Official: UW wear workers 'blacklisted'

Official: UW wear workers 'blacklisted'

	Published : Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:11 By : Agencies Print this Story

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Workers who once made Badgers apparel in El Salvador have been unable to find jobs after their factory abruptly closed in 2005 because of their union activities, a University of Wisconsin-Madison official said Wednesday.

UW-Madison official Dawn Crim reported the findings of her trip earlier this month to investigate allegations that Adidas AG violated the university's code of conduct with its treatment of workers at a factory that closed in 2005.

Student activists are pressing the university to end its exclusive athletics contract with Adidas over the violations, and a university committee advised Chancellor John Wiley to do so earlier this year.

Wiley said cutting the contract worth $1.2 million to the university per year was one option the university is considering but he would prefer to work with Adidas to change conditions and compensate the workers unfairly treated by one of its former subcontractors.

Crim said she met with a group of former workers at Hermosa Manufacturing, which closed without giving severance pay of nearly $1 million to 260 laid-off workers. The factory manufactured Adidas apparel with the Badgers' logo between 2000 and 2002.

A group of 63 workers who were unionized 'have been blacklisted' for their activities and no employers in the area will hire them, she said. Some have been forced to look for jobs far from their homes, and at least one was fired in a new job after her boss learned of her past, she said.

The workers want new jobs, back pay and health insurance, she said.

'In the two years since the factory has closed, it's been very difficult,' Crim said.

Wiley said one of his concerns was that other factories associated with Adidas have refused to hire the workers.

Crim and Wiley did not say whether they believed Adidas violated the university's code of conduct for companies licensed to make university apparel. The code requires companies to meet requirements for wages and other working conditions and aims to ensure apparel is manufactured free of sweatshop-like conditions.

The school's Labor Licensing Policy Committee has said Adidas violated the code by allowing retaliation against union workers and failing to monitor the factory's conditions.

Adidas pays the university for the exclusive contract that allows it to put its name on Wisconsin uniforms and equipment for sports teams through 2011. It also produces Badgers' apparel under a license that produced $66,000 in royalties for the university last year.

Adidas has blamed the contractor and is pressing the El Salvador government to help workers recover money they are owed. The factory's owner has been convicted of embezzling employees' social security and retirement contributions.

Wiley said he would convene a closed meeting with the licensing committee and university lawyers next week to discuss the next steps, including sending a letter to Adidas noting 'serious concerns' the school has.

He said one option was ending the contract but added: 'I believe that staying engaged to make progress is in the long run preferable to taking self-righteous stands that distance us.'