Garment Workers Are Uniting Like Never Before to Take On Nike

Absent in the raging debate over trade policy, tariffs, and foreign aid is a truth about the economy that those of us in the Global South know all too well: American corporations and their billionaire owners have built and profit from massive supply chains exploiting low-wage workers in the Global South. 

For decades these unregulated supply chains have been praised as “development” while in reality, they entrench low pay and disastrous working conditions. 

Perhaps no company is a more influential  innovator or offender in the outsourcing “race to the bottom” than Nike. 

Nearly thirty years ago, Nike founder Phil Knight was forced by the anti-sweatshop movement to announce that Nike would end its use of child labor. But instead of investing in improving the lives of supply chain workers, Nike actually figured out how to pay a smaller portion of its retail sticker price to the workers who make its products. 

In 2022, Nike authorized $18 billion in stock buybacks, which primarily benefit wealthy investors, while garment workers, the vast majority of whom are women in the Global South, faced a human rights crisis after massive wage losses and wage theft during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leni, a member of the Indonesian union Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indonesia (GSBI), makes Nike shoes in a factory of thousands of workers, the majority of which are women. 

“I want the world to understand the truth of workers’ lives behind these products,” Leni told me recently. “I had a baby and another small child when COVID hit in 2020. The factory slashed our wages and offered no support. We couldn’t even put basic food on our families’ tables. As we learned that Nike made record profits during the pandemic but offered us no relief, we were furious. There is no Nike and no profits without us.” 

“My factory has not even paid the mandated minimum wage increases in my region,” she continued. “The governor [of the Banten province] mandated an increase of 1.64 percent last year but our management only raised 1 percent. Earlier this year, the factory laid off 2,400 workers – they say Nike again is decreasing orders. We have had enough! We demand that Nike end wage theft in its supply chain and pay us what we deserve.”

Leni is part of a group of union activists from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and India with a plan to fight back. These brave workers have committed to speak publicly despite the risks of retaliation from factory management. They have gone through spokesperson training and met virtually with allies around the world, recounting their experiences and their decision to organize and fight. 

The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) has brought together unions across our region. We are organizing across borders in a transformative fight for living wages and human rights protections. The “Fight the Heist” campaign — coordinated by AFWA and Global Labor Justice (GLJ) — has focused its demands on Nike, with its supply chain of over 1 million garment workers.

Support in the US labor movement has grown. In July 2024, the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Communications Workers of America Women’s Committee joined GLJ to organize actions in eight cities across the US. In Asia, we’re excited to see allies in the US relate to our fight against corporate greed and for the value of women’s work.

At the end of 2024, the Fight the Heist worker activists coordinated across the region to run hundreds of organizing meetings with their coworkers. They discussed the gross inequalities of Nike’s supply chain — Nike’s CEO received more than 24,000 times as much compensation as a worker in Sri Lanka making Nike’s clothing in 2023.

At the end of those conversations, activists challenged their coworkers to join a public photo petition. Through the petition, workers are demanding that Nike recognize their essential work and provide the pay they deserve.

Now, over 1,000 workers across the region have decided to stand up together. On March 21, their photos will go public as allies across the world share the petition and demand that Nike’s executives look them in the eye. Will you join us?

Take the pledge, share it widely, and support the Asian union activists leading the fight to transform garment supply chains!