http://biz.yahoo.com/finance/97/10/13/nke_y0033_1.html
Monday October 13 8:55 AM EDT
Nike fines Vietnam venture for producing sex toys
HANOI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Nike Inc (NKE) has fined a joint-venture plant in Vietnam $5,000 after a supervisor ordered workers to produce 51 rubber penises, an official at the plant said on Monday.
The first 36 ``dildos'' came to light when they were presented to a company official as a birthday present in June. Disgusted, he threw them into a rubbish bin.
The management of the Taiwanese Pou Chen venture, which is based north of Ho Chi Minh City, immediately ordered a halt to production of the offending items.
The company official, who declined to be identified, said five Vietnamese workers later stole the penis mould and tried to blackmail Pou Chen managers, but were arrested and charged by local police.
He said Nike had fined the plant $5,000. Officials at the sportswear firm's regional head office in Hong Kong were not available to comment.
Nike officials were quoted by a domestic newspaper as saying managers involved were also punished with salary cuts.
Pou Chen, which employs 10,500 workers to make Nike shoes, was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when a supervisor made 56 workers jog twice around the factory perimeter for failing to wear regulation footwear.
The supervisor, a Taiwanese woman, was jailed for six months.
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| <bold>John Boyer</bold>
| mailto:<bold>johnboy@CreativeSysInc.com
</bold>| <italic>"I don't want to make the wrong mistake"-- Thanh Boyer
</italic>|=========================================================