On December 14, the Student Labor Action Coalition, a USAS affiliate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, turned the tables on Chancellor Biddy Martin and delivered a giant report card grading her performance on sweatshop issues. The report card came after Chancellor Martin failed to turn in her take-home final exam in Labor Solidarity 101 on time. Undeterred, we decided to assign a grade based on her previous work, and to weight the final very lightly.
The exam and report card came after months of discussion about how to respond to Nike’s failure to pay over $2.1 million in severance pay to workers at two shuttered factories in Honduras, Vision Tex and Hugger de Honduras. An advisory committee to the Chancellor agreed that Nike is in violation of the UW’s code of conduct for apparel licensees, and subsequently recommended termination of Nike’s contract.
Despite this, the Chancellor decided instead to give Nike four months in which to make “satisfactory, demonstrable progress toward resolution” — a weak stance at best and a cop-out at worst. Giving Nike another four months after it’s already been 11 months since the factories closed is outrageous, especially since we haven’t seen any evidence whatsoever that Nike intends to pay its workers. Let’s be clear: Nike could have paid that money months ago — it simply doesn’t want to.
Eleven months is already far too long, and we will not allow this to stretch on for another eleven months. That’s why we call on universities to sever their contracts with Nike now, and that’s why we gave Chancellor Martin an “Incomplete” in the “results” category, and an “F” for the speed of her actions. Perhaps a few remedial courses in solidarity would help her do the right thing and bring up her grades next semester? We sure hope so!
