While celebrating the victory of last week’s football game, many of us will undoubtedly be purchasing Wisconsin attire in our excitement for the Rose Bowl. But it doesn’t occur to most of us how our sweatshirts were made, and it shouldn’t have to. In fact, any brand that licenses with Wisconsin is bound to a labor code of conduct, mandating basic standards of labor rights. Adidas, the main manufacturer of Wisconsin apparel nationwide, has flagrantly disregarded this agreement.
Last year, Adidas withdrew from a factory in Indonesia, leaving 2,800 workers without their $1.8 million in legally mandated severance pay when the factory closed. For Adidas, which profited $7.9 billion in 2010, this $1.8 million constitutes a mere sliver of their worth. For the Indonesian workers, however, this represents the loss of multiple months’ wages.
This is not an isolated incident, but is an example of a disturbingly common pattern in the apparel industry: In the past year, workers were stripped of $500 million in severance due to brand-name companies refusing to accept their responsibility to their workers. Adidas has gone so far as to state that severance pay is against their company policy. Not only does this policy legally violate their agreement with the university, it ultimately defies the Wisconsin Idea of commitment to moral accountability.
Because Adidas depends on the business they get from the University of Wisconsin and other universities, UW has leverage over them. When the university contacted Adidas, they refused to take the responsibility mandated in our contract; therefore, our only course of action is to cut this contract. Adidas is free to tarnish their image, but they are not free to tarnish Wisconsin’s – we can go elsewhere for products that are made sweat-free.
In fact, Student Labor Action Committee undertook a similar campaign in 2010 with great results. When Nike refused to pay its workers $2.5 million in severance pay, Wisconsin and other universities cut their contracts with the company, who responded by paying its workers. It is critical that the university takes immediate action to address this issue. With every day of inaction, the workers continue to struggle without their rightfully-owed pay.
In light of these types of events, the university has a Labor Licensing Policy Committee, which is supposed to “develop, evaluate, and recommend to the chancellor policies to end the university’s relationship with corporations that practice sweatshop labor abuses,” according to their bylaws. The LLPC has advised the chancellor to give Adidas 90 days to remediate the situation. At the end of the period, if Adidas has not paid the workers, the council advised the university cut ties with the apparel company. Now Chancellor David Ward just needs to follow the advice of his advisory committee.
This issue requires the chancellor’s undivided attention. The student body of our campus stands for more than this kind of behavior and this contract is being violated. The chancellor needs to proceed accordingly – cut the contract.
Alexandra Rezazadeh ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in biology. She is a member of the Student Labor Action Committee.
