Over the past year, Wisconsinites have seen unprecedented attacks on workers? rights. But these attacks have not just been on public employees; since August, students at the University of Wisconsin have been pushing Interim Chancellor David Ward to hold Adidas, the primary producer of UW apparel, accountable for withholding $1.8 million in severance pay to 2,700 Indonesian garment workers. The company?s refusal to pay its workers is an explicit violation of Adidas? contract with the university, which states, ?Licensees shall provide legally mandated benefits.?
The struggles against sweatshops abroad and against corporate power in our own country may seem separate, but the rights of foreign workers are intimately connected to the conditions of workers in our own state. As corporations relocate to countries with weaker labor standards, workers in the U.S. endure major rollbacks to their own workplace standards.