USAS Syracuse urges SU to promptly terminate contract with Adidas

Martin Luther King once said “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” It is with this sentiment that we remember the two-year anniversary of the closure of PT Kizone, an Adidas factory in Indonesia that supplied apparel for U.S. universities like ours. The Worker Rights Consortium, a labor monitoring watchdog organization, reported on Adidas’ refusal to pay $1.8 million in legally owed severance to 2,700 Indonesian workers following the closure.

These workers have been without legally owed severance pay for two years and would certainly fall under King’s definition of “justice too long delayed.” This delayed justice has real consequences: PT Kizone workers have been unable to pay their children’s school fees, and many are being pushed out of their homes. One woman, Busri, was under such great stress as a result of the debts she couldn’t pay after being robbed of her severance that she killed her only child and committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a bus.

Yet fearlessly, workers and students have matched Adidas’ ruthless inhumanity with fierce determination. This week, PT Kizone workers are delivering a petition signed by nearly a thousand former workers rejecting Adidas’ food voucher scheme and demanding their severance. In addition, the PT Kizone workers have joined in solidarity with other Adidas workers across the world, from Honduras to Haiti to India, to take on the company’s entire sweatshop supply chain.

USAS Syracuse is demanding that Chancellor Nancy Cantor stand in solidarity with these workers by terminating our contract with Adidas over the company’s sweatshop abuse. Nine universities have already terminated their contracts with Adidas, including big-name sports schools like the University of Washington, Penn State and Georgetown.

Once again, Syracuse University has the historic opportunity to be a part of a global movement to establish a new precedent for Adidas’ supply chain in which the brand finally takes responsibility for its subcontracted workers. Every day the university waits to take action, another PT Kizone worker’s family falls deeper into debt and poverty.

Syracuse University has a history of acting in favor of workers’ rights. Therefore, we ask Chancellor Cantor to recall with fondness and reverence MLK’s thoughts: Justice too long delayed is justice denied.

Sincerely,
USAS Syracuse
An Affiliate of the United Students Against Sweatshops