By GIRISH SWAMINATH
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) representative Claire Lewis, along with two Indonesian factory workers, Aslam Hidayat and Heni, were planning to stop at Fordham University during their nationwide Adidas Worker Tour.
The lecture event was scheduled at 4 p.m. at Rodrigue’s Coffee House on Feb. 8 but was cancelled due to the impending blizzard.
“[Because the University was closed, Aslam and Heni] were disappointed that the event was cancelled but are extremely happy that they will have the chance to get their story out into the Fordham community through an exclusive interview,” Lewis said.
USAS is a national student-run network of student organizations at almost 200 universities that fight for the rights of workers in college campuses, communities and around the world.
Lewis, as an USAS student leader, embarked on the nationwide Adidas Worker Tour with Hidayat and Heni with the objective of spreading awareness about poor working conditions and the impact of unfair denial of severance pay.
Hidayat and Heni previously worked for PT Kizone, an apparel factory located in Tangerang, Indonesia. The plant produced collegiate apparel for Adidas and Nike, as well as non-collegiate apparel for Dallas Cowboys Merchandising and other brands. The facility employed 2,800 workers who sewed Adidas apparel for 60 cents per hour.
“On Jan. 31, 2011, the owner of PT Kizone, a South Korean national, fled Indonesia, precipitating the factory’s eventual closure and leaving no money for severance pay,” Lewis said. “Nearly 2,800 employees were owed US $3.4 million in severance pay.”
Hidayat, a 38 year-old father of four children who served as the chair of the PT Kizone worker organizing committee, has served as a major part of the continuing struggle for Adidas to pay severance packages, especially by serving as a lecturer at universities throughout the United States on the Adidas Workers Tour.
“Maybe you’re proud to wear Adidas clothes, because they’re really good products,” Hidayat said. “But, it’s not right to wear the clothes that we made with our sweat, while we haven’t received our compensation.
Heni is a 42-year-old mother also involved in the PT Kizone worker organizing committee whose husband also worked with PT Kizone.
“[For a while] we could only eat cassava leaves, without any meat or even any rice and I had to ask our landlord for permission to pick leaves from the shared yard,” said Heni. “I can’t bear seeing my children hungry, so I sent them to live with my mother. I wanted to ask my parents-in-law but I was ashamed to ask them and they’re in the same situation.”
While Dallas Cowboys Merchandising, Nike and Nike’s broker agent, Green Textile, paid some severance money due to the influence of USAS’s “Just Pay It” campaign in 2009, Adidas is the only major brand that has refused to pay severance.
“Adidas owes severance money equivalent to an average employee’s wages for half a year,” Lewis said. “Adidas’s refusal to pay severance constitutes a violation of Indonesian labor law and university codes of conduct.”
As a result of the tour, six universities have already committed to ending their contracts with Adidas over the company’s refusal to pay severance to the employees. These universities are Cornell University, Oberlin College, University of Washington, Rutgers University, Georgetown University and the College of William and Mary. Dozens of other schools have been considering cuts.
Lewis, Hidayat and Heni attended an invite-only Adidas fashion show that Selena Gomez, brand ambassador for Adidas and youngest UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, attended. They handed out flyers to all individuals attending the fashion show, to spread awareness about the cause.
Adidas is a publicly-held, private sector apparel company headquartered in Germany. It has 1,232 contract factories around the world that produce $17 billion in total revenue and $8.21 billion in gross profit.
