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90,000 workers strike at adidas supplier

Image: istock/OxfamAUS

A Vietnamese labour group reports that low wages and inhumane treatment have lead 90,000 workers to strike at the Pou Yuen adidas supplier in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers, the six day strike ended when management agreed to raise base wages and supplements by up to AUD $22.50 a month.

Workers at the factory now wait anxiously to see whether the factory will fulfil its commitments come their next pay day. They say that similar promises have been made—and broken—before.

Pou Yuen’s parent company, Pou Chen Group, is one of the world’s leading footwear manufacturers. But it has come under increasing scrutiny on its labour practices over the past month, with abusive conduct also reported from one of its factories in Sukabumi (see Abuse “part of daily bread” for Converse workers).

Labour groups, including Hong-Kong based coalition, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour , call on Adidas to support a wage increase for the workers. They point to adidas’ own code of conduct, which claims that adidas “seeks business partners who raise employee living standards through improved wage systems, benefits, welfare programmes and other services, which enhance quality of life.