NKE Nike Inc

By Khadeeja Safdar 

Nike Inc. employees staged a protest over the company's treatment of women on the same day the sportswear giant reopened a headquarters building named after the disgraced running coach Alberto Salazar.

A flier circulating among employees read, "Join us for a campus walk to celebrate what women bring to sport and to raise awareness of how Nike can support our female athletes and employees."

Employees marched Monday morning at the company's Beaverton, Ore., headquarters in an event not sanctioned by the company. Some held up placards saying, "Empower Women." Several senior executives joined the employees and engaged them in a dialogue, said people familiar with the event.

"We respect and welcome employees' feedback on matters that are important to them," a Nike spokesman said. "The flier prepared by some employees was not officially distributed by Nike."

Buildings on the sprawling Nike headquarters are named after famous Nike athletes, including the golf great Tiger Woods and the soccer star Mia Hamm. Mr. Salazar, a track coach whose name is on a large office building, has been suspended from the sport for four years on doping charges. Mr. Salazar has said he planned to appeal the doping ban. He has disputed allegations from some former female athletes that he has mistreated them.

The news of the protest was earlier reported by Willamette Week.

Nike has been dealing with concerns about its workplace culture for more than a year. In early 2018, a group of women circulated a survey to protest inappropriate behavior by men at the sneaker company as well as pay disparity and gender imbalance in the top ranks. Later that year, Nike replaced several senior executives, and Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker apologized at an all-hands meeting, pledging to improve the workplace culture.

More recently, Nike has been embroiled in controversy surrounding Mr. Salazar, a coach who has been associated with the company for years. Mr. Salazar received a four-year suspension for orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct following an investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The running prodigy Mary Cain told the New York Times recently that during her time with the Nike Oregon Project, Mr. Salazar's now-defunct elite training group, she missed her period for three years after coaches pressured her to lose weight. On Monday, she commented on the march, saying Nike needed to let its employees and community talk freely. "Stop the intimidation," she said on Twitter.

The Nike coach said he was sorry his frank discussions with athletes caused hurt feelings but disputed that he encouraged female athletes to maintain an unhealthy weight.

Nike has defended Mr. Salazar, himself a former elite runner and a Boston and New York City marathon champion. He is a close friend of Nike's co-founder, Phil Knight, both of whom are alumni of the track-and-field program at the University of Oregon. The company has said it is conducting an investigation into Mr. Salazar's treatment of athletes.

On Oct. 1, Mr. Parker sent an email to Nike employees in which he said the company would never condone cheating and underscored his support for Mr. Salazar. "As for Alberto, it's clearly a difficult time for him, his family and his athletes," the CEO wrote. "I think it's important that you know we looked into these allegations and did not find that he violated any rules."

Mr. Parker said on Oct. 10 that the company was disbanding the Nike Oregon Project. About two weeks later, Mr. Parker said he would step down as CEO in January and become executive chairman. Nike said Mr. Parker's decision to leave the CEO role was unrelated to the Nike Oregon Project.

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2019 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

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