Diah prints Nike’s iconic swoosh onto hundreds of gloves a day in an Indonesian factory. In spring of 2020, she saw her hours and pay cut in half. Her family stopped eating meat or fish so they would be able to survive. She is one of millions of Asian garment workers, mostly women, who have still not recovered from massive wage losses triggered by brands who canceled and drastically reduced orders during the COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, in the same months that Diah was laid off in 2020, the Nike-owning Knight family (the 26th wealthiest family in the world), paid themselves $74 million in dividends.
Two years later, Big Fashion companies like Nike, reported record revenue growth and profits. Rather than using this windfall to pay back workers like Diah, Nike and other brands funneled revenue to their investors through stock buybacks and dividends. The vast majority of garment workers who fuel Big Fashion’s fortunes have been left unpaid and stuck in permanent crisis.
In February 2023, GLJ-ILRF and AFWA launched the Fight the Heist campaign, in which garment worker unions from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have come together with global allies to demand that Nike and other Big Fashion companies pay back millions of dollars in lost and stolen wages in their supply chains.
In May, AFWA International Coordinator Anannya Bhattarcharjee spoke at a congressional press conference to reintroduce the Reward Work Act, legislation that would end stock buybacks. A week later, workers in six Asian countries and US allies took to the street with demands for Nike and other brands:
Sit down with garment workers and their unions for a systematic investigation of COVID wage claims, including specific impacts on women workers.
Stop billionaire payouts from dividends and stock buybacks until all garment workers are repaid their lost wages.
Transform their global supply chains including providing living wages for all workers.
Fighting for Our Share is the next step in bringing together workers across the globe to push major companies to end stock buybacks and reinvest in workers.
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