UW should re-examine apparel relationship with Nike over Honduras inaction

[struggle4progress]

By Angelina S. Godoy and James N. Gregory
Special to The Times

... The University of Washington's most important licensee, Nike, has been sourcing apparel from factories in Honduras for years. Yet two of its facilities, Vision Tex and Hugger, closed their doors in January, without paying their approximately 1,800 workers the terminal compensation mandated by law — in some cases, without even paying them for hours already worked. The total owed to workers tops $2.5 million.

Under the terms of Nike's agreement with the UW and other major universities, the company is required to ensure that local and international law is upheld in the production of university apparel. In cases where the law is violated, Nike is obligated to work toward remediation. Yet in Hugger and Vision Tex, Nike first denied responsibility, and then claimed that Honduras' political turmoil has precluded the company's involvement in remediation.

The crisis in Honduras is indeed serious. Human-rights activists have been summarily detained, independent media shut down; labor unionists are among those subjected to systematic repression by the de facto government that seized power June 28. The local minister of labor, Lucia Rosales, who had been responsive to the concerns of workers at Vision Tex and Hugger, was removed from her post and replaced with a new minister reportedly tone-deaf to workers' rights. This has left workers like those who sewed UW apparel for Nike more vulnerable than ever.

Nike's claims that the situation prevents the company from addressing the problem are not credible. If anyone has freedom of movement and expression in Honduras under Roberto Micheletti's right-wing regime, it is corporations like Nike. Nike has failed to make even a phone call to the workers for months. The company has stood idly by while employees were denied access even to the remaining machinery in the plants, which it had agreed they could sell as a means of minimal compensation. In this context, Nike's inaction amounts to coup profiteering ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009944398_guests26godoy.html

[eridani]

1. They did the right thing on withdrawing from the Chamber of Commerce over climate change

Urge them to live up to that standard and take a stand against a violent military coup.