There are many ways that people can make the world better for everyone. But sometimes we don’t realize just how much of an impact our voices can have. On Tuesday, April 19, that’s what Jim Keady wanted UMPI students and faculty to know. Keady was the University Day Distinguished Lecturer. For almost 20 years, Keady has stood up against shoe company Nike. He defends the human rights of Nike’s overseas factory workers.
Keady was not always an activist. In 1997, he took a job as a soccer coach at St. John’s University in New York City. He was also a theology graduate student at the Catholic college. For an assignment, Keady researched Nike’s labor practices. He found that Nike violated the Catholic Code of Conduct. Factory workers in Indonesia worked long overtime hours. They had too little wages to show for it.
Later, Keady found out something else that troubled him. The St. John’s athletic department was going to sign a $3.5 million deal with Nike. So in May 1998, Keady protested. He refused to wear Nike products. Keady tried to persuade the school not to sign the endorsement deal. He did not want the school to violate their teachings of social justice. This cost Keady his job.
“I was given an ultimatum: wear Nike and drop this issue or resign. And in June 1998 I was fired,” Keady said. “They told me that you could live like a king or queen on those wages and those people were really happy to have those jobs. So I decided to go find out.”
During the summer of 2000, Keady traveled to Indonesia. He went with Leslie Kretzu, a good friend from college. She was also a human rights activist. For a month, Keady and Kretzu lived in Tangerang, Indonesia. But they weren’t just there to film people’s lives. In a slum outside the capital city, Keady and Kretzu lived on a wage of $1.25 a day. This is the wage that factory workers live on. The nine by nine foot room that Keady and Kretzu lived in had no furniture or clean water. If they spent money on food and water, they barely had enough money left for the week.
While there, Keady and Kretzu visited families and filmed their stories. Most families shared living quarters, kitchens, bathrooms, laundry space and drinking wells. The open sewers ran alongside the streets for everyone to see. Keady became disgusted at what he saw.
“During that first week, I found that there was no way to live on $1.25 a day and maintain human dignity,” Keady said.
Keady said that the workers do not want to live in poverty. But they do not have much choice. Many factory workers work overtime. It’s the only way for them to support their families. Working 15 hours a day means that some workers rarely see their children. Those children aren’t able to attend school. Meanwhile, they play next to piles of unused Nike shoe rubber. Nike burns that rubber and it gives off dangerous toxins.
There were times where Keady and Kretzu tried to get into a Nike factory. But security guards and managers always stopped them. Keady had read on Nike’s website that the company had “nothing to hide.” Then he heard stories from workers who fought back. Many had tried to form workers’ unions. Most received physical abuse and death threats from factory management.
“Workers don’t want to lose their jobs, but they don’t want to be exploited,” Keady said. “We’re talking about food, water, healthcare, education, being able to take care of their kids and have some modest savings. That’s not a tall order.”
Back in the U.S., Keady began advocating for Indonesian factory workers. He contacted Nike and everyone there refused to talk to him. Then he tracked down Phil Knight, who was Nike’s CEO at the time. Knight said to Keady: “Call my secretary.” Keady had already done that. She didn’t want to talk to him either. Keady was more certain than ever. Nike wanted to hide everything about its working conditions.
Keady had a good reason for choosing Nike. Many large companies exploit their factory workers.
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But Nike makes up 62 percent of the shoe industry. It makes $30 million a year off 160,000 Indonesian workers in 43 factories. A celebrity athlete makes millions just from wearing Nike products. That’s more than any factory workers can ever earn in their lifetime.
“People making money off of Nike should care about Nike factory workers because they’re human beings,” Keady said. “Something is wrong with the system and we can fix it. At this point in history, we need this story to be told.”
In 2001, Keady and Kretzu co-founded Educating for Justice. It is a nonprofit organization that advocates for Indonesian factory workers. Keady’s work helped factory workers win back two years’ worth of wages in 2012. This equaled to $100 million total. Nike had cheated them out of those wages.
Keady often visits high schools and colleges. He wants students to know about Nike’s unjust practices. He thinks college students have done some of the best activism. They organize campus activist groups. Then they pressure Nike to treat its workers better. Keady wants students to stand up for whatever issue they’re passionate about.
“I would encourage students to utilize what they’ve learned and organize a small group of students and faculty members,” Keady said. “They have to pull the trigger and do some grassroots activism and disrupt things. My mantra is educate, organize and act.”
Emma Ruff, a senior fine arts major at UMPI, attended Keady’s talk. “I think he covers a very important issue,” Ruff said. “It’s something that we have the ability to change.”
Keady knows that his work has a long way to go. But he has no desire to stop what he’s doing. Changing the way things are is not an easy thing for students to do. But they can move forward knowing that it is the right thing to do. The world can only change if enough people insist that it needs to.
