MADISON – The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC) will host representatives of the adidas Group and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) in a final effort to bring closure to issues related to former workers of Hermosa Manufacturing.
The meeting will be held at noon today (April 4) in the Memorial Union (check Today in the Union for room location).
During the past year, the LLPC has engaged in continuing discussions with Gregg Nebel, director of social and environmental affairs for adidas, in an effort to resolve outstanding issues of back pay and new employment for former workers of the now-closed Hermosa, an apparel producer located in Apopa, El Salvador.
When the factory, which contracted with adidas between 2000-02, was closed in 2005, 260 workers were dismissed without receiving $800,000 in back pay or severance.
During its time contracting with Hermosa, adidas paid its obligations to workers, but the funds were embezzled by the local factory owner, who is being prosecuted in El Salvador. Additionally, the 63 workers who associated with a union at the plant may have been put on a “black list” for their activism and denied new employment in the region.
The LLPC is continuing to seek assurances and benchmarks for the rehiring of displaced Hermosa unionizing workers in permanent, long-term positions, without retribution. It will also ask adidas to reimburse back pay to former Hermosa workers.
Nebel will attend the session to answer questions and present information on behalf of the adidas efforts. He will be joined by Scott Nova, director of the WRC, a worldwide labor rights monitoring organization.
“We’re committed to finding a resolution to this issue,” says Dawn Crim, acting director of community relations and adviser to UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley on labor licensing issues.
UW-Madison has pursued the Hermosa issue on numerous levels during the past few years, including Crim’s trip to El Salvador and discussions among Wiley, Crim and adidas executives. In addition, UW-Madison pledged $20,000 out of its 2006-07 licensing royalties to assist monitoring and workers rights in El Salvador.
UW-Madison contracts with adidas to provide uniforms and athletic equipment, and the company is a university licensee. The current deal runs through 2011 and is worth approximately $1.2 million annually, mostly coming in the form of clothing and equipment.
In a separate section of the meeting, Nova is expected to address differences between WRC and the Fair Labor Association, provide an update on the designated supplies program and discuss the role of university committees like the LLPC in helping to impact the industry.
For detailed background information about UW-Madison’s efforts to curb sweatshop abuses in licensed apparel, visit http://www.news.wisc.edu/laborlicensing/.
