Adidas has shifted the production at a major supplier in Dongguan after 50,000 factory workers went on strike. According to activists, this is one of the biggest laborer strikes that ever happened in China.

The striking workers of Yue Yuen Industrial say the full amount of their social insurance and housing benefits are not being given to them. They also said they were unable to enroll their kids in local schools because the contracts provided to them are fraudulent.

Like Us on Facebook

Last weekend, the Chinese factory offered to recalculate the abovementioned payments. However, the offer did not include new contracts for the workers. The strikers turned down the offer.

Katja Schreiber, a spokeswoman for Adidas, announced that the company was shifting some of the orders from the Dongguan factory to other suppliers. She also said they have no plans of pulling out of Yue Yuen Industrial.

CNN quoted International Union League for Brand Responsibility organizer Teresa Cheng slamming Adidas for its response to the strike: "This is the typical behavior of Adidas. Adidas systematically withdraws its orders and moves them to factories with more exploitative conditions, essentially punishing workers who dare to stand up to sweatshop abuse."

To provide more support for the Yue Yuen strikers, Cheng's league has organized other protests at some stores of Adidas and Nike. Taipei, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York City, Melbourne, and Istanbul are among the places involved in Cheng's organized protests.

On Thursday, one labor rights activists who helped in the strike and advised the factory workers was detained by Chinese security agents for 12 hours. Zhang Zhiru said the agents took his phone and forbade him from contacting anyone.

"I think they released me because of outside pressure, saying it was illegal for them to detain me," Zhang said.

In spite of what happened to him, Zhang still vowed to continue helping the factory workers.