Nike Says It Will Create 10,000 U.S. Jobs If Trade Deal Passes

[Purveyor]

Source: USA Today

Gregory Korte, USA TODAY 11:51 a.m. EDT May 8, 2015

President Obama will take his campaign for a free trade deal to the headquarters of Nike Friday, where he's extracted a pledge from the world's largest athletic shoe company that it will hire 10,000 workers in the United States over the next decade if a Pacific trade agreement passes Congress.

But Obama's appearance at a company known for importing shoes from contract factories in the Pacific Rim is also drawing protests from unions and other liberal groups who oppose the trade deal.

In Beaverton, Ore., Obama will argue that free trade will create American jobs by reducing barriers to selling American goods overseas. Nike says reducing tariffs would allow it to invest in manufacturing in the United States, allowing it to export more shoes, get them to domestic customers faster, and even customize more shoes for its customers.

At first, Nike seemed like an unlikely venue for a speech touting the virtues of free trade. It has 26,000 employees in the United States, but 330,000 in Vietnam, where the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/08/obama-nike-visit-free-trade-jobs-protests/26974883/

[Purveyor]

1. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Lead To A Global Race To The Bottom

At a time when economic inequality around the globe continues to widen, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will only make things worse. Unlike what President Obama claims, the agreement will only encourage a race to the bottom, in which a small percentage of people get ridiculously rich while most workers around the globe stay miserably poor. We can’t let that happen.

Today, President Obama is visiting Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon to garner support for the trade deal, which would be signed by the US and 11 Pacific Rim countries. That’s an apt place for Obama to beat the free-trade drum – Nike, like the TPP, is associated with offshoring American jobs, widening the income inequality gap, and increasing the number of people making slave wages overseas. Since the passage of NAFTA in 1993, we’ve seen the loss of nearly five million US manufacturing jobs, the closure of more than 57,000 factories, and stagnant wages. This deal won’t be any different.

In November, Zachary Senn, a college student reporter at the Modesto Bee, spent three weeks in Indonesia living with and interviewing workers who make goods for Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse. When you hear Obama talking about those “high-quality jobs,” think of RM, a 32-year-old mother who told Senn that she works 55 hours, six days a week and makes just $184 a month after 12 years at the PT Nikomas factory, a Nike subcontractor that employs 25,000 people. That’s 83 cents an hour or $2,208 a year.

RM works in the sewing department and is expected to process 100 shoes an hour. “If we don’t meet our quotas, we get yelled at”, she told Senn. “And then the quotas are piled into the next day”. Eating lunch is difficult because the food “smells bad,” and worse yet, RM said there is only one restroom, with 15 stalls, for 850 women.

more...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/the-trans-pacific-partnership-will-lead-to-a-global-race-to-the-bottom

[candelista]

7. +1. nt

[on point]

27. Yep. That's the TPP plan! (I call BS on Nike)

[GoneFishin]

31. Yeah. 10,000 jobs if they can find 10,000 people who will work for 83 cents per hour. They are full

of shit.

[stuffmatters]

47. US prison labor.PrisonS brag products "made in America"

And no "employee" delinquency or tardiness issues.

[olegramps]

34. This what the TPP advocates have in store for U.S. workers.

Sorry to say it, but go get fucked Obama and stick that trade deal where the sun never shines.

[SoapBox]

2. Uh huh...sure.

And I have a bridge to sell ya.

[niyad]

3. this is the same company that pays its outsourced workers pennies a day?? suuuuuure, I believe

them.

[catnhatnh]

4. A WHOLE 10K??? IF???

Big Fucking Deal. "Nike says"-Bullshit-brands cannot speak. Corporations are not "people too. Fuck this trade deal and the horse ('s ass) it rode in on.

[peacebird]

9. 10k over 10 years, probably means they will lay off higher paid US workers and hire H1B

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Yeah. You will just have to move to Indonesia to accept

And work for a dollar an hour

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

24. Well, trying to see a silver lining, at least the cost of living is low.

[asiliveandbreathe]

6. Unless we get that promise in writing and under contract

never mind, ain't gonna happen...1000 employees a year...whatever Nike...try harder Nike

Now, if foreign countries raise corporate taxes and raise wages - equal footing and all..I wonder how fast employment in US would grow..on the other hand ...if TPP were in place and a country ate into corporate profit..oh my, kangaroo court - countries sued for loss of profit...

JUST SAY NO!

[Red Oak]

8. I'm sure they will...

With H-1b visas.

[SamKnause]

10. Nike is lying.

President Obama is lying.

[Autumn]

11. Bull* cough* oh screw it. Bull shit.

I would find it easier to believe in Tinkerbell and Peter Pan than to believe this drivel.

[blackspade]

12. Disgusting pandering

It didn't happen under NAFTA, and it won't happen this time around either.

[arcane1]

13. Why not just hire them now? If there's a loss, take it from the CEO's salary

Then we would know they mean business.

[bluedigger]

14. Maybe.

If they have a State lined up ready to offer a free manufacturing facility and tax free profits for 20 years, along with a no interest government bond to facilitate start up costs, 100% forgivable upon meeting Nike's self set performance measures.

[jtuck004]

15. "26,000 employees in the United States, but 330,000 in Vietnam" LOL

"where the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour."

We don't live on an island, not anymore. Our young will HAVE to be more of a global citizen than they are being taught to be today or they will die, perhaps a violent and painful death, delivered by smarter people from outside.

TPP or no TPP, the controls that are to be breached with TPP will be eroded over time, via demographics and other forces.

They can be held off as we burn our seed corn, so to speak, by not participating in what the rest of the world will be working with. They will advance past us, and eventually replace what's left of the US in some fashion.

If we do pass TPP, the effects will be tragic and immediate, instead of leaving it for the grandkids.

"10,000 jobs". They must think no one can read past a headline.

Why do they pretend there are only two options. A third option would be to drop all that and start down a Progressive path with jobs, actually returning all the stolen wealth to this country, and employing millions of our citizens in infrastructure and education, build the IWW and employee control of assets...

Oh, sorry, forgot where I was.

[unblock]

16. while laying off 11,000....

[patricia92243]

17. That means 1k people a year. People die, quit, retire, etc and they would hire that many

anyhow. So to pretend 10K in 10 years is a big deal is an empty statement meaning to deceive.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

25. If 1 in 356 people in the company die each year - that would account for it.

[Geronimoe]

18. 10K below poverty jobs

All subsidized by taxpayers. Of course someone has to sell these Vietnamese made products, ship and deliver them.

Too bad Obama thinks Nike represents all that is good about corporate ownership of the President of the US and our government.

[Jack Rabbit]

19. Wow, we have Nike's word on it

And, of course, it's un-American to not trust a multinational corporation that made billions exporting American manufacturing jobs.

There is no Nike. Who, hiding behind the corporate Logo, made that pledge?

Sorry, Phil Knight. No sale.

[GeorgeGist]

20. Doesn't specify that these will be NEW jobs.

Normal turnover may well require hiring 10000 workers.

[A Little Weird]

21. I don't believe it for a second

All of the other articles I've read are sure to include weasel words. Like "up to" 10,000 jobs or "as many as" 10,000 jobs. It's going to take a lot more than a statement from a company known to use sweatshop labor to sell me on the TPP.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nike-backs-obama-on-trade-with-pledge-to-create-10000-us-jobs-2015-5?op=1

[yallerdawg]

22. If we stop TPP we'll save 330,000 jobs!

OH, SHIT!

Apparently, TPP has nothing to do with losing jobs to Viet Nam! We already lost them. With only a benefit to Nike, Inc...and, of course, the American consumer who buys cheap imports.

Thank you, Viet Nam! Welcome to the capitalist system of worker exploitation! We appreciate it!

[Hotler]

23. I don't believe it one f*&king minute, period.....n/t

[fredamae]

26. A) I Don't Trust Them

B) 10k Jobs In VS how many More Thousands of Jobs OUT of the US? Anyone mention That?

[Coventina]

28. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.......

They think we're idiots.

[closeupready]

29. Bullshit.

[zstat]

30. Nike gets 330,000 and amerika gets 10,000 in next 10 years

Just how gullible and dumb are we?

10,000 divided by 330,000 is 3.03%. So in the next 10 years the TPP does wonders for Nike so that it can be more competitive in the world market - that means they can probably double their sales with the advantages prescribed in the TPP agreement. They hire another 330,000 throughout the world and we get 10,000.

How can Nike think it is doing amerika a favor if the TPP is signed. We are fed up with these kinds of favors over the past 40 years.

Again, we get crumbs.

Now if they said, of the 330,000 to be hired in the next 10 years, 10,000 would be overseas and 320,000 were here, then I would sign the TPP myself. Even if it was a 50:50 split, 165,000 here and 165,000 overseas, I would sign it myself.

And this would happen for every major corporation producing anything in this country.

Ugh!!!!!

[candelista]

32. Could be 10,000 jobs selling shoes working for straight commission.

Could be, if their sales improve.

Disclaimer. I am not endorsing the idea, or Nike, or anything else bad.

[bahrbearian]

33. So , they must be planning on buying New Balance

[Vinca]

35. Ooooooh, a whole 10,000?

How about 10% of the jobs currently held by Nike employees and their subcontractors around the world instead? That would be a meaningful number.

[jeff47]

36. No, Nike said it will create _up to_ 10,000 US jobs

They put a cap on the prediction, not a floor.

"Bob retired. We hired a new guy"
"Yes! We created one job! We met our goal of creating up to 10,000 jobs!"

[Beauregard]

37. Over ten years!

That's 'up to' 1000 jobs a year. Hot patootie!

[sulphurdunn]

38. That's over 10 years,

so if they replaced Bob with one guy ten years from now they would still meet the goal.

[McKim]

39. Nike Doesn't Pay Fair Share of Taxes in Oregon!

Here in Oregon, Nike doesn't pay their fair share of taxes to support our schools and etc. They just built a huge new athletic facility for their precious employees. The schools can just have a bake sale to fix soccer fields. Thanks Phil!

[The CCC]

40. Nike Says It Will Create 10,000 U.S. Jobs If Trade Deal Passes

I've got a better idea. Bar Nike from selling anything in the US until wage and working conditions improve to meet a US $15/hr. rate.

[Orsino]

41. "Reducing tariffs would allow it to invest in manufactiring in the United States..."

Reducing tariffs would also allow Nike to invest in marshmallows and Mars rockets.

This is just the eternal lie of the trickle-downers.

[historylovr]

42. Suuure they will.

Don't you just love how gullible they think we all are.

[christx30]

43. Yep. All of those lazy, unemployed 12-year-olds. n/t

[d_legendary1]

44. Fuck Nike! Their shoes suck!

They're not comfortable, they haven't lead to me having an NBA, NFL, or MLB contract, they don't let me fly like Mike, and I can't jump over people who are sitting down! Nike is full of empty promises.

[TexasBushwhacker]

45. 10k jobs over 10 years? BFD

And what would those jobs pay?

[rocktivity]

46. Yeah, but in what country?

rocktivity

[Warren Stupidity]

48. So they will be paying those people $75 a month like they do in Vietnam?

[Sunlei]

49. thats good to make more shoes IN the usa, however the 10,000 can NOT be 50 cent an hour USA prison

slaves!

[dembotoz]

50. perhaps in retail. open a shitload of Nike stores or mandate a Nike specialist at big retailers who

Sell Nike
Bunch of truck drivers to ship the shoes...
Think ten thousand jobs possible and the do not have to open 1 factory

[bravenak]

51. Just like the Keystone pipeline jobs. Imaginary. And located elsewhere if they exist at all. Period.

[handmade34]

52. make that 300,000

new U.S. jobs and put it writing and I will let them talk