The Doson sportshoe factory in Tangerang, Indonesia produced sportshoes for Nike, and only Nike, from 1991 until 2002. In September 2002 Nike stopped ordering from the factory and it shut down, putting 7,000 other workers out of a job. The workers believe Nike cut its orders because they had held a short strike for better pay. They suspect Nike has moved orders to factories in countries where independent unions are illegal.

When the factory closed the factory-owner could not afford the severance payments and other payments which the Indonesian labour minister decreed that they should receive under Indonesian law. The workers held demonstrations and strikes, demanding that Nike and the factory-owner together take responsibility for paying them what they were legally owed. Eventually, out of desperation, the workers agreed to accept half the amount that the minister had decreed.

Even then, the factory-owner has not been able to afford to pay all the workers. Gradually, over the last twelve months, the workers who worked in the factory for less than 8 years have received the reduced amount of severance pay. These workers have still not received the holiday pay they are owed.

Those 1506 workers who produced Nike products in the Doson factory for eight years or more have so far received neither severance pay nor holiday pay. Because of the demonstrations and protests that the workers held to demand their legal rights, the union organisers from the factory have been blacklisted and are unable to get work in any factories in West Java. In fact, all workers who worked at Doson are finding it hard to find work because of their reputation as "troublemakers".

The company that owns the Doson factory is insolvent, but the workers believe that the factory's equipment, building and land are of enough value to cover all the payments owed to workers. They are calling on Nike to:

	make an interest-free loan to the factory-owner to cover the payments owed to workers, using the factory's land and equipment as a surety
	assist in the sale of the land and the factory equipment, and
	assist workers from the Doson factory, particularly the trade union organisers who have been blacklisted, to get jobs in other factories supplying Nike in Indonesia.

Nike has chosen to contract all its production, but it still has a responsibility to make sure that workers who make its product receive their legal rights, including their rights to severance pay when factories close. Given the amount of money that Nike can find to spend on marketing (more than US$1 billion per year) it is unacceptable that workers who produced Nike product for eight years or more have still received no severance pay, twelve months after their factory closed. Nike should quickly resolve this issue by agreeing to workers' requests.

PT Doson update, 1 November 2003