable kitchen in Belmar. He was wondering if his two-year campaign to improve Nike factory worker conditions and wages is worth it. After all, he gave up an almost certain pro-soccer career. He left his teaching job. Went $20,000 in debt to spend two months in Indonesia to document alleged abuses. And lost lots of friends. But he had just read a passage from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, "All my close friends are watching me to stumble . . . But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior . . . for to you I have committed my cause." (20:7-12) It is faith that got Keady into this cause. And faith that sustains him. Working toward a master's degree in theology at St. John's University in Queens, the largest Catholic university in the country, Keady took a course on social justice, which included some study of Nike. The largest sporting goods manufacturer in the world, Keady believes, has violated principles of Catholic social ethics. As a graduate assistant soccer coach for the university, he says he was appalled to learn that the university was negotiating a multimillion-dollar deal with Nike to dress all its athletic teams. Keady refused to wear Nike attire and says he was forced to resign his position because of this stand. Jody Fisher, a spokesman for St. John's, says that Keady was not forced to resign. And a U.S. District Court judge agreed with the university, in a lawsuit brought against the school by Keady. But Keady still insists that his anti-Nike stand made him unpopular. Indeed, Keady didn't give up what has now become a full-time passion for the former Hoboken resident, who lived in the Mile Square City when he was the back-up goalie for the North Jersey Imperials, a minor-league soccer team. After teaching briefly at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, he decided to embark on a memorable mission. Determined to document whether Nike factories were making any improvements, Keady failed to get Nike's approval to work in one of its Indonesian factories. So he did the next best thing: he would live near one of the factories, among the workers, on their daily wage of $1.25 a day for one month. Leslie Kretzu, 29, a former college classmate from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, agreed to join Keady last August in Tangerang, an industrial suburb outside of Jakarta, Indonesia. She had been a Jesuit volunteer in Anaheim, Calif., and a volunteer with Mother Teresa's missionaries in Calcutta when she left for Indonesia. "This is what I came here for. To live in solidarity with the poor and the exploited," said Kretzu. "No one should have to live like this." There are about 100,000 people working in 12 Nike-contracted factories in Tangerang, says Keady, a statistic confirmed by Nike. Since most laborers live elsewhere in the country, there are worker compounds to house them while they work. And that's where Keady and Kretzu lived. "It was an open house, a room 9-by-9, with cement walls and shelf paper on the floor," said Keady, who said it was on the edge of the poorest area. The cheapest place to eat is the "warteg," where rice and vegetables are the main menu. In a diary that can be accessed on a Nike watchdog Web site, www.nikewages.org, Keady wrote, "I had reached a point of hunger and exhaustion I have never experienced before in my life." And that was without working seven, 15-hour days of manual labor and having little to eat. Hours are long, breaks are few, conditions are noisy and some of the materials, like the glue needed for sneakers, can be sickening, Keady said, basing his beliefs on conversations he had with factory workers. Nike did, in fact, switch to a "safer, water-based" glue that replaced the petroleum-based type for making all sneakers, except for soccer shoes, said Vada Manager, director of global issues for Nike, out of the Beaverton, Ore., headquarters. But Manager disputes many of Keady's assertions. "There's no reason to doubt he's a man of faith and conviction," Manager said of Keady. "We do disagree." Manager confirmed that the average monthly wage of Indonesian factory workers is between $50 and $54. But he said that about 10 percent of the workers live in subsidized housing and many workers get one free meal a day. Nike has increased its compliance officers from three to 45 to check if the factories comply with its standards, Manager said. Keady calls these changes "minimal and cosmetic." And he says that Nike can afford to upgrade the conditions and wages. Worldwide sales for FY2000, according to Nike, totaled more than $9 billion. It contracts work with over 708 factories and a total work force of 550,000, Manager says. What Keady and most Nike activists say they want are "real changes with wages that would allow people to live in full human dignity." That's a principle Keady learned not only in school but also from his family tradition. His grandfather, James M. Keady, a vice president for the Trust Company of New Jersey bank, served on the Hudson County Parks Commission from 1962 to 1972 and became the commission's president in 1967. His parents, Kathy and Jim, lived on Kensington Avenue in Jersey City and attended St. Aloysius Church before they moved to Belmar to start their family. They own and run the Lighthouse Tavern in Waretown. Keady credits his Catholic education, first at St. Rose in Belmar with the Sisters of St. Joseph, later with the Christian Brothers at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft and finally with the Jesuits in Philadelphia, for raising his consciousness about promoting social justice. Keady, who returned from Asia this past fall, is still in debt for about $15,000 from the Indonesian trip and has no job. He and Kretzu, who produced their power point presentation and handles the technical chores, travel to universities and colleges to spread their message and raise some needed income. He crashes in his parents' home and owns few possessions. But, like the prophet Jeremiah, he trusts in God: "O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed." Santora is a theology instructor at St. Peter's College, Jersey City, and Catholic chaplain at Kean University. You may mail him at 120 Sussex St., Jersey City, 07302; fax at 985-0918 and e-mail padrealex@yahoo.com. © 2000 The Jersey Journal. Used with permission. (CHECK OUT THE OLYMPIC LIVING WAGE PROJECT WEB-SITE AT WWW.NIKEWAGES.ORG. MORE INFO ON THEIR WEST COAST SPEAKING TOUR COMING SOON.)

Contact

Olympic Living Wage Project
www.nikewages.org
NJ, US
James Keady - Director, 0 917

Keywords

Catholic Nike Human Rights Keady Soccer Social Teaching

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