Спереводом текста: company of the month: nike there must be few people in the world who are not aware of the athletic footwear company, nike. since 1972, it has earned billions of dollars in the usa and around the world, selling footwear and later other items of clothing. now the brand has been extended to watches and many other products. nike’s success suggests that everybody loves nike, but if you type the name into the search engine on your computer, you will find many sites protesting against nike and calling for a boycott of nike products. most of these focus on the employment conditions in the factories where the footwear is made. the manufacture of clothing and in particular footwear requires a large amount of low skilled and semi-skilled human labour. this means that large squads of workers labour on production lines in factories. people choose to work in nike factories because the alternatives are even worse. most of nike’s factories are located in countries marked by extreme poverty, high unemployment and extensive malnutrition. protesters would like some of the millions of dollars nike spends on advertising, marketing and sponsorship of celebrity athletes spent on the workers who actually make the products. nike has tried to draw attention to their sponsorship of sports events, education and community projects in their main market – the usa. they have also begun to promote themselves as ecologically friendly by producing a shoe with no plastic. some economists argue that these bad working conditions are a normal stage at the beginning of industrialization of any country. they point to the working conditions in britain at the beginning of the industrial revolution and similar practices in the usa, mexico, japan and other countries. wages and working conditions improved in those countries because workers formed unions to push for improvements. nike, the protesters say, is increasing its production in areas where genuinely democratic unions are illegal.
