While adidas spends millions of dollars promoting its brand among women, the women who sew adidas clothes know that no amount of marketing can cover up the truth: workers who make adidas apparel are having their wages stolen. Women workers who spoke up and organized unions were retaliated against and fired. Three years later, adidas still refuses to negotiate with women leaders of garment worker unions.

International Working Women's Day began as a way to raise awareness about the unique struggles of working women - many of them garment workers. The struggle for work with dignity, fair pay, and freedom from gender-based violence continues around the world.

We draw on that spirit and reject adidas’ phony display of allyship, and we call on people across the world to join us in solidarity to fight back against adidas’ lies and demand and an end to wage theft. We will not allow Adidas to co-opt International Women’s Day, a day that recognizes the continual struggle of working women. United with our sisters across the world, we refuse to be reduced to profit-making machines or a new market to be exploited.

We honor the struggle of women who fought for their rights by continuing that fight against Adidas today. What Adidas can do if they want to support women is to pay us what we’re owed, respect our right to organize, and negotiate directly with garment worker unions. As workers and as women, we will accept nothing less than what we deserve. 

On behalf of the Pay Your Workers Union Endorsers: