Newsreel

By James Reel

[
      
        {
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 1",
          "component": "29441156",
          "insertPoint": "1/3",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "9",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Top Stories Video Pair",
          "component": "27651162",
          "insertPoint": "10",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 2",
          "component": "29441158",
          "insertPoint": "2/3",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "10",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        },{
          "name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 3",
          "component": "29441159",
          "insertPoint": "1000",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "15",
          "parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
        }
      
      ]

I wish I had more money. Not me personally, but me as the guardian of the editorial budget here. I wish I could have sent Jim Nintzel on a junket to the Kukdong factory in the Mexican state of Puebla. He could have talked directly to some of the Nike sweatshop workers there and gotten first-hand information on what they're up against.

That's my only regret about this week's feature, in which Nintzel explores the irony of the University of Arizona raking in literally millions of dollars in goodies and greenbacks from its Nike contract, while the sportswear company is contracting with a Korean-owned sweatshop that pays each of its Mexican workers less in a single day than one of us would pay for a UA sweatshirt.

Junket or no, the facts are in the story, despite the tight lips of UA administrators. The local chapter of Students Against Sweatshops has conducted its own investigation into Kukdong conditions, and although things have marginally improved for the workers, their situation remains alarming.

Keep that in mind the next time you buy a UA souvenir, or cheer a student jock propelled by that Nike swoosh.