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EFJ in Action
Educating for Justice was shocked and devastated at the death of former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), his wife of 39 years Sheila, his 33-year old daughter Marcia, the three campaign aides and two pilots who were killed in a tragic plane crash on October 25th. Paul Wellstone’s commitment to worker justice was unmatched in the Senate, and the unionized workforce of Minnesota, in particular, loved him deeply. We will miss you Paul,
and we will pursue the vision of justice for which you worked so passionately.
Update!
by Multa Fidrus - The Jakarta Post
Tangerang - Some 6,800 locked-out workers of PT Doson Indonesia, a subcontractor for shoe giant Nike, staged a rally on Monday in front of the company factory.
They protested that the management had closed the company suddenly without giving them any advance warning. All the steel gates of the factory, which is located on Jl. Raya Legok in the Legok district of Tangerang regency, were welded shut on Sunday. The workers interviewed by The Jakarta Post said that they had not been informed about the factory closure plan by company management. "All of the factory's gates are welded tight so that none of the workers who arrived at the factory to work as usual could get in," said
one of the protesting workers, who refused to give his name.
Joko Haryono, who chairs the Indonesia Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Union (SPTSK) branch in the company, said the management had never announced the plan to close the factory on Sunday so that the workers came to the factory to work as usual on Monday. The workers were shocked by the secretive closure and they were at a loss to know what to do in response to the management's decision.
SPTSK secretary Surono said that several workers who by coincidence came to the factory on Sunday had found contractor welding the gates of the factory shut. When they asked who had ordered the welding, the contractor said it was the management and the Tangerang Police. Joko said that all the workers were wondering what was going on on Monday morning as none of them were picked up by the company buses that usually transported them to the factory. "All the workers came to the factory using public transportation," he said.
"We tried to contact both PT Doson Indonesia HRD manager Mohammad Banjir Iqbal and General Manager Candra Handoko, whom we believe had knowledge of the factory closure, but their cellular phones were switched off," Joko added.
The workers will stage a rally to protest the closure at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Office on Tuesday. Some workers earlier said that they had realized the company's plan to dismiss workers on a massive scale after seeing a letter signed by the Nike's General Manager in Indonesia Jeff Du Mont last month, stating that Nike would halt its orders starting from November.
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For the past two months, EFJ has been gathering information from our Indonesian and international contacts regarding Nike's latest move to eliminate nearly 7,000 jobs from PT Doson in Tangerang. If you would like more background information on this situation, we have compiled a preliminary report on this case. We ask that you please send a letter to Nike CEO, Phil Knight about this situation.
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In a desire to organize a broad constituency of support for the workers at PT Doson, we are asking for people concerned with this case to write to Jesuit Fr. John Whitney at the Oregon Jesuit Provincial Office. The Jesuits in Oregon have an established relationship with Nike CEO, Phil Knight and we are calling on them to use it in the promotion of justice in this matter. Click
here for a sample letter.
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EFJ Directors Meet with Nike VP's and Outline Concerns
On the morning of September 17, 2002, prior to the annual Nike Shareholder meeting, EFJ Directors, Leslie Kretzu and Jim Keady met with Maria Eitel Nike VP for Corporate Responsibility and Kirk Stewart Nike VP for Corporate Communications. On the agenda for the meeting were EFJ’s general concerns about Nike’s contract operations in Indonesia and specific concerns about the recent developments at PT Doson. Following two hours of discussion, Kretzu and
Keady agreed to submit their concerns in writing and did so in recent weeks. As of the writing of this newsletter, there has been no written response from Nike on the issues put forth. (To read the concerns that EFJ presented to Nike, Click here.)
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EFJ Speaking Tour: Recent Events, Upcoming Events, Booking
This year’s National Speaking Tour, featuring an updated presentation, "The Human Side of Globalization: Nike in Indonesia A Case Study," opened up on September 19, 2002 at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. Following that event, EFJ Directors, Leslie Kretzu and Jim Keady have made stops at the JUSTICE conference at St. Louis University, Wheeling Jesuit University, and most recently at the Call to Action Conference in Milwaukee, WI.
Future events on the calendar are:
2002
November 20th Nassau Community College (NY) 11am
November 26th John Jay College (NY) 9:30am
December 4th St. Joseph’s University (PA) 7pm
2003
January 21st Pepperdine University (CA) 8pm
January 22nd University of Southern California (CA) 7pm
January 23rd Loyola Marymount University (CA) (Tentative)
January 27th St. Augustine’s High School (NJ) 11am
January 28th Monsignor Donovan High School (NJ) (time TBD)
January 31st Immaculata High School (NJ) (8:30am)
February 8th Tidewater Sowers for Justice (VA) (time TBD)
February 13th Brecht Forum (NY) 7:30pm
February 20th University of San Francisco (CA) 2pm (Tentative)
June 6th Minnesota AFL-CIO Event (MN) (Time TBD)
If you would like more information about any of the listed events or are interested in booking an event for your campus or community group, please email Jim at educate4justice@aol.com or call 732-988-7322.
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