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Upset with conditions Anti-Nike activists protest as Woods gets honorary degree
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thai activists holding a giant cutout of Nike's logo demonstrated inside a luxury hotel where Tiger Woods was being honored, urging the golf star to ask Nike to improve working conditions in Thailand. About two dozen labor union workers and student activists marched into the riverside Shangri-La hotel to conduct the protest while Woods was in a ballroom, receiving an honorary doctorate in sports science by a local university. Woods, who signed a US$100 million, five-year endorsement deal with Nike Inc., is in Bangkok to play in the Johnnie Walker Classic tournament beginning Thursday. After the honoring ceremony, Woods walked past the protesters but didn't stop to speak with them. The protesters, who remained peaceful, handed a letter to an aide. The letter said the demonstration was on behalf of the 70,000 workers producing Nike footwear, garments and sports wear in Thailand in subcontracted factories. "We appeal to you to use your influence as a respected athlete and as a benefactor of Nike's success to push for better working conditions," the letter said. The protesters held banners saying, "Tiger Woods Stop Puttering." Another poster showed a man being pierced by the sharp end of the curved Nike logo. One protester wore a black hood and gown and held aloft a giant cutout of the logo in red. The protest letter said Nike spends the equivalent of 14,000 workers' daily wage to pay Woods for one day. "Even though Nike workers are earning the daily minimum wage, most of them end up working far more than eight hours a day" as overtime to make ends meet, it said. Besides, workers are often not issued proper safety equipment and suffer job injuries, it said. "The collection of protesters aren't familiar with our high standards for Nike factories around the world," a Nike spokesman, Vada Manager, told The Associated Press. He cited a September study that Nike helped finance, which said Nike workers in foreign factories feel safe and believe they are paid fairly though they want better health care and more training. The survey by the Global Alliance for Workers Communities covered 3,800 Nike workers in Vietnam and Thailand - about 8 percent of the Beaverton, Oregon, company's contract employees in the two countries. Woods, whose mother is Thai, is a national hero in Thailand and is expected to come under more media glare during the tournament. He could also find himself caught in a political row in when he plays at a course suspected to be owned by Thaksin Shinawatra, a top opposition politician, in violation of asset disclosure laws. Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon and prime ministerial aspirant, is being investigated by an anti-corruption panel on allegations that he bought the Alpine Golf and Sports Club but did not disclose it in a mandatory asset declaration. Thaksin's spokesman Suranan Vejjacheev has denied Thaksin owns the golf course, saying he is not cited as a shareholder in the company that owns the property. But Suranan acknowledged that the property is owned by shareholders of an affiliate of Shin Corp., the parent company of Thaksin's telecommunications business empire.
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