Chancellor Biddy Martin asked Nike, a UW-Madison apparel licensee, last week to begin making progress correcting alleged workers' rights violations within the next four months.
According to a university release, Nike closed two of its factories, Hugger de Honduras and Vision Tex, unexpectedly in January, allegedly firing the workers at the factories with little notice beforehand and refusing to grant them severance pay and back wages.
The release said Nike now owes those workers over $2.1 million, about $1,000 per worker on average.
Dan Cox, an organizer for UW-Madison's Student Labor Action Coalition, said although UW-Madison is making steps toward acting on this issue, SLAC generally believes Martin's actions should have been more assertive.
""We're pretty disappointed,"" he said. ""Really, the agreement does not specifically make Nike do anything.""
Cox also said he thinks the four-month time frame is too long and that simply asking for progress to occur is not a strong enough demand. He said he would like to see Martin begin cutting Nike's contract instead.
""They're a multibillion-dollar company,"" he said. ""I don't think we need to give them four months to show any sort of progress on this issue.""
Martin said in the release that she disagrees, stating the company has made major strides toward the correction of their workers' rights violations.
""Nike agrees that the situation constitutes a problem that they have a responsibility to address,"" she said in the statement. ""They have been open about the range of complexities involved, but have not argued that the complexities absolve them of responsibility to make concerted efforts.""
According to the release, Nike generated $49,000 in royalties for UW-Madison in 2008-'09. Nike agreed to a code of conduct regarding its labor practices in its licensing agreement with UW-Madison, the release said.
