Members of student government passed a resolution last week calling for Chancellor David Ward to include students in negotiations with adidas, a process that UW-Madison’s primary licensing advisory committee Chair Lydia Zepeda said last week would take place in private.
Ward decided to enter a period of mediation with adidas last month to resolve the dispute over whether the company owes employees severance pay after a factory contracted by adidas closed last January.
According to adidas, it is not responsible for ensuring the workers receive severance, a position the UW Labor Licensing Policy Committee says violates the university’s code of conduct—which outlines a company’s responsibilities in dealing with workers, factories and suppliers. The LLPC recommended giving the company a 90-day ultimatum to remedy the situation, but Ward instead decided to enter mediation.
After Zepeda heard last week that mediation would exclude her committee from the process, the Associated Students of Madison insisted in its resolution that negotiations with adidas include a member of the LLPC to ensure students’ involvement in the process.
“ASM takes adherence to standard, democratic processes very seriously,” Shared Governance Chair Beth Huang said in a statement.
ASM Chair Allie Gardner said the resolution reaffirms the student government body’s initial request that Ward put adidas on notice, a strategy the LLPC said would be the most efficient way to pressure the company to pay the workers.
Gardner added Ward’s concern that giving adidas notice will result in the company suing the university does not change ASM’s stance.
“We have this code of ethics in place because we don’t want university dollars or tuition dollars to go towards something that is exploiting workers,” she said. “If we don’t hold strong on that I’m concerned about areas of ethics in other departments besides just labor licensing policy.”
Last week, Zepeda said she was concerned that private mediation would reduce the process’s transparency.
“I always prefer things to be conducted in the open,” she said. “I think that transparency is one of the key factors that’s needed that [help] outcomes to occur.”
Zepeda said that after talking with Ward, he was unable to specify if the LLPC would be able to see any documents used in mediation. She added the process would likely occur away from the university and that it is unclear who the mediator would be, or when mediation would occur.
While Vice Chancellor for University Relations Vince Sweeney said last week the university believes mediation is the quickest way to resolve the situation with adidas, he added he does not know what the involvement of the LLPC would be.
