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Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS
Talking with adidas
September 2008: We are concerned that several of adidas’ supplier factories, Panarub, Ching Luh and Alaska are not upholding adidas’ own workplace standards. Trade union officials continue to be harassed and black listed at these factories. We wrote to adidas recommending they put some concrete actions behind their stated commitment to Freedom of Association, the right to organise and collectively bargain.
Read our September letter to adidas
August 2008: Adidas responded to our July letter. They admit that the recruitment process into Ching Luh (CLI) has ‘fallen short’ of adidas’ own expectations. Some good news is that 1,285 ex-Spotec workers have now been hired into Adidas. Please see our September letter above regarding the SBGTS union officials who have still not been given interviews at CLI and our ongoing concerns about the right to organise at adidas suppliers (including CLI). In their letter, Adidas confirms that 969 ex-Spotec workers who applied for jobs at CLI have not been given them.
July 2008: Despite some good progress in the recruitment of some ex-Spotec workers into adidas’ new Ching Luh (CLI) supplier factory, we understand that CLI will not have capacity to hire all the 10,500 workers who lost their jobs. Considering this, adidas should provide opportunities for the ex-Spotec and Dong Joe workers, who are still seeking work, to find jobs in other adidas suppliers in a location close to where they are now living in Indonesia.
We wrote again to adidas about our ongoing concern for the Dong Joe and Spotec workers. We told adidas that after almost a year without work some of the SBGTS ex-Spotec officials now have been forced to take on precarious, contract work.
Read our July letter to adidas
June 2008: We continue to encourage adidas to employ the 4,500 ex-Spotec workers at its new Ching Luh supplier factory. Taiwanese investors bought the bankrupt Spotec factory. We are closely monitoring the recruitment process at this new factory to ensure that adidas keeps its promise to prioritise ex-Spotec workers.
November 2007: After lengthy campaigning by Oxfam Australia and others, adidas has published a global supplier list on its website.
This is an important step in transparency and we will continue to encourage adidas to create fairer conditions in its supply chains through (among other things) retaining production in unionised factories; providing incentives to supplier factories that respect the legal rights of workers; and resolving the outstanding issues for Spotec, Dong Joe and Tong Yang factory workers.
September 2007: Ten months after losing their jobs, workers from Dong Joe and Spotec are still without their full back pay and wages, although Spotec workers did receive some of their entitlements. We wrote a letter to adidas asking the company to step up its efforts to resolve outstanding issues in Spotec, Dong Joe, Tong Yang and issues in Panarub.
June 2007: adidas wrote to us responding to letters from concerned members of the public and to our own concerns regarding the three factories and the nearly 20,000 workers left without their full entitlements (back pay and wages).
February 2007: Three unions at Spotec wrote a joint letter to adidas
January 2007: adidas posted a question and answer document on its website.
November 2006: The Pt Spotec and Pt Dong Joe adidas supplier factories in Indonesia closed leaving a total of 10,500 workers without jobs. A third factory, Pt Tong Yang, employing more than 9,000 workers, is also set to close.