Nike decided to shut down its
corporate offices for a full week
because, would you look at that,
they're really looking out for
their workers.
They want to make sure that they
focus on their mental health.
Things have been really difficult
with COVID.
But its retail workers,,
the forward-facing employees who
have to deal with customers all
day, those in the service industry,
they're expected to show up.
So how did Nike not see how awful
this idea was,
especially as they're promoting it
as something that makes them
the good guys for looking out for
the well-being of their workers?
Now, it has closed its corporate
offices for the week so employees
can, quote, enjoy additional time
off to rest and recover, end quote,
according to their statement.
Matt Marrazzo, senior manager at
Nike, posted on his LinkedIn page
quote, it's not just a week off for
the team, it's an acknowledgement
that we can prioritize mental
health and still get work done.
But as I mentioned earlier,
the retail workers are still
expected to show up.
In fact, when a reporter from KGW
news called a Nike retail store,
the person who answered the phone
said this was the first they were
hearing about the paid time off for
corporate employees.
And an associate professor from
the University of Oregon School of
Law said if it is the case that
part-time workers in a retail store
are expected to come to work,
whereas headquarter
offices are not, that also
sends a message about which kind of
workers they care about and
are willing to invest in.
And by the way, this doesn't even
account for the people who actually
make the products for Nike,
who overwhelmingly do not live in
the United States,
and are in fact exploited in
countries like China and Vietnam.
I'll get to those details in
a second, Cenk.
>> Yeah, so apparently,
they didn't run it by their
employees at the retail stores.
They told them to just do it.
>> Sounds like they didn't want to
shatter limits.
>> I guess if the shoe fits.
>> But they could just do it.
>> They could, but I said
that already.
>> You did? I wasn't paying
attention.
>> [LAUGH] I thought we'd maxed out
our bad dad jokes, okay?
So seriously, though,
it's an interesting story and
an important one.
Look, the original idea of looking
out for the people working
at headquarters is not a bad one,
as long as you did it for
everybody, right?
>> Exactly.
>> And so, I don't want to just
pile on them and
say I can't believe they wanted to
give people more time off.
That's great news.
We're just asking you to
do it more uniformly.
And what's really interesting is
that it's the lack of an ability to
see outside your own perspective.
They didn't even think of
the retail guys, obviously,
because it went to print,
they're bragging about it.
>> Right. >> Yeah, I mean, the guys
who make the shoes in Vietnam or
wherever, god help them, right?
That was never in question, they
were not going to get a week off.
But I think it never occurred to
them that we have workers elsewhere
that aren't executive.
>> Exactly.
>> And unfortunately, that's
the mindset of a lot of executives.
They think like no, but
they they gotta work,
we need to have the stores open.
But you don't have to work?
Well, that's also interesting.
>> No, but to be fair, Cenk,
I'm sure the executives work a lot
harder than everyone else,
so they deserve that week off and
everyone else [CROSSTALK] >> They
they definitely believe that.
>> Of course, they believe that,
of course they believe that.
>> Yeah, >> And it's insane.
Anyway, all right,
so let's talk about, look,
we live in a global economy, right?
And that global economy means that
they don't just have workers
in the United States, they
are exploiting workers in other
countries like China and Vietnam.
In fact, almost all Nike shoes
are in fact manufactured outside of
the United States.
The leading manufacturer of
Nike shoes is China and Vietnam,
each accounting for 36% of
the total manufactured worldwide.
Indonesia accounts for 22%, and
Thailand for 6% of the Nike shoes
that are being produced worldwide.
Now, there's also the issue
of forced labor.
Because when we're talking about
China there's also the issue
of Uighur Muslims who get forced
into these factories.
And there was recently an op-ed
published in The Washington Post
that touched on this.
It's a team of researchers who have
been tracking the treatment of
Uighur Muslims in China, and
here's what they found.
For months our team of researchers
based in Australia have been
tracking the movement of Uighur
citizens from their homeland in
the western region of Xinjiang and
their other parts of China.
We found that, in the past
three years, more than 80,000 of
them have been transported to
factories across China, where they
are compelled to work on production
lines linked to at least 83 brands.
The Post's Anna Fifield visited one
of the shoe factories in China
producing sneakers for Nike and
found that it resembled a prison
with barbed wire, watchtowers,
surveillance cameras, and
a dedicated police station.
Uighur workers at the factory,
she was told, did not come on their
own accord nor could they return
home for the holidays.
But hey, don't worry
the corporate offices,
they're getting a week off.
Awesome.
>> Yeah, look,
we're having trouble getting people
to care about the women of Texas.
Portland has hopefully starting to
trend by saying that they're going
to boycott Texas.
We hope more people do to
effectuate change there.
But getting people to try to care
about Uighurs in China and
83 brands that they're forced into
making in these camps, these
concentration camps are outside of
the camps, unfortunately in
America, it's just near impossible
to get people to care.
And that's that's
the reality of it.
It's so much so that even Nike
executives forgot that these
are folks that are also related to
their brand and make their shoes.
And I mean, a week off would be
great as if China didn't put them
in concentration camps anymore.
And you guys could put
economic pressure on to make sure
that doesn't happen.
But of course,
they're not going to do that.
And so, I'd love to give them
credit for coming up with a good
idea about the week off, but
they really gotta do better
in making it uniform.
Otherwise, it looks inescapably
elitist.