More than 80 University of Wisconsin-Madison students gathered Tuesday to listen to two Indonesian workers from an adidas-contracted factory share their struggles to get severance pay, in an event hosted by the Student Labor Action Coalition.
The workers’ fight began in April 2011 after the factory in which they worked, contracted by adidas, unexpectedly shut down and failed to pay over 2,700 workers more than $1.8 million in severance pay. SLAC has urged UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward to cut ties with adidas, the university’s primary licensing partner, until the company pays the workers.
Aslam Hidayat and Heni Sutisna, two former workers, described their personal experiences and struggles following the factory’s closure. Both workers’ spouses also worked for the factory, which they said caused a complete loss in income for their families after the shut down.
Unemployment benefits are not available in Indonesia, which Hidayat said made losing his income even harder. He also said it is difficult for the workers to find new work because of their ages.
“We are not begging from adidas, we are demanding our rights,” Hidayat said through an interpreter. “We will not stop fighting until we receive our rightful severance.”
Sutisna said the loss in income is devastating for her family, because she and her husband could not pay their rent and had to move their family of five into one room and were also unable to pay for their son’s schooling.
Both workers said adidas did provide the factory workers with vouchers, but said the vouchers were insufficient because they could only be redeemed at one market, which had very inflated prices. Additionally, the vouchers could not be redeemed for rent payments, debts or to pay for their children’s education.
UW-Madison sophomore Rachel Brunker said seeing the “pained expressions” on the workers’ faces made her rethink purchasing adidas apparel.
“There is so much behind what is [being sold]… that we have no idea,” Brunker said.
The university is currently in the process of having the Dane County Circuit Courts decide if adidas has violated its code of conduct contract with UW-Madison by not ensuring the workers are paid. There is no specified timeline for the case.
