labor - Nike, EU chamber mitigate opposition against labor law

Both the European Chamber of Commerce in China and US shoe giant Nike have greatly mitigated their very critical attitude toward the draft labor law in China, although they did not go to great length to inform the outside world about their changed position.
In April foreign companies voiced loud opposition when the draft was published, together with almost 200,000 comments from China itself. The suggestion was that the law, when adopted, would cause foreign companies to withdraw from China.
Earlier this month the European Chamber of Commerce announced on its website a more subtle "clarification".

The European Chamber welcomes the fact that many of the articles presented in the draft law stem from labour laws in Europe. There is no doubt that if such a law was passed and strictly implemented, working conditions in China would drastically improve. However, the key challenge in China remains the compliance by employers and the enforcement by authorities of existing Chinese laws.
Although the European Chamber welcomes the new draft labour provisions, it is concerned that current levels of compliance and implementation of existing legislations are inadequate. The European Chamber therefore encourages the Chinese government to focus its efforts on improving the implementation of existing regulations.

Nike clarified its position in answers to questions from Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF). Nike's vice-president Hannah Jones said, according to the trade unions's website:

“As one of the 7,000 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China we had yet definitely to state a position either internally or externally to AmCham on the draft labor law currently under review”, adds Hannah Jones in her letter. “Our initial reaction was to work with out contract factories to promote their understanding of the proposed law and open a dialogue for their input into the process”.

In other words: Nike was listed too early as one of the opponents of the draft labor law.
In a seemingly unrelated event, the European Chamber of Commerce decided to terminated the contract with its Secretary General Giorgio Magistrelli. On its website and in an email to its members the chamber last week said both parties

have amicably agreed not to extend his mandate.

As one EU-chamber member put it: mostly they was say there were personal reasons why he would leave, or say he wanted to pursue other opportunities. This sounded pretty harsh.