Adidas has failed to pay $1.8 million in legally-owed severance to workers in the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia that makes Adidas clothing.
What is Northeastern going to do about this?
Our University has a contract with Adidas where Northeastern licenses its name and affiliated logos to the company to put on collegiate apparel that is sold in our bookstore. Adidas is not the only brand name in the bookstore, but it does makes up a large percentage of the clothing sold with our University’s name. Shirts, sweatshirts, hats and other items found in our bookstore bearing the Northeastern name represent our university. As proud Huskies with a reputation of responsibility, why should we let Adidas bear our logo on its clothing when it refuses to pay their legally mandated compensation to workers that make our clothing?
In addition, Northeastern became affiliated with the Worker Rights Consortium in the Fall of 2010. The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is an alarm-sounding nonprofit that is primarily focused on protecting the rights of workers in the garment industry. They conduct in-depth investigations into the conditions of factories by having one-on-one conversations with the factory workers, without management watching over their shoulders. There is no corporate influence involved, especially since both students and workers sit on the board of directors to maintain the integrity of the WRC reports.
As an affiliate of the WRC, Northeastern has the duty to uphold the WRC Code of Conduct. In other words, our Uuniversity has the power and responsibility to cut the Adidas contract unless Adidas makes the overdue severance payment to its workers. We are asking the Administration to demand that Adidas submit a full remediation plan, release a public statement condemning Adidas’ failure to respect the rights of the workers, and keep us, the students, informed of all communication they have with Adidas.
So far the only step the administration has taken is to claim they are “forming a group” to investigate the allegations towards Adidas. It has been over three months since this claim was made and we have not been informed of any actual progress with this issue. We will no longer stand idly. The lack of cooperation from the administration and the failure to address the issue at hand is unacceptable. Many other universities have effectively dealt with similar situations, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Cornell University, which pressured Nike into paying severance to factory workers in Honduras for similar instances.
As students we have the ability to create change and place pressure onto an administration that is failing to do what is right. The Progressive Student Alliance has once again delivered a letter listing the demands for a remediation plan, and if by Friday, the administration does not reply with a more than satisfactory response, we will be forced to take action
So we call for support and we call for responsibility. It is time for Northeastern to follow the example from other universities around the country and make Adidas pay.
Written by Progressive Student Alliance members Shivangi Shah, freshman international affairs and human services major, Eliza Kopetchne, sophomore international affairs Major and Devon Cowick, sophomore international affairs major.
