Facts of the PT Panarub Case

PT Panarub, Indonesia is one of the world's largest suppliers of high-end sports shoes and cleats for Adidas. For the past several years this facility of 12,000 employees has made shoes for world-renowned soccer players and teams, including the University of Wisconsin. The factory produces almost exclusively for Adidas and Adidas operates one of their main product research and design offices inside the PT Panarub factory grounds. On October 15th, 2005 approximately 50 employees from one of the two unions at PT Panarub, Perbupas, engaged in a one-day strike calling for higher holiday bonuses and for wages to be raised in line with inflation. Perbupas gave notice for the strike in advance, as required by Indonesian law. The strike followed a series of unsuccessful attempts by the union to reach resolution to the issues through collective bargaining. Shortly after the strike 33 of the top union officers and leaders of Perbupas received letters informing them they were being dismissed from the factory. The Worker Rights Consortium's investigation has confirmed that the 33 Perbupas leaders were illegally terminated. (see memo at www.workersrights.org) This is further supported by the recent findings and recommendations of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission (known as “Komnas HAM”) which found in the case of each of the 33 workers that the terminations constituted violations of both Indonesia’s labor code and human rights law.