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...the Ramatex Warehouse Managers, including me as the Violet Apparel Warehouse Manager,have a clear overview of the production capacity in each facility, which varies based on the number of workers, the production targets, and the number of overtime hours that are given to workers. The reason that these factors are different for each of the factories was because usually when orders are placed from international brands for one factory, this is also the factory that is audited by the brand, so this factory is the ‘model factory’ while the other factories owned by the same company will have worse working conditions – higher production targets, more overtime, less breaks and a temperature that is not managed as carefully as the model factory that is audited...

For the ten years that I worked at Violet Apparel, more Nike products were produced at Violet Apparel than at Olive Apparel. At Violet Apparel we had higher production targets and longer hours. When I visited Olive Apparel, because I am a union member, I am always interested in working conditions so I would ask many questions about wages and products being made there, they had a much better facility, they had more breaks, even time for exercise! This is because Nike would audit this factory so before audits, they would be sure to have Nike goods produced there, but at Violet is where normally most of the Nike goods would be made. We did not have any Nike audits at Violet so this is why our conditions were different...

Sometimes when orders could not be fulfilled on time within the listed factories of the company, they would lease temporary facilities and find workers to quickly fulfil orders there. I know this because I would visit the small building where Nike goods were made by workers at the illegal subcontracted factory, this was very frequent and we would have to make sure that all the labels were cleaned up and destroyed after each time that goods were produced there.

I am the person who took the photographs of the Nike products in the Violet Apparel factory. The reason I took the photos is because I tried to form the union and together many of us tried to push back against our employer when the changes to seniority payments came through which risked us getting paid properly.

The last time we produced Nike goods at Violet Apparel was in late 2019, and at that point, the managers were clear that all the Nike labels had to be cleaned up and destroyed. When I told the CATU union about this, they advised me to take photographs of the Nike goods again, which I did and sent to them by Signal. I am glad that I took these photographs though it was very risky for me to do this...I do not understand why the photos are more important than more than one thousand workers also saying the same thing..Does Nike think that because we are poor people who do not speak English that what so many of us say means nothing? I want to speak to Nike and hear them tell me and more than 1000 of my colleagues who made Nike clothes that we were dreaming for all those years and hours that we sweated and worked hard, that we never did that work for them.

Maybe this is why they say that they conducted an investigation but did not bother to speak to any of us. They asked their old friend Ramatex if Nike was produced at Violet, their old friend said no and the big American company can call it an investigation...

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My name is Mom, I worked at the Violet Apparel factory making Nike clothes for ten years from 2010 - 2020...Did we make Nike clothes at Violet Apparel? Yes. My job was on the factory floor, stitching labels onto clothes, so of course I know the Nike Swoosh...Nike is saying that I didn’t?

After making Nike clothes for ten years, I have not been able to get another job. I was involved in the union and everyone knows that I have been outspoken and active about not being paid at Violet Apparel so now other factories blacklisted me. I tried to apply for work at other Ramatex factories in Phnom Penh and they would not hire me... I have tried for years to find a job but for those of us that have spoken out we cannot find work in factories...I have a huge debt to the loan sharks but without real income I don’t know how I can pay this back and I also have to pay to look after my old mother, she is very sick and my younger brother needs support to go to school...I am counting on getting the money that I am owed, I pray that they will let us have peace and end our long wait for this so I can finally escape the loan sharks. Nike, we are not begging for charity, we just want what we were owed.