It was all but natural; sooner or later Nike had to have several critics with strong concerns on Nike attitudes towards labor concerns such as low wages, forced overtime on workers, child labour and hazardous environments in which the workers were employed.
Jeff Ballinger, a labor activist, who later went on to run the AAFLI (Asian American Free Labor Association) office in Indonesia played a pivotal role in bringing to the fore the apathy attitude of Nike towards labor conditions in Indonesia and china. His main concern was the difference in wage rates between the developed and developing countries, and how large successful companies such as Nike were utilizing that to their advantage by flouting Indonesian labor rules, and payment of low wages, which did not even enable the workers to meet some of their daily requirements such as food etc., and to make matters worse Nike's indifference attitude towards the same by spending huge sums of money on marketing, and shying away from responsibility when it came to concerns of labors.
There were two mysterious situations recorded during the rise of anti-Nike campaign. Firstly, strikes, which had been virtually nonexistent suddenly, began to occur with increasing frequency. Then, a series of polemical articles, in Indonesian newspapers, about foreign companies' practices, triggered unprecedented demands from the workers. The claim behind the articles remaining unclear, the AAFLI published a highly critical report against the favor of foreign companies in Indonesia. Also, the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) issued a similar report, in agreement with AAFLI. The first response to all the criticism came from the Indonesian Government, in January 1992, wherein the minimum daily wage was revised from 2100 rupiah to 2500 rupiah. The outside observers considered that government's actions demonstrated some willingness to respond to the labor situation at Nike's factories.