When police used stun batons to hit garment employees in search of a $14 month-to-month increase from a Nike manufacturing unit in Cambodia in 2013, reportedly main one pregnant girl to miscarry, Nike mentioned it was “deeply involved.”
The next yr, when Cambodian police opened fireplace and killed 4 garment employees throughout widespread demonstrations over low wages, Nike and different manufacturers despatched the federal government a letter expressing “grave concern.”
In 2018, after the federal government curbed union rights, Nike and different manufacturers once more protested, this time in a gathering with authorities officers. An business consultant described the businesses in a information launch as “more and more involved.”
A yr later, one other letter: “We’re involved.”
Regardless of the various shades of company concern, Cambodia continued descending deeper into authoritarian governance, and the scale of Nike’s contract workforce there saved going up.
Whereas Nike has been shrinking its footprint in China, its presence in Cambodia has grown, from about 16,000 manufacturing unit employees in Could 2013, to just about 35,000 in 2019, to greater than 57,000 as of March. As we speak, Cambodia is the athletic attire large’s third-largest provider of clothes apart from sneakers, almost overtaking its clothes manufacturing in China.
Different Western manufacturers have additionally continued increasing in Cambodia. The nation’s garment exports climbed from $4.9 billion in 2013 to $9.3 billion in 2022, in keeping with World Financial institution information.
Alongside the way in which, labor leaders have been jailed; opposing politicians have gone into exile and been arrested or killed; journalists have been locked up and killed; and unbiased media shops have been shuttered by the federal government.
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The curbs on unions and free speech are in pressure with Nike’s code of conduct, which acknowledges employees’ rights to hitch commerce unions and take part in union actions with out interference. In nations that limit union rights, Nike says factories will need to have an efficient grievance course of that enables workers to voice issues over working circumstances with out concern of retaliation.
Nike’s continued development in Cambodia underscores the extent of political and labor repression the corporate has been keen to tolerate in nations that present cheap labor — letters of concern however.
“Plenty of manufacturers have been signing letters for years as an alternative choice to actual stress, actual change,” mentioned Jason Judd, govt director of Cornell College’s World Labor Institute.
Manufacturers rising their orders from Cambodia whereas elevating issues about labor rights are “clearly blended messages,” Judd mentioned. “And one message, the acquisition order, has much more weight than the opposite. Till these are credibly threatened, the federal government has no motive to behave.”
Khun Tharo, program supervisor on the Middle for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, was focused final yr after his group revealed a report figuring out gaps in manufacturing unit oversight. The federal government started auditing the authorized support group; Khun confronted a legal grievance that he mentioned his lawyer had been unable to see.
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Khun advised ProPublica that manufacturers typically communicate up about employee rights due to prodding by civil society teams or the ire voiced by buying and selling companions.
For Nike and different manufacturers, “it’s about defending their market and accessibility and in addition credibility. That’s all,” Khun mentioned. With out stress on manufacturers to take motion, he mentioned, “they won’t do it. They are going to simply begin to ignore it.”
Nike didn’t reply on to written questions from ProPublica about its enlargement in Cambodia amid the nation’s intensifying political repression. As an alternative, it mentioned in an announcement: “We proceed to have interaction with suppliers, business organizations and different world stakeholders to develop broad-based approaches to assist mitigate longer-term impacts.”
Labor rights are tenuous in Cambodia. The U.S. State Division mentioned in a 2023 human rights report that “important and systematic restrictions on employees’ freedom of affiliation” exist in Cambodia and that the federal government “didn’t successfully implement legal guidelines that protected union and labor rights.” Human Rights Watch mentioned in a 2022 report that the federal government’s repression of unbiased unions had solely intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Former Khmer Rouge battalion commander Hun Sen led Cambodia from 1985 till handing management to his son, Hun Manet, in 2023. Hun Sen was brazen in his public dismissals of threats from the West over its assault on labor rights and civil society, mentioned Carlyle Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at Australia’s College of New South Wales, Canberra. The threats included warnings from Europe, U.S. lawmakers and worldwide clothes manufacturers.
The Cambodian authorities yielded simply sufficient to keep away from the complete drive of financial sanctions, Thayer mentioned.
He pointed to an episode through which the European Fee threatened to finish tariff exemptions for Cambodian exports over issues about human rights and labor abuses. Hun Sen directed the nation’s courts to shortly resolve circumstances pending in opposition to union officers, Thayer mentioned, resulting in suspended sentences for some and dropped prices for others.As an alternative of following by means of on its menace, the European Fee imposed a scaled-down set of commerce restrictions.
Manufacturers, together with Nike, have had some affect. After employees have been killed whereas protesting for larger wages in 2014, manufacturers supported rising the minimal wage. The Cambodian authorities finally established a course of to yearly negotiate wage will increase.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor and Vocational Coaching mentioned the incidents that led overseas manufacturers to lift issues with the federal government have been “outdated,” deceptive and had been politicized. The spokesperson didn’t reply to subsequent questions after a reporter famous that the newest incident occurred inside the final yr.
Ken Lavatory, a spokesperson for the Cambodian garment business’s commerce affiliation, mentioned 1000’s of unions are registered within the nation. “I don’t agree together with your presumption that there’s a repressive setting right here in Cambodia,” he mentioned. “Particular person incidents don’t make up the entire story.”
Lots of Cambodia’s unions are government-aligned teams that Human Rights Watch has referred to as “prompt noodle” unions as a result of they take much less time to make than a cup of noodles. Unbiased unions have lengthy been underneath assault there, in keeping with American, European and different labor rights observers.
Yang Sophorn, president of the unbiased Cambodian Alliance of Commerce Unions, was threatened in a July 2020 letter from the nation’s labor ministry after becoming a member of employees who protested exterior a garment manufacturing unit, Violet Attire. The manufacturing unit had closed all of a sudden in the course of the pandemic.
The previous Nike provider went on to turn into the topic of a long-standing dispute between labor advocates and Nike over wages that employees mentioned they have been nonetheless owed. Ramatex, Violet Attire’s dad or mum firm, didn’t reply to ProPublica’s request for remark. Nike has mentioned publicly it’s discovered no proof to help the allegations.
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In its 2020 letter, the federal government advised Yang that she was breaking the regulation by inciting employees and pressuring the closed manufacturing unit to pay its workers. The letter mentioned the labor ministry would possibly dissolve her unbiased union, which represents greater than 5,000 employees who make garments in Nike factories. (The Cambodian labor ministry didn’t reply to ProPublica’s request for remark in regards to the letter.)
The labor chief had already obtained a suspended legal sentence. The federal government mentioned she instigated protests over wages, which occurred in 2013 and 2014. That conviction was finally vacated in what Human Rights Watch mentioned was an effort to placate European officers threatening Cambodia’s commerce entry.
Yang advised ProPublica she was not scared by the Cambodian authorities’s threats in opposition to her and her union. “In the event that they nonetheless need to dissolve it,” she mentioned of the union, “let it’s.”
Yang mentioned she welcomes investments by Nike and different manufacturers as a result of they supply extra jobs for individuals in her nation. However she mentioned employees want good wages, the best to assemble and protections when factories shut with out paying them. “If they simply come to take advantage of our employees, I don’t need them,” she mentioned.
Nike has prided itself on the story of its turnaround since co-founder Phil Knight acknowledged in 1998 that its merchandise had turn into “synonymous with slave wages, pressured extra time and arbitrary abuse.”
One former senior Nike govt, who requested anonymity so they might communicate freely about their former employer, mentioned the corporate had expanded in Cambodia to assist diversify its provide chain. The chief mentioned Nike and different manufacturers’ presence had benefited employees in Cambodia and different nations the place it manufactures.
“Nike has clearly said that the rule of regulation and respect for labor rights are important elements in the place the corporate decides to put orders,” the manager mentioned.
However, the individual mentioned, “Are issues imperfect, and are there a whole lot of screwups? Completely. Are we involved when Vietnam or Cambodia takes steps backward? In fact.”
After Nike final yr underwent $2 billion in value slicing that disproportionately focused its sustainability employees, together with individuals engaged on overseas manufacturing unit oversight, the previous govt mentioned they nervous that Nike’s cuts had affected the corporate’s skill to have interaction with its stakeholders within the nations the place its factories function.
Nike was silent final yr when Cambodian authorities cracked down on the Middle for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, the authorized support group. The federal government launched what was described as a “nationwide safety audit” of the group, often known as CENTRAL, after it reported on oversight gaps by a United Nations-backed manufacturing unit watchdog.
Two business teams, one in every of which counts Nike as a participant, wrote to the federal government on July 12 saying that they had “critical issues” that the audit’s solely function was retaliation, condemning it “within the strongest attainable phrases.”
Nineteen main clothes corporations — from Adidas to VF Corp., proprietor of the North Face model — adopted up Sept. 10 with a joint letter protesting Cambodia’s assault on the group, additionally saying that they had “critical issues.” Nike didn’t signal that letter.
“A vibrant civil society, assured partly by freedom of speech, is a key a part of what makes Cambodia an essential sourcing associate for the attire and footwear business,” the businesses mentioned.
Nike didn’t clarify why it was not a signatory when requested by ProPublica.
Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, mentioned with the regular deterioration in employees’ rights in Cambodia and President Donald Trump’s cuts to U.S. overseas support, Western attire corporations have an crucial to talk up in Cambodia.
“Nike and different manufacturers sourcing from Cambodia have an curiosity in making certain that organizations like CENTRAL live on and may discuss labor rights points,” Lau mentioned.
Khun, the CENTRAL staffer, mentioned he knew the Nike worker who centered on company social accountability in Cambodia, however he mentioned she left the corporate inside the final yr. Khun mentioned he didn’t know whether or not anybody had changed her. (She didn’t reply to ProPublica, and Nike didn’t reply to questions on her departure.)
CENTRAL this yr confronted a brand new authorities downside. When Trump started to dismantle the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth in January, CENTRAL and two different teams obtained discover that they have been dropping $1.5 million in funding promised for a challenge supposed to doc human rights violations and counter Cambodia’s repression.
Lower than two months later, the Trump administration tried to intestine Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, among the solely information sources obtainable in Cambodia’s native language that reported on the nation’s authoritarian flip. Former Prime Minister Hun Sen praised Trump’s “braveness,” posting a picture from 2017 of the 2 males shaking fingers and smiling.
Trump was giving a thumbs up.
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Keat Soriththeavy and Ouch Sony contributed reporting and translation.
