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Date: April 15, 2005 Listening (1:56 - 227.7 KB - 16kbps) THE ARTICLENike is finally coming clean over its infamous and dubious labor practices after years of allegations that it exploits workers, many of whom have been alleged to be children. The company has made available on its website an unprecedented and detailed 108-page report of the 705 worldwide factories that produce its footwear and clothing. The document details things from factory locations, working conditions of its 650,000 employees and abuses of those workers. Just over half of Nike’s Asian employees work more than sixty hours a week; up to fifty per cent have restricted access to toilets and drinking water and work seven days a week; and a quarter of workers receive less than the legal minimum wage, despite Nike’s huge profit margins. The release of the report, conducted by the independent Fair Labor Association, is welcome news for human rights activists who have continually investigated, exposed and embarrassed Nike for its sweatshop practices. Releasing the document now means Nike’s factories can be independently monitored to provide better working conditions for its long-suffering employees. Michael Posner, executive director of Human Rights First, hailed the report as “an important step forward” and praised Nike for its transparency. But he added: “The facts on the ground suggest there are still enormous problems with these supply chains and factories.” He asked the important question: “What is Nike doing to change the picture and give workers more rights?” WARM UPS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about: Nike / sneakers (US) or trainers (UK) / sportswear / sweatshops / child labor / legal minimum wage / huge profit margins / transparency / workers’ rights. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently. 2. NIKE BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Nike. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them. 3. SNEAKERS (US) / TRAINERS (UK): Walk around the class and ask your classmates about their choices and histories of sportswear. Sit down in pairs / groups and share the information you heard. Together, create a questionnaire about sneakers / trainers. Ask your questions to students from other pairs, before returning to your original pair/group to compare what you heard. Make one conclusion and share this with the class. Vote on which conclusion was best. 4. WORKING PRACTICES: Below is a list of the benchmarks the Fair Labor Association used to assess Nike’s factories and working conditions. Discuss what you understand by these terms and how they might be applied to Nike:
Do any of these factors need changing in your present company / companies you have worked for? 5. 2-MINUTE NIKE DEBATES: Face each other in pairs and engage in the following fun 2-minute debates. Students A take the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
PRE-READING IDEAS1. WORD SEARCH: Use your dictionary / computer to find word partners (collocates), other meanings, synonyms or more information on the words ‘labor/labour’ and ‘practice’. 2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:
3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. SPOT THE MISTAKES: There are four mistaken words in each paragraph. Find and circle them. Try to think of a better word. Nike coming clean about sweatshopsNike is finally coming dirty over its infamous and dubious labor practices after years of allegations that it exploits workers, many of whom have been alleged to be children. The company has made available on its website an unprecedented and detailed 108-page novel of the 705 worldwide factories that produce its footwear and clothing. The document details things from factory locations, working conditions of its 650,000 employees and abuses of those workers. Just over half of Nike’s Asian employees work more than sixty hours a day; up to fifty per cent have restricted access to toilets and drinking water and work seven days a week; and a quarter of workers receive less than the legal maximum wage, despite Nike’s huge profit margins. The release of the report, conducted by the independent Fair Labor Association, is welcome news for human wrongs activists who have continually investigated, exposed and embarrassed Nike for its sweatshop practices. Releasing the document now means Nike’s factories can be independently monitored to provide better working conditions for its short-suffering employees. Michael Posner, executive director of Human Rights First, hailed the report as “an important step backward” and praised Nike for its transparency. But he added: “The facts on the ground suggest there are still enormous problems with these supply chains and factories.” He asked the important question: “What is Nike doing to change the picture and give workers fewer rights?” 2. TRUE/FALSE: Check your answers to the T/F exercise. 3. SYNONYMS: Check your answers to the synonyms exercise. 4. PHRASE MATCH: Check your answers to the phrase match exercise. 5. QUESTIONS: Make notes for questions you would like to ask the class about the article. 6. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. SPOT THE MISTAKES: Check the answers to this exercise. Explain to your partner any relationships between the correct and incorrect words. 2. QUESTIONS: Ask the discussion questions you thought of above to your partner / group / class. Pool the questions for everyone to share. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: In pairs/groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Each student surveys class members independently and reports back to their original partner/ group to compare their findings. 5. ‘LABO[U]R’ / ‘PRACTICE’: Make questions based on your findings from pre-reading activity #1. Ask your partner / group your questions. 6. DISCUSSION:
7. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: Divide into the following two roles. Students A (pairs or groups) are factory workers in the “Niker” sports shoe factory. Students B (pairs or groups) are company executives of the “Niker” international sportswear company. Use the benchmarks from the Fair Trade Association below to create some simple rules about your company’s working practices:
After you have created your rules, workers and executives meet to negotiate the best policy for the company. 8. “NIKER” ROLE PLAY: Use the following role play cards in a discussion about Niker sportswear company The role play theme is a BBC TV documentary, titled, “Is Niker a wonderful company to work for?” Team up with partners to discuss your roles and “strategy” before the role play begins. After the role play, discuss whether you really believed what you were saying. THE ROLES: Student A Student B Student C Student D HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on Nike and sweatshops. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. LETTER TO NIKE: Write a letter to Nike expressing your thoughts on the publication of their report. Read it to your class in your next lesson. 4. MY NIKE LIFE: Imagine you are a Nike worker in a sweatshop. Write the diary/journal entry for one typical working day in your life. Talk about what you wrote in your next class. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
SPOT THE MISTAKES: Nike coming clean about sweatshopsNike is finally coming clean over its infamous and dubious labor practices after years of allegations that it exploits workers, many of whom have been alleged to be children. The company has made available on its website an unprecedented and detailed 108-page report of the 705 worldwide factories that produce its footwear and clothing. The document details things from factory locations, working conditions of its 650,000 employees and abuses of those workers. Just over half of Nike’s Asian employees work more than sixty hours a week; up to fifty per cent have restricted access to toilets and drinking water and work seven days a week; and a quarter of workers receive less than the legal minimum wage, despite Nike’s huge profit margins. The release of the report, conducted by the independent Fair Labor Association, is welcome news for human rights activists who have continually investigated, exposed and embarrassed Nike for its sweatshop practices. Releasing the document now means Nike’s factories can be independently monitored to provide better working conditions for its long-suffering employees. Michael Posner, executive director of Human Rights First, hailed the report as “an important step forward” and praised Nike for its transparency. But he added: “The facts on the ground suggest there are still enormous problems with these supply chains and factories.” He asked the important question: “What is Nike doing to change the picture and give workers fewer rights?” Help Support This Web Site
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