Nike Workers Protest Company's Treatment of Women
10 Décembre 2019 - 3:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Khadeeja Safdar
Nike Inc. employees staged a protest over the company's
treatment of women on the same day the sportswear giant reopened a
headquarters building named after the disgraced running coach
Alberto Salazar.
A flier circulating among employees read, "Join us for a campus
walk to celebrate what women bring to sport and to raise awareness
of how Nike can support our female athletes and employees."
Employees marched Monday morning at the company's Beaverton,
Ore., headquarters in an event not sanctioned by the company. Some
held up placards saying, "Empower Women." Several senior executives
joined the employees and engaged them in a dialogue, said people
familiar with the event.
"We respect and welcome employees' feedback on matters that are
important to them," a Nike spokesman said. "The flier prepared by
some employees was not officially distributed by Nike."
Buildings on the sprawling Nike headquarters are named after
famous Nike athletes, including the golf great Tiger Woods and the
soccer star Mia Hamm. Mr. Salazar, a track coach whose name is on a
large office building, has been suspended from the sport for four
years on doping charges. Mr. Salazar has said he planned to appeal
the doping ban. He has disputed allegations from some former female
athletes that he has mistreated them.
The news of the protest was earlier reported by Willamette
Week.
Nike has been dealing with concerns about its workplace culture
for more than a year. In early 2018, a group of women circulated a
survey to protest inappropriate behavior by men at the sneaker
company as well as pay disparity and gender imbalance in the top
ranks. Later that year, Nike replaced several senior executives,
and Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker apologized at an all-hands
meeting, pledging to improve the workplace culture.
More recently, Nike has been embroiled in controversy
surrounding Mr. Salazar, a coach who has been associated with the
company for years. Mr. Salazar received a four-year suspension for
orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct following
an investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The running prodigy Mary Cain told the New York Times recently
that during her time with the Nike Oregon Project, Mr. Salazar's
now-defunct elite training group, she missed her period for three
years after coaches pressured her to lose weight. On Monday, she
commented on the march, saying Nike needed to let its employees and
community talk freely. "Stop the intimidation," she said on
Twitter.
The Nike coach said he was sorry his frank discussions with
athletes caused hurt feelings but disputed that he encouraged
female athletes to maintain an unhealthy weight.
Nike has defended Mr. Salazar, himself a former elite runner and
a Boston and New York City marathon champion. He is a close friend
of Nike's co-founder, Phil Knight, both of whom are alumni of the
track-and-field program at the University of Oregon. The company
has said it is conducting an investigation into Mr. Salazar's
treatment of athletes.
On Oct. 1, Mr. Parker sent an email to Nike employees in which
he said the company would never condone cheating and underscored
his support for Mr. Salazar. "As for Alberto, it's clearly a
difficult time for him, his family and his athletes," the CEO
wrote. "I think it's important that you know we looked into these
allegations and did not find that he violated any rules."
Mr. Parker said on Oct. 10 that the company was disbanding the
Nike Oregon Project. About two weeks later, Mr. Parker said he
would step down as CEO in January and become executive chairman.
Nike said Mr. Parker's decision to leave the CEO role was unrelated
to the Nike Oregon Project.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2019 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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