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When police used stun batons to hit garment employees looking for a $14 month-to-month increase from a Nike manufacturing unit in Cambodia in 2013, reportedly main one pregnant lady to miscarry, Nike mentioned it was “deeply involved.”
The next yr, when Cambodian police opened hearth 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 trade 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 dimensions 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 Might 2013, to just about 35,000 in 2019, to greater than 57,000 as of March. At the moment, Cambodia is the athletic attire large’s third-largest provider of clothes aside from footwear, 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 accordance 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.
Sabrina Manufacturing employees collect at their union headquarters in Phnom Penh whereas protesting for larger wages on the Nike provider in 2013.
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Damir Sagolj/Reuters
The curbs on unions and free speech are in stress with Nike’s code of conduct, which acknowledges employees’ rights to hitch commerce unions and take part in union actions with out interference. In international locations that prohibit union rights, Nike says factories will need to have an efficient grievance course of that permits staff to voice considerations over working circumstances with out worry of retaliation.
Nike’s continued progress in Cambodia underscores the extent of political and labor repression the corporate has been prepared to tolerate in international locations that present cheap labor — letters of concern however.
“A whole lot of manufacturers have been signing letters for years as an alternative to actual strain, actual change,” mentioned Jason Judd, govt director of Cornell College’s International Labor Institute.
Manufacturers rising their orders from Cambodia whereas elevating considerations about labor rights are “clearly combined 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 purpose to behave.”
Khun Tharo, program supervisor on the Heart for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, was focused final yr after his group printed a report figuring out gaps in manufacturing unit oversight. The federal government started auditing the authorized help group; Khun confronted a legal grievance that he mentioned his lawyer had been unable to see.
Khun Tharo
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Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
Khun informed ProPublica that manufacturers typically converse 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 likewise credibility. That’s all,” Khun mentioned. With out strain 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 a press release: “We proceed to interact with suppliers, trade 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 power of financial sanctions, Thayer mentioned.
He pointed to an episode by which the European Fee threatened to finish tariff exemptions for Cambodian exports over considerations about human rights and labor abuses. Hun Sen directed the nation’s courts to rapidly resolve circumstances pending towards union officers, Thayer mentioned, resulting in suspended sentences for some and dropped prices for others.As an alternative of following via on its risk, 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 boost considerations 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 latest incident occurred inside the final yr.
Ken Bathroom, a spokesperson for the Cambodian garment trade’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 surroundings 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 “on the spot noodle” unions as a result of they take much less time to make than a cup of noodles. Unbiased unions have lengthy been below assault there, in accordance 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 abruptly in the course of the pandemic.
The previous Nike provider went on to develop 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 mum or dad firm, didn’t reply to ProPublica’s request for remark. Nike has mentioned publicly it’s discovered no proof to help the allegations.
Yang Sophorn
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Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
In its 2020 letter, the federal government informed Yang that she was breaking the regulation by inciting employees and pressuring the closed manufacturing unit to pay its staff. The letter mentioned the labor ministry may 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 informed ProPublica she was not scared by the Cambodian authorities’s threats towards 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 folks in her nation. However she mentioned employees want good wages, the correct to assemble and protections when factories shut with out paying them. “If they only 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 develop into “synonymous with slave wages, pressured additional time and arbitrary abuse.”
One former senior Nike govt, who requested anonymity so they might converse freely about their former employer, mentioned the corporate had expanded in Cambodia to assist diversify its provide chain. The manager mentioned Nike and different manufacturers’ presence had benefited employees in Cambodia and different international locations the place it manufactures.
“Nike has clearly acknowledged that the rule of regulation and respect for labor rights are important components in the place the corporate decides to put orders,” the manager mentioned.
However, the individual mentioned, “Are issues imperfect, and are there a number of screwups? Completely. Are we involved when Vietnam or Cambodia takes steps backward? After all.”
After Nike final yr underwent $2 billion in price chopping that disproportionately focused its sustainability employees, together with folks engaged on overseas manufacturing unit oversight, the previous govt mentioned they apprehensive that Nike’s cuts had affected the corporate’s potential to interact with its stakeholders within the international locations the place its factories function.
Nike was silent final yr when Cambodian authorities cracked down on the Heart for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, the authorized help group. The federal government launched what was described as a “nationwide safety audit” of the group, also referred to as CENTRAL, after it reported on oversight gaps by a United Nations-backed manufacturing unit watchdog.
Two trade teams, one in all which counts Nike as a participant, wrote to the federal government on July 12 saying that they had “severe considerations” that the audit’s solely objective was retaliation, condemning it “within the strongest doable 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 “severe considerations.” Nike didn’t signal that letter.
“A vibrant civil society, assured partially by freedom of speech, is a key a part of what makes Cambodia an essential sourcing companion for the attire and footwear trade,” 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 help, Western attire corporations have an crucial to talk up in Cambodia.
“Nike and different manufacturers sourcing from Cambodia have an curiosity in guaranteeing that organizations like CENTRAL live on and may talk about labor rights points,” Lau mentioned.
Khun, the CENTRAL staffer, mentioned he knew the Nike worker who targeted on company social duty 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 Improvement 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.
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Lower than two months later, the Trump administration tried to intestine Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, a number of 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.
After Donald Trump tried in 2025 to intestine federally funded companies that printed information about Cambodia’s political repression, Hun Sen, Cambodia’s longtime chief, shared pictures of himself assembly the U.S. president in 2017.
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Screenshot by ProPublica
Keat Soriththeavy and Ouch Sony contributed reporting and translation.
