How is Nike reacting to TeamSweat!??

As we have discussed extensively in class, every organization is vulnerable to some type of crisis. Some crises may strike quickly and end quickly, leaving the organization relatively unscathed. I would guess that most of us are familiar with Nike's recent crisis related to its corporate social responsibility and the alleged unethical treatment of its workers in factories abroad. Although the peak of the crisis seems to be over, negative press involving Nike's lack of CSR continues to keep cropping up on the Internet.

Now let me introduce you to the organization that is primarily responsible for the crisis that has been plaguing Nike for decades--TeamSweat. TeamSweat was founded by Jim Keady, a college soccer coach at St. John's University. Keady first began investigating Nike's labor factories while taking graduate school courses at St. John's and discovered many Nike facilities were basically sweatshops. Keady formed TeamSweat after being forced to resign as a coach at the university for refusing to outfit his team in Nike uniforms. He has since traveled the world visiting Nike factories and even produced a full-length film about the topic, entitled "Sweat."

For the past eight years, TeamSweat has been dedicated to improving the conditions in Nike factories, and as a result of the organization Nike has made many changes for the better--but TeamSweat doesn't seem to be satisfied.

On February 11th, Keady published a new article in The Huffington Post, an online newspaper/popular blog site, entitled "Why is Nike Afraid of Disclosing what their Overseas Factory Workers are Paid?" The article claims that if Nike is so sure that their factory workers are paid a fair living wage why are they still refusing to disclose actual data regarding the wages they pay their workers.

I'm not sure if this story is really "new" news, or TeamSweat just trying to dig up old dirt. However, Nike is yet to respond to this story. I have been checking around the Internet to see if some sort of response will pop up on their Web site, but it has yet to appear. Nike originally addressed the crisis by releasing its first Corporate Social Responsibility Report in 2006 and subsequent editions in 2007 and 2009, but that doesn't seem to be satisfying these special interest groups and if Nike doesn't start doing more this crisis is going to continue to smolder.

I am looking forward to tracking the progress of this in the upcoming weeks to see his Nike deals with this mini-crisis moving forward.

On a side note, Nike released an awesome new short video this week called "Human Chain"--it highlights the perseverance of athletes in tons of different sports and of course, coincides with the kick off of the Olympics. It's really awesome--Click here to see it on YouTube!