Over 400 Nike employees protested the company’s treatment of women on Monday. The peaceful demonstration on Nike’s Oregon corporate campus was fueled by the rededication of a newly renovated building to running coach Alberto Salazar Building, who has been accused by several athletes of bullying, humiliating, and body-shaming them. He was banned for four years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in October for allegedly advocating for performance-enhancing drugs as part of his coaching methods. One of Salazar’s trainees, Mary Cain, told The New York Times in November, “I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”
At one point during the demonstration, a group of mostly women chanted, “just do better!” Willamette Week reported that a woman handed out flyers warning employees not to talk to the media about Nike without the company’s approval, and doing so could get them fired. She also distributed a separate stack of flyers, which dubbed the demonstration a “celebration” of women instead of a protest. Nike Spokesman Greg Rossiter said that the flyers were “not officially distributed by Nike.”
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