Student Group Holds Rally Seeking End of Nike’s UW-Madison’s Contract

With shouts of Cut the Contract!, a group of about 25 students from the University of Wisconsin’s Student Labor Action Coalition held a demonstration in front of Chancellor Biddy Martin’s office on Friday to protest the university’s apparel contract with Nike.

The event amounted to a mock teach-in, entitled Nike 101, in which students explained the reasons they believe the university should cut its contract with Nike due to the closing of two factories in Honduras.

As reported, The University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as Purdue University both said in December they were reviewing alleged workers rights abuses at two factories run by Nike subcontractors in Honduras. Both factories were reportedly shut down without notice in January 2009 and failed to pay workers a total of more than $2 million in severance and back wages. Both schools said they may end their contracts with Nike.

Nike has said the contractors, VisionTex and Hugger, were forced to close due to insolvency. Regardless, the company said it has been working to resolve the issue regarding severance for the employees.

Dan Cox, a SLAC organizer, told The Daily Cardinal that the teach-in was a way to provide students with information on the details of the situation and to demonstrate to Martin that SLAC feels it is necessary for UW-Madison to cut the contract with Nike. He said it was partly a response to a letter Martin wrote in The Badger Herald last semester asking for more student involvement with the issue.

In an e-mail to The Badger Herald, Martin said she received an e-mail from Nike Jan. 15, which said it is investigating the feasibility of establishing a worker relief fund and of seeking commitments from its primary contractors to offer first-employment opportunities to affected workers.

Martin said she responded by saying she was disappointed that Nike is not paying any severance to its workers and urged the company to use the balance of a 120-day time limit to take more meaningful steps.

Cox said SLAC members feel UW-Madison should demand more of Nike or cut the contract.

“They have 120 days to remediate the situation or show progress which could mean just about anything, which is why were kind of pushing for what has shown to work in the past, which is hitting them in the pocketbook,” he said.