Labor advocates have poked holes at Asics’s claims that a prosecuted and jailed union leader at one of its Cambodian suppliers was reinstated to his former position following the overturning of his conviction—which would have seen him imprisoned for a year—and that factory management had nothing to do with the criminal charges that led to his arrest in the first place.
For the six months leading up to April 19, the same day his appeal was heard in court, Chea Chan sat behind bars facing what the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) describes as “obviously false and retaliatory criminal charges“ that stemmed from his elected role as head of a newly formed independent union at Wing Star Shoes, which also supplies footwear to Muji. Neither Wing Star Shoes nor Muji responded to requests for comment.
