INDONESIAN WORKERS who make shoes for multinational giants Nike and Adidas continue to face sweatshop conditions, according to a new report.

Investigators for the Australia-based Oxfam Community Aid Abroad found that conditions in shoe factories improved somewhat since the anti-sweatshop movement focused attention on the two multinationals' operations. But "the measures taken fall well short of ensuring that workers are able to live with dignity," the report concludes.

Full-time wages in the factories are approximately $56 a month--about $2 a day--which leaves workers in extreme poverty. Oxfam researchers estimate that half of all workers with children are forced to send them to live with relatives.

The study also found that shoe factory managers regularly target unionists. Last year, one worker, Ngadinah Binti Abu Mawardi, was arrested and imprisoned for a month for organizing a strike at the PT Panarub factory that makes Adidas shoes.

Both companies claim to monitor conditions at factories that produce shoes for them. But this study proves that Nike and Adidas are still getting rich off sweatshop labor.

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