Nike Feels Heat, Sets Minority Goals
The shoving match between Operation PUSH and Nike Inc. took an unexpected turn Friday when Nike, apparently bowing to pressure, announced aggressive new affirmative action goals.
PUSH, the civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, had announced a national boycott of Nike products a week ago, charging that Nike receives 30% of its $6.8-billion athletic shoe revenue from blacks, yet invests little in the black community and has no high-level black employees.
Nike, the nation’s largest athletic shoe and apparel manufacturer, said Friday that it would name a member of a minority group to its board of directors and increase the number of nonwhite department heads by 10% within 12 months. It also said it would name a minority vice president within 24 months.
In a letter to Nike employees, Chairman Philip H. Knight listed other affirmative action plans and said the company would form an outside minority advisory board to monitor Nike’s progress in meeting its goals.
Contrary to PUSH’s demands, however, Nike’s plans are not intended to benefit blacks specifically, Knight said. “We have a broader vision of equal opportunity than they do,” he said.
“We have increased the number of African American executives we have and need to keep increasing it . . . ,” Knight said. “The same can be said of each minority group in this country--Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans. All should be represented at Nike, and we have a commitment to that.”
PUSH officials, who had planned to hold a demonstration Monday at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, Monday and had announced a 10-city campaign of leafleting and protest, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Calls to the PUSH headquarters in Chicago, however, still were being answered with “Operation PUSH, say no to Nike,” and the message on the organization’s answering machine late Friday counseled: “Don’t buy a pair until we get our fair share.”
Creation of the advisory committee is in direct response to criticism from PUSH, Nike spokeswoman Liz Dolan said.
Naming a nonwhite director and vice president were included as “priorities” in company goals before discussions with PUSH began, but the setting of timetables was done in response to PUSH’s demands, she said. She said the company had not been in direct communication with PUSH about the new initiatives.
Last week, Nike had surprised PUSH officials by going on the attack, accusing the organization of having financial links to Reebok International Ltd., Nike’s biggest competitor. PUSH denied the allegation, insisting that it had targeted Nike’s business and hiring practices simply “because it is the largest and most successful athletic shoe and apparel company in the United States.”
PUSH was founded in 1971 to encourage major corporations to hire and promote blacks and to contract with black businesses. Its muscle is the threat of economic boycotts, which it successfully used against a number of corporations, including Coca-Cola, Coors, Burger King Corp. and Ford Motor Co. Eventually these companies signed so-called reciprocal economic agreements with PUSH.
After deciding to target athletic shoe companies, PUSH focused first on Nike because it is the largest and because more than 50% of the money spent by blacks for athletic shoes goes to Nike, PUSH Senior Vice President George E. Riddick said Thursday.
Nike’s eye-catching television commercials feature black sports celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and David Robinson, and some are directed by Spike Lee, the black producer and actor.
Nike insists, though, that it does not target African American youths. “Michael Jordan is the most universally appealing guy in America today,” Dolan said. “It demeans Michael and Bo to insist that they only appeal to black youths.”
In calling for a boycott, PUSH has refrained from criticizing blacks who endorse Nike products. Only Michael Jordan has commented on the controversy. In a statement released by his agent, he said he does not support PUSH’s action. “While I believe that all of corporate America needs to provide equal opportunities for qualified blacks to advance into the corporate hierarchy, it is unfair to single out Nike just because they are on top,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lee, Jackson and Robinson have carefully measured their comments--or made none at all. Spike Lee “has nothing to say about this,” said his spokeswoman Susan Fowler. Although Bo Jackson met Wednesday with Nike officials in Kansas City, he declined to comment through his agent.
“It seems like we’ve had a hundred calls on this today,” said Freda Robinson, the mother of David Robinson, who is also a spokeswoman for her son. “A lot of companies need to do more about hiring blacks” was her only comment on the issue.
At stake in the controversy is a healthy share of Nike’s profitable athletic shoe business. But also at stake is the prestige of Operation PUSH, the 19-year-old Chicago-based organization that is waging its first high-profile campaign since Jackson stepped down as executive director earlier this year to move to Washington.
A source who is well-acquainted with the Rev. Tyrone Crider, the new executive director of PUSH, says Crider’s ambition played a large role in the Nike targeting. “He saw it as a way to get a little more high profile for himself, and for what he saw as the passing of the glory days of Operation PUSH. Nike was a perfect target.”
PUSH and Nike officials met in Chicago on July 30 to discuss PUSH’s concerns. PUSH characterized the meeting as “amicable” and left 10 questions about Nike’s operations for the company to answer.
Nike President Richard K. Donahue wrote a letter last week to PUSH, canceling a second meeting. Saying that the information PUSH sought was “highly proprietary” and “would be more than useful to our competitors,” he wrote: “I was surprised to learn that Operation PUSH has recently received contributions and support from a major competitor, Reebok. It is more surprising that, shortly after receipt of funds from Reebok, Nike was targeted for a preemptive strike.”
Although Riddick acknowledged that Reebok purchased an ad in PUSH Magazine, “for less than $5,500,” he said the publication is owned by a separate corporation, and PUSH did not receive the funds.
But bolstering Donahue’s claims that PUSH has been cozy with Reebok was an item this week in Sporting Goods Intelligence, an independent trade newsletter, alleging that Reebok officials furnished PUSH with financial information about Nike at a breakfast meeting before PUSH’s decision to target Nike.
