Nike’s Oregon headquarters was –? Unsupervised playground for male executives who would “sloppy drink” and harass female employees, according four-year-old complaints that were recently unsealed in a lawsuit against Nike.
Mark Parker, the former CEO of Beaverton’s sports apparel company, seemed to ignore female employees’ complaints. Parker resigned in 2020 as CEO, but he continues to serve as the executive chairman of Nike.
According to the allegations, the company is being accused of acting as a “boys’ club,” where women are told “dress sexier and show some skin,” while another woman claims she walked into a campus gym to see a senior employee receiving oral sex from her female subordinate.
Another complainant claimed that executives who were “sloppy drunks” pawned at women or offered career guidance over dinner, but instead demanded sex.
More:
“I reported bullying by a senior vice president twice and HR said that they would ‘take it care of,’ and ‘we are training them. “She wrote that the respondent had saved copies of emails she sent to HR and that they were never replied to.
The woman wrote, “I have friends that have reported bullying.” “No action was taken, except for a ‘we’ll talk to them. ‘”
All that aside, one has to wonder what the “talk” was like.
Nike denied the allegations. Yet, hundreds of employees marched in protest against the treatment of women at the company’s headquarters in 2019. This is more than a year since the company didn’t respond to the complaints this week.
This protest comes a month after Nike was criticized by Mary Cain, a running prodigy, for publishing a damning piece in the New York Times highlighting the difficulties female athletes faced while training with Salazar (the coach of Nike’s now-defunct Oregon Project).
Cain stated that she was told by all-male Nike staff, including Salazar when she arrived for training that she must be thinner, thinner, and more fit if she wants to become a better runner. Cain also stated that she was emotionally and physically abused by the system Alberto [Salazar] designed and endorsed for Nike.
Nike was among the first major corporations that woke up and embraced Colin Kaepernick, at a cost of over a million dollars per year.
Here’s what Nike had for George Floyd, a drug addict and criminal, who died from a fentanyl-induced cardiac arrest.
Do not pretend America isn’t facing a problem. You must not turn your back against racism. Do not accept the loss of innocent lives. Do not make excuses. This doesn’t mean it isn’t important to you. Do not sit back and remain silent. You don’t have to be a part of the change. Let’s all get involved in the change.
Nike is not new to abuse allegations. Nike was one of the first companies that I recall being accused of using sweatshop labor or slave labor overseas to make $300 sneakers.
It seems like waking up is just a cover for predatory men who want to do whatever they like against women, and now even children.
Oh, right. It is.
