Russell Athletic has agreed to open a new, unionized factory in Honduras and rehire 1,200 employees it laid off in January. The company said the layoffs were due to the economic crisis, but activists argued that the employees were dismissed because they had recently successfully unionized. They called for boycotts of Russell products at major sporting goods and other retail stores in the U.S. and demonstrated outside an NBA game to protest the league’s deal with the company. It was reported that 96 colleges and universities in the U.S. dropped or suspended their licensing deals with Russell during the disagreement.