The Dane County Circuit Court ruled Jan. 15 to allow former adidas workers to join the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s contract lawsuit against the company, allowing the workers to directly participate in the litigation.
The issue began in response to allegations of labor violations from January 2011 when a factory contracted by adidas, UW-Madison’s primary licensing partner, shut down without compensating over 2,700 workers. UW-Madison opened the lawsuit in July 2012 to allow a court to decide if adidas violated the terms of the university’s code of conduct.
The ruling allows the workers to present arguments against adidas for failing to compensate them as well as their own evidence of unsafe labor practices, according to the Labor Licensing Policy Committee Chair Lydia Zepeda.
“I think [the decision is] beneficial for the workers,” Zepeda said. “It’s important for [the workers] to be able to provide facts about what was going on in the factory and it’s important for them to be able to represent their interests.”
Prior to the court’s decision, adidas made significant efforts to prevent the workers from joining the lawsuit, according to Student Labor Action Coalition member Lingran Kong.
Kong said she thinks adidas’ actions show it is guilty of violating both Indonesian labor laws as well as the university’s code of conduct contract.
“It’s a pretty blatant act of trying to not let the workers voice what happened,” Kong said. “If [adidas] truly believed that they are not in the wrong then they would have nothing to be afraid of in letting the workers speak out here.”
Additionally, Kong said SLAC will continue to push the university to cut ties with adidas, especially since six universities across the country, including Rutgers University and Cornell University, have already cut ties with the apparel company.
Two workers will join SLAC in Mid-April to further urge UW-Madison to cut ties.
