In January, 2,800 workers sewing college-logo apparel for Adidas and NIKE at the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia were laid off after their factory shut down abruptly, and they were robbed of nearly half a year’s wages - $3.3 million in legally owed severance pay!
For years, Adidas, NIKE, and the Dallas Cowboys profited off the labor of PT Kizone workers, who were paid as little as $0.60 an hour. Now, nearly a year after the factory shut down, Adidas and NIKE still refuse to pay the workers the remaining $1.8 million in severance they’re legally owed, according to Indonesian labor law. Adidas, NIKE, and the Cowboys have demonstrated that they have no respect for our Universities’ Codes of Conduct, which mandates that brands producing collegiate gear follow local labor law.
Adidas is bringing in nearly $6 billion, with net profits rising 14% just this past quarter, while PT Kizone workers are struggling to even feed their families one meal a day. Adidas has refused to pay a single cent toward the $1.8 million PT Kizone workers are still legally owed, and has an egregious track record of cutting and running from union factories and refusing to pay workers the severance they’re owed.
NIKE, meanwhile, claims that it has already paid enough by putting forward a portion of the total amount owed, attempting to scale back the precedent set from USAS’s “Just Pay It!” Campaign, when we forced NIKE to compensate in full their formerly subcontracted Honduran workers the millions they were legally owed in severance. The bare minimum for social compliance for NIKE is ensuring that the workers making their products are paid in full, and NIKE is still in violation of its own Code of Conduct.
One year is too long – it’s time Adidas and NIKE pay PT Kizone workers in Indonesia the $1.8 million they’re owed!
Resources:
Watch testimonies straight form the PT Kizone workers: Saidah’s story & Budi’s Story.
Recent Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) memo here (July 26, 2011)
“Nike Should Pay More Severance to Laid Off Workers” (The Oregonian, Nov 7, 2011)
“Brown Should Stand with Indonesian Workers” (Brown Daily Herald, Oct 16, 2011) by Ian Trupin, USAS Representative to the WRC Board
