A non-profit group protested the opening of the new Niketown in Portland because it feels Nike owes additional severance payments to laid-off Indonesian factory workers. According to the Oregonian, the group has indicated it will contact colleges nationwide and urge them not to stock Nike merchandise until the company makes additional severance payments to the factory workers.

The non-profit, Washington, D.C.-based USAS claims Nike is responsible for paying $1.8 million more to the workers who were laid off in January from the PT Kizone International apparel factory in Tangerang, Indonesia. The city is about 25 miles west of Jakarta. The South Korean factory owner — a Nike contractor — closed PT Kizone and fled Indonesia in January without paying the workers, Teresa Cheng, the USAS international campaigns coordinator, told the Oregonian.

Nike said it already had paid a severance to the Indonesian workers in question. In a written statement issued Monday, Nike said it reached an agreement between the union and a factory representative for severance payment to workers. A worker relief fund was also created.

“During August and September, Kizone workers were asked to return to the factory site to receive their part of the worker relief fund,” the Nike statement says. “Of the 2,664 workers employed at the time of factory closure, 2,509 workers received their payments.” The statement says funds remain to be paid to 155 other workers and that the total that will have been paid is $1.52 million.

The full story is http://www.oregonlive.com/playbooks-profits/index.ssf/2011/11/nike_should_pay_more_severance.html.