A Letter to and from Phil Knight, Chief Executive of Nike: Non-fiction Creative Writing for GCSE - page 1
Keywords: Non-fiction, English Language GCSE, A*, 20 marks, Letter, Letters, Nike
By Glamurus on 02/11/2006 17:42:26
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
27th April 2006
Phil Knight, Chief Executive
Nike World Headquarters
Beaverton
Oregon
USA
97005
Dear Mr. Knight,
I am a student at Glasgow University, and the on-site shop sells Nike shoes and apparel. I have recently heard more and more about poor human rights in factories for the third-world workers that make big-brand clothes, so I decided to research Nike to see if your company’s products are ethically produced. After watching a BBC Panorama documentary on the subject, reading two articles and researching on the official Nike website, I am so incredulous at the evidence thrown up by these sources of Nike’s apparent business mis-conduct, I am writing to you as an indignant consumer to express my concerns about the ethics of Nike as a company.
According to Nike’s Code of Conduct displayed on your company’s website, Nike “partners with contractors who…[assist Nike in]…minimizing…[Nike’s] impact on the environment.” Yet the article ‘Kicking Off’ lists Nike receiving the worst rating on environmental reporting. (Incidentally, the hyperlink leading to actual business information at www.nike.com is miniscule compared to the interactive billboard on there that leads to Nike’s products. I suggest you ask Nike’s website designers to make the link more accessible– it makes your company look like you’ve got something to hide.) Millions of dollars go on Nike’s worldwide advertising campaigns, so does more effort go into stunts that affect next week’s stock market than issues that will make a difference to people for many generations to come? What other areas does your company claim to excel in, yet actually break humane ethics in? For example, Nike’s code of conduct says that it gives “legally mandated” wages, although Nike’s entirely third-world contracted out workforce in factories will nearly always live in a country where there is no legal minimum wage, or a very low one. According to (independent) website, www.thirdworldtraveler.com, Vietnamese factory workers for Nike get less than $1.20 a day (below subsistence level, never mind any acceptable minimum wage) while Nike sells a pair of trainers in the USA for around $100 for a product that costs less than $5 to make. In fact, the article “Globe Trotting Trainers” says “a young woman in China would have to work nine hours a day, six days a week for fifteen centuries to match…[Phil Knight’s]…pay.” That
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