Today, Univeristy of Wisconsin became the first university to cancel its licensing agreement with Nike Inc. over concerns about the company's treatment of workers in Honduras. Chancellor Biddy Martin says, "Nike has not developed, and does not intend to develop, meaningful ways of addressing the plight of displaced workers and their families in Honduras,...It has not presented clear long-range plans to prevent or respond to similar problems in the future. For this combination of reasons, we have decided to end our relationship for now." Nike released their statement Friday night saying that the factories were run by subcontractors who have the duty of compensating their employees. University of Wisconsin believed that the company was responsible for the subcontractor's actions but Nike refuted that no Wisconsin branded products were made in Honduras.
Wisconsin Sophomore, Jonah Zinn, 19,says. ""It's a major, major victory nationally..."We're hoping that our victory here really propels them forward and pushes those universities to make the right decision."
I find this really interesting and hopeful that more and more colleges will start to become more aware of how Nike treats their workers in offshore countries. I'm glad Wisconsin took this very seriously and took the step to end their terms with Nike. It makes me really happy that they care about how workers are treated in sweatshops and their willingness to stop buying from Nike.
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I find it very disconcerting that Nike's response was not to immediately address the concerns of the University of Wisconsin, but rather to assign blame to the subcontractors for any mistreatment of the Honduran workers and to claim that the University of Wisconsin should not be concerned because none of their products were made in Honduras. Nike seems to have missed the point of the University of Wisconsin's "boycott" entirely. Rather than assuming responsibility or making promises for improvements, Nike seemed to just dismiss Wisconsin's claims as ill-founded. It seems like it will take a lot more to get Nike to actually make some improvements.
I guess the University of Wisconsin doesn't plan to sever ties with Nike forever since they said "for now." Glad they are taking a stand against the big corporation though. It's time people start realizing how awful employees are being treated in sweat shops, etc. I'm not surprised that Nike didn't apologize for anything. They're acting like it's not even a big deal. Surprise, surprise.
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