Black Group Extends Nike Boycott, Seeks More Jobs : Hiring: Operation PUSH says company’s offer is only a start. It accuses firm of ‘arrogance and insensitivity.’
Operation PUSH is intensifying its boycott of Nike Inc. products despite Nike’s promise to pursue affirmative action goals more aggressively, PUSH Executive Director Tyrone Crider said Saturday.
“We’re going to boycott until they make a commitment to more jobs in our community,” Crider said in a fiery speech to about 400 supporters at PUSH headquarters. “Nike said no to us! We’re saying no to Nike!”
Nike Chairman Philip H. Knight said Friday that Nike 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. Nike also said it would name a minority vice president within 24 months and form an outside minority advisory board to monitor Nike’s progress in meeting affirmative action goals.
Crider called the goals a “first step” Saturday and said they were not enough to end the boycott announced Aug. 11.
Accusing Nike officials of “arrogance and insensitivity,” he said that a demonstration at the company’s Beaverton, Ore., headquarters Monday would go on as planned and that PUSH had enlisted the support of other national civil rights groups to intensify its national campaign.
PUSH, the 19-year-old civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has often used the threat of boycotts to force corporations to hire and promote blacks and to contract with black businesses. PUSH targeted Nike, officials said, because it is the nation’s most successful athletic shoe company and blacks account for what they say are 30% of its revenues. But PUSH met unexpected combativeness from Nike after its initial July 30 meeting with company officials.
Nike President Richard K. Donahue called off a second planned meeting and accused PUSH of having links to Reebok International Ltd., Nike’s biggest competitor. In a letter to Crider, he suggested the PUSH official was seeking financial information from Nike so that it could supply it to Reebok, which he said recently had purchased a $6,000 ad in PUSH magazine.
“Reebok is not financing our fight,” Crider said Saturday. “We never solicited nor received funds from Reebok.”
Saying that PUSH was targeting the entire athletic shoe industry one company at a time, Crider said, “Reebok is next.”
PUSH has acknowledged that Reebok bought an ad in the magazine, “for less than $5,500,” but contends that the magazine is owned by a separate corporation.
Crider said it was Nike’s breaking off of negotiations and public attack against PUSH that sparked the boycott.
The campaign will continue, Crider said, until Nike agrees to use black banks and advertising agencies and provides jobs in black communities. He criticized the company for manufacturing its shoes outside the United States and also for not promising specifically to name a black person to its board of directors.
Nike officials said their hiring goals did not specifically target blacks, but also include Latinos, Asians, American Indians and women. While Nike acknowledged Friday that blacks account for a “significant” portion of their sales, the company says only 13.8% of its shoe sales come from nonwhites, an assertion disputed by some industry watchers.
