Christmas carols with a labor-oriented twist could be heard atop Bascom Hill Monday as members of a student organization rallied to demand action over the university’s relationship with Adidas.
Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition gathered at Bascom around noon before making their way to Interim Chancellor David Ward’s office to ask for action on his part regarding an Adidas-sponsored factory closing which left workers unpaid.
Located in Tangerang, Indonesia, the factory by the name of PT Kizone allegedly committed worker rights abuses when it shut down the factory and neglected to pay more than 2,800 workers a total of about $3.3 million in legally-mandated severance pay.
On Dec. 2, the University of Wisconsin Labor Licensing Policy Committee requested in a letter that Ward put Adidas on a 90-day notice of termination of its contract by Dec. 15.
When the rallying students began singing outside Ward’s office yesterday, he emerged in front of the crowd and said he is committed to resolving the issue. He said although it will likely not be resolved by Dec. 15, he will move forward when he has more details he needs from the Worker Rights Consortium.
He said the university cannot advance any further without proper documentation from the WRC, which is an organization that oversees and investigates working conditions and labor rights in collegiate apparel factories worldwide.
“Until I get the appropriate documentation sent by the WRC, we can’t proceed,” Ward told the group. “We’ll be as prompt as we can.”
SLAC member Shelby Knuth said the rally was aimed at reminding Ward to take action and making sure he knew he was accountable to students.
“You could definitely tell that he was flustered with this today, and I think that’s a good thing – it makes him take notice,” Knuth said. “Now it’s up to the university to take it further to hold them to their code of conduct.”
In a statement released by Adidas and obtained by The Capital Times, the company said it values its relationship with UW and that it is working to provide more information about the work done with PT Kizone.
The statement also said Adidas terminated its commercial relationship with PT Kizone 10 months before it closed and that when it worked with the factory, it monitored the workplace to make sure it followed Adidas standards.
“We have taken meaningful actions to support the displaced workers from PT Kizone, including requesting our other suppliers in the area hire the former workers to fill open positions at their factories and commissioning and funding an independent job placement agency to help the former workers retrain and obtain new jobs,” the statement said.
In a report, the WRC also said PT Kizone produced for Nike and the Dallas Cowboys, among other brands. The report also stated Adidas has refused to contribute monetarily at this point, and nearly $1.8 million is still owed to the workers.
