After the recent disclosure of potential worker exploitation in El Salvador regarding UW contracted sports giant Adidas, university officials must place worker's rights high on their list of priorities. However, by harassing Chancellor John Wiley an hour after he announced the initiation of his own investigation, the Student Labor Action Coalition only demonstrated that protest is not always warranted.
As a UW-licensed supplier, Adidas signed a Code of Conduct Agreement that places standards on how companies are to deal with their suppliers, workers and factories. Wiley has been very accommodating in ensuring that the university's own investigation is followed through and that any breach of conduct by Adidas will be met with cancellation of the contract.
Globalization has proven a difficult tide to resist and it has become painfully obvious in the past few decades that not everyone benefits equally. Though everyone hates to admit it, more often than not the factory brings increased prosperity to impoverished areas.
The American textile industry in particular has experienced a surge of growth—one that relies on this inexpensive overseas labor. Competition for our fashion dollars drove many companies overseas in the 1970s and outsourcing labor practices are now commonplace in the clothing industry. Unless it is local or made of hemp, the shirt you are wearing now was more than likely produced for pennies on the dollar.
Working to equalize the rift between the haves and the have-nots in our global economy must be a real goal for leaders, but those leaders should not be harassed after they have moved on an issue.
Worker's rights groups have made great strides for marginalized groups in the past and if they have learned anything, it should be that unreasonable expectations will not help the overall cause.
In prompting an independent investigation, Wiley is demonstrating clear support for workers rights and for the groups that battle to protect them. This includes sending his own envoy to El Salvador to discuss the outstanding problems with those involved.
Additionally, the Fair Labor Association, a Washington-based labor commission, has established a fund to relieve the financial burden of the unemployed workers until the issue has been resolved.
UW-Madison is not standing by idly as Adidas tramples on its workers and SLAC should recognize the give and take it requires to push for long-term solutions before they detonate another shoe bomb on Bascom Hall.
