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Union Labor News / 2009 / December / Article

Student Labor Activists Call on UW to Drop Nike

Action on the UW campus is sparking a national campaign to hold Nike accountable for cheating Honduran apparel workers out of more than $2 million in unpaid wages and severance pay.

The UW’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC) voted on November 13 to recommend that Chancellor Biddy Martin begin the process of terminating the university’s licensing contract with Nike. If Chancellor Martin accepts the recommendation, Nike would have 90 days to implement a remediation plan and if the University isn’t satisfied with the results, the school would cut Nike’s licensing contract.

Students & Union Get
Huge Win in Honduras

Students announced a historic victory for the anti-sweatshop movement, November 18. In an unprecedented move, Russell Athletic, a former UW licensee, agreed to reopen its Jerzees de Honduras factory, which the company had previously shut down in response to workers' efforts to unionize.

After the closure in October 2008, the Student Labor Action Coalition, which is affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops, successfully pressured the university to sever its contract with Russell in February 2009. Students nationwide then mounted the largest boycott in the history of modern student activism, eventually convincing nearly 100 universities around the country to sever contracts with Russell.

As part of the agreement, Russell agreed to meet worker demands to reopen the factory, rehire all 1,200 workers within one year, and to recognize the workers’ union, known as Sitrajerzeesh. Most of the workers will be employed at the reopened factory, which will be called Jerzees Nuevo Dia, while others will be hired at nearby facilities.

Students rejoiced after hearing the news. “This is the most significant victory for the anti-sweatshop movement in over a decade,” said SLAC member Jan Van Told, a UW senior. “By campaigning together across borders, workers and students beat insurmountable odds and drastically changed Russell’s labor practices. The Sitrajerzeesh workers showed incredible perseverance and courage during this campaign, and today we congratulate them on their groundbreaking success.”

“No one has ever forced a multinational corporation to reopen a factory it shut down in the global race to the bottom. Today, we did exactly that, and proved that we can fight back – and win – against attempts to use the economic crisis as an excuse to attack the rights of working people,” added Daniel Cox, a SLAC member and UW student.

Even as they celebrated, however, students cautioned that work remains to be done. “This victory demonstrates that the best way to ensure that apparel companies respect the rights of workers is to cut the contracts of those that refuse to follow the code of conduct,” said Cox. “It also sends a clear message to apparel companies worldwide that they will be held accountable for violating workers' rights.”

Recently, the UW Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC), a shared-governance advisory body, recommended to Chancellor Martin that she notify Nike that it is in violation of its contract, the first step towards termination. (See story on left.) The committee’s action comes after Nike shut down two factories in Honduras without paying over $2.5 million in severance and back pay to 1,800 workers there.

Even after recommendations from students and the LLPC, Chancellor Martin has been hesitant to take action. Van Told explained: “She said that ‘engagement’ with Nike is the best way to force Nike to comply with the code, despite the fact that we’ve proven time after time that ‘engagement’ is a meaningless exercise that only delays real action. Why won’t the Chancellor do the one thing – cutting the contract – that has repeatedly been proven to work?”

Last February, the UW cut a contract with Russell Athletics after its contractors fired workers and closed two of its Honduran plants in response to union organizing efforts. (See also story on right.) There were recently organized unions in the factories where Nike apparel was being produced, as well. The labor movement in Honduras is under increasing pressure since a right-wing coup took over the government this past June, ousting the country’s popularly elected president, Manuel Zalaya.

According to local news reports, Nike paid the UW $48,726 this year to use university insignia and logos like Bucky Badger. The sale of Badger apparel products, made in about 3,300 factories in 47 countries, generated a record $2.8 million in royalties last year.

The LLPC’s action comes after the Student Labor Action Coalition raised concerns that the two Honduran factories, Hugger and Vision Tex, abruptly shut down in January and since then has withheld over $2.5 million in legally mandated severance and back pay to 1,800 workers. As a licensee of UW’s insignia, Nike is bound by a code of conduct requiring apparel producers to maintain certain labor standards and act in accordance with local labor laws.

Chancellor Martin wrote Nike asking for its plan and a timetable to remedy the problem, insisting on a response before the LLPC’s November 13 meeting. Nike ignored the Chancellor’s letter, but issued a statement to the collegiate licensors in general, saying that it’s own reporting on the factories had been incorrect – collegiate licensed apparel had not been produced in the plants in question, after all. A monitoring group, the Workers Rights Consortium, quickly reported that interviews and documentary evidence show that Nike’s claim was, in fact, a bold-faced lie.

“We’re seen this over and over. There is evidence that Nike is not involved in remediation and they are blind to what’s going in their factories,” said LLPC member Lydia Zepeda, a UW professor in consumer science.

Students, staff and faculty representatives on the LLPC argued that initiating the process to cut Nike’s contract without delay was essential, given the urgent nature of the situation in Honduras.

“Nike has had more than enough time to pay its workers – it just doesn’t want to. It’s been eleven months since the factories closed, and in that time Nike has done nothing more than make excuses,” said Jan Van Told, student LLPC member and SLAC member.

“These are real people’s livelihoods we’re talking about – not some abstract theory,” said Jonah Zinn, student LLPC member and SLAC member. “If the University of Wisconsin is truly committed to respecting workers’ rights, then it is essential that the Chancellor cut the Nike contract without delay.”

The committee concurred, voting 7-2 to recommend that Chancellor Martin give Nike notice that it is in breach of contract.

Escalation Promised
Students remained optimistic that workers will be paid the money they are owed, but emphasized the need for swift action. “SLAC takes this case very seriously, and we will not tolerate Nike’s games any longer. The Hugger and Vision Tex workers cannot wait another eleven months, and so we intend to escalate our campaign until Chancellor Martin follows through and severs the contract,” said Zinn.

“It’s quickly becoming a big national issue,” said Zinn. The action at UW is only the first and it is expected to precipitate student action on the campuses of Georgetown, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, Miami, Cornell and the universities of Washington and Montana.