Week 14 The Global Issues

Sweatshops

Whos wearing NIKES?

Please check your shoes to see if they were manufactured in Vietnam, China, or Indonesia
If they were, they were produced in a sweatshop!

Sweatshops
Definition:

A shop employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions. Factory where workers do piecework for poor pay and are prevented from forming unions; common in the clothing industry

Origins

Began between 1830 and 1850

Caused by industrial revolution Began in the Garment Industry London, New York City

Sweating (1840s)
Long Hours Low Wages Unsafe Conditions

Began in the U.S. from Civil War need for Uniforms Between 1850 and 1900, sweatshops attracted the rural poor to rapidly-growing cities

Benefits of Sweatshops

Comparative Advantage
If sweatshop jobs did not improve their workers' standard of living, those workers would not have taken the jobs Free Market Advocates

1997 UNICEF study

5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese children turned to prostitution after the US banned that country's carpet exports in the 1990s

Dilemma.

While supporters of economic globalization talk of increased prosperity and development, the reality is economic globalization has led to a global race to the bottom, creating a sweatshop epidemic

Harm/maltreatment of Sweatshops

Neoliberal Globalization stiffing the working classes and in general feeding as much money as is humanly possible up to the 1% Race to the bottom corporations set up shop all around the world in search of the cheapest labor and fewest regulations, increasing the global sweatshop epidemic. Workers Rights / Conditions

Sweatshops and Wal-Mart

Sweatshops and WalMart

Wal-Mart products
Produced in 48 different countries Products mainly from Asian and Central American factories Produced using sweatshop labor

Sweatshops and WalMart

Wal-Mart as an importer
10% of all Chinese imports are imported by WalMart Own global procurement division

The Wal-Mart Squeeze

Endless mission to squeeze countries for lower wages and cheaper goods Lowering working standards where ever they go

Sweatshops and WalMart

Textiles and Wal-Mart

Produced by young women 17 to 25 years old Forced to work seven days a week 12 to 28 cents an hour No benefits Housed in crowded and dirty dormitories 24-hour-a-day surveillance

Sweatshops and WalMart

Toys of Misery and Wal-Mart

Seventy-one percent of the toys sold in the U.S. come from China 13- to 16-hour days molding, assembling, and spray-painting toys 20-hour shifts in peak season (Christmas) Seven days a week Paid as low as 13 cents an hour Live in Shacks or Dorms No medical care or safety equipment Poor Conditions

Sweatshops and WalMart

Not just China

Bangladesh El Salvador

Sweatshops and WalMart

Some of the common abuses in the sweatshops Forced overtime Locked bathrooms Starvation wages Pregnancy tests Denial of access to health care Workers fired and blacklisted Occasional beatings Pending wages

Sweatshops and WalMart

Not just over seas

US labor law violations
Violating child labor laws Employees forced to work off the clock Locking employees into stores overnight Undocumented workers

Sweatshops and Nike

Sweatshops and Nike

Indonesia, China, and Vietnam produce Nike products

Why these 3 countries?
Labor laws are poorly enforced Cheap labor is plentiful Local laws prohibit workers from forming independent trade unions

Nikes Excuse
Dont own factories They only market shoes

Sweatshops and Nike

Vietnam and Nike

There are about 35,000 workers Vietnamese More than 90 percent of them are young women 12-hour days making Nike shoes Produce shoes in an unhealthy environment full of toxic chemicals Receivers of beatings and withheld wages Employees are making 20 cents an hour Earn $2.40 a day - only slightly more than the $2 or so it costs to buy three healthy meals a day Not allowed to use the bathroom more than once in an 8hour shift Allowed to drink water only twice per shift

Sweatshops and Nike

Fun Facts
In many cases, employees are actually spending more just to live and work at the factories than they actually make. Michael Jordan was given a shoe contract for $20 million dollars in the mid 1990s. At the same time Nike and the factories paid the entire 35000 contracted Vietnamese employees only 30.5 million dollars for their work for the entire year. Total labor costs for the shoes amount to less than $2 a pair; the shoes retail for up to $180 in the United States.

Companies Supporting Sweatshop Factories

GAP OLD NAVY Banana Republic Reebok Adidas Bridgestone Firestone Uniroyal Starbucks Sears

Mattel Dell Hewlett Packard Motorola G.E. Walt Disney Target Home Depot J.C. Penny + others

Questions

How does sweatshop affect the organizations? Are Global Sweatshops exploitative?