The global pandemic we’re facing has led to growing precarity in the lives of millions of workers across the garment supply chain. Unlike other international garment brands such as Adidas, multibillion-dollar corporations like Nike and Under Armour have failed to publicly assure suppliers that they will pay for orders that are already in the process. As a result, millions of garment workers, most of whom are women of color and the sole breadwinners of their families, are at risk of losing their jobs without compensation or severance.

Garment workers already experience poverty wages, unsafe working conditions, and attacks on their right to organize unions. The pandemic further exacerbates these conditions, in which once again, the heavy toll of brands’ negligent actions falls on workers. Brands have built billions of dollars in profit on the backs of garment worker labor and, during this crisis, millions of garment workers from Bangladesh to Myanmar, and Cambodia to Honduras, are calling on brands to pay up!

Two of the largest sportswear brands in the world, Nike and Under Armour, have not made a public commitment to continue paying the orders they have already placed to their suppliers. Because the orders were already placed, there are cases in which suppliers have already bought the fabric or have already hired workers to complete those orders. Without the commitment to pay for these orders, workers will not be paid. We know very well that Nike’s history of sweatshop scandals is ever so salient despite efforts to align themselves behind messages of racial justice and women empowerment. Such actions on behalf of the company, especially during a global health crisis in which, more than ever, unequal power relations are being exposed, demonstrates a complete disregard for the lives of the workers who make Nike and Under Armour’s profits possible. These companies have literally built their empires upon the backs of working-class women of color.

Nike and Under Armour must commit to pay for orders in factories where women workers have secured a voice at the table and rights on the job through decades of organizing. If they do not, this further demonstrates the ways that brands exploit the global garment supply chain, ultimately devastating the lives of millions of women workers and their families. In 2019 Nike alone hit revenues of $39 billion. There is absolutely no excuse for them to not pay workers who are the very reason these profits are even possible. Nike and Under Armour must pay workers what they are rightfully owed!

We demand Nike and Under Armour to make a public commitment to pay for the orders they’ve already placed. In addition, because these brands have demonstrated a history of being highly negligent and irresponsible, we demand they provide a guarantee of income to suppliers to allow them to continue to pay workers for the next 3 months. These are the same workers brands like Nike and Under Armour have made billions of dollars off of by underpaying them for years. The least they can do is pay for the orders they’ve already placed and help secure workers and their families livelihoods over the next few months during this trying time. Enough is enough! #JustPayIt #WorkersOverUnderArmour