2 More Universities Cut Ties With Adidas Over Labor Concerns

The University of Washington and Rutgers University are the latest institutions to cut ties with Adidas after students raised concerns about the sports-apparel giant’s obligations to its workers overseas, according to reports in The Seattle Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer. The students, working with local chapters of a national effort called United Students Against Sweatshops, said the company owed some $1.8-million in severance pay to workers at an Indonesian manufacturing plant that closed last year. In a written statement cited by the Inquirer, Adidas called Rutgers’s action unwarranted and said the company was “adhering to and in fact exceeding both the spirit and the letter of the codes of conduct our university partners require.” The company said it had honored the terms of its contract and paid the workers the money it owed them. Cornell University has also cut its ties with Adidas, and Oberlin College opted not to renew its contract with the company.