During a talk at UF, an Indonesian sweatshop worker said he was threatened with death by factory owners for demanding severance pay for him and his coworkers.
Aslam Hidayat worked at the PT Kizone factory for Adidas.
“Adidas products are high quality, but the management is not,” he said.
Garrett Strain, the national organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops, visited UF Monday with Hidagat and another factory worker in an effort to get UF to cut its contract with Adidas.
UF sells Gator Adidas clothing. Adidas, the second largest sports apparel provider in the world, brought in $8.21 billion in gross profit in 2011 but is refusing to pay about $1.8 million in legally-owed severance pay to 2,800 PT Kizone workers, according to the Badidas Campaign and Worker Tour.
Slain said UF was just one of many stops he has made in the Badidas Campaign, which has been traveling to various college campuses to get them to cut their contract with Adidas.
He said so far, this tour has been a success. Six universities, including Cornell University, the University of Washington and Georgetown University, have already agreed to cut each of their contracts.
Theresa Faleti, a 20-year-old family, youth and community sciences junior, is a member of the African Student Union and attended the meeting in Ustler Hall.
“I plan on raising awareness by sharing it with my organization and going to Tigert Hall to present [UF’s] president with a letter,” Faleti said.
