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Should American Companies Treat Foreign Workers Just Like American Workers?

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Summary – In the late 1990s Nike found itself in a PR storm. The company came under fire for low wages and poor factory conditions in its Asian factories. Nike did not own the factories, but these factories accounted for the production of its footwear and apparel. Initially the company took a hard stance and it declared that it was not responsible for the conditions. Soon the company changed course as the voice of protestors around the globe intensified. Eventually the company put into place new work condition standards and the company also raised wages in its Asian factories. Unfortunately for Nike, the negative press didn’t subside.
This cases involves several hot button issues. Should American companies treat foreign workers just like American workers? How much of the supply chain should a company be held responsible for? Is Global sourcing all about cost savings or should companies concern themselves with human rights issues? …show more content…

I agree that there is a legal separation between the Nike Company and its independent contractors. With that said, these factories produce the main ingredient of its product. The relationship Nike has is very similar to the one that car manufactures have with their suppliers. The suppliers play an important role in the final product and as such Nike has to own that. Nike shouldn’t be held responsible for everything their suppliers do, but the company can’t turn its back and pretend to see nothing. This is especially true when the company’s customer base demands better factory conditions. In a sense the condition of its factories is just as important to the consumer as the look of the

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One of the major reasons why minorities are accepting to work in Nike factories is because those factories are in door and workers do not need to strive like they had to for farming. They are not concerned about being burned in extreme temperatures, nor do they have to fear or worry about agricultural diseases. This does not mean Nike has proper facilities available for workers to utilize, but if compared to farming this job is slightly more flexible.” Furthermore, the Nike job comes with a regular wage, with free or subsidized meals, free medical services, training and education”. These are all the things provided by a factory to manipulate a farm worker to leave farming and cooperate with Nike instead.

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Having traveled to Guatemala and seeing how most people live in third world countries the fact that well know American companies treat their oversees employees so poorly makes me angry. While in Guatemala many of the people there would work multiple jobs and still don’t make enough to be able to support their families. Their working conditions that I saw were terrible and their living conditions were not favorable just like the ones that were showed in the Nike sweatshop video. Although many people are looking for work in these third world countries to support their families, companies need to respect them and give the workers what is deserved. I believe that sweatshops still exist today, it’s changed from over time and they all have moved overseas because there are not many global laws that prevent against the harsh working conditions for these

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I agree with you that it’s insane that people who make Nike merchandise live in extreme poverty due to the miserable payment that they received, while Phil Knight, the owner of the brand has a personal fortune of $5 billion. It’s very unfair that these poor women in El Salvador are getting only 29 cents for each Nike jersey sold for $140 in America.

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Despite his success, Michael Jordan has not been immune to challenges and criticism. The explosion of labor in overseas manufacturing, particularly in the production of Nike and Jordan brand products, has been a point of

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In this article, Klein argues that companies are no longer focusing on the making of their products but instead on their reputation; it is about selling this idea, an image, a dream, or a fantasy. Companies like Nike don’t make their own products, but instead they send someone else to do it. Companies send their contract to foreign factories, which they don't own, that will produce the product for a cheap price. Additionally, those factories send the order to other organizations that will do it for a cheaper price. Overall, this is how companies make most of their profits.

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NIKE's ethics include respecting your coworkers, safety, health, and environment. Again this all goes back to their sweatshop incident in 1991. They were accused of paying their employees less than minimum wage and working too many hours in Indonesia. They responded to this situation by creating the Fair Labor Association which promised to pay their employees minimum wage, only 60-hour work week, and improve working conditions. Since then, Nike has continued to post its commitments, standards, and audit data as a part of its corporate social responsibility

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David Montero explains that in Sialkot, Pakistan there is a business, Saga Sports, that creates the Nike soccer balls by hand, the problem Nike has with the company is that they employ children to work in unjust conditions. “In November, Nike severed its contract with Saga Sports, its chief supplier, saying Saga's poor management exposes Nike to the threat of child labor and other labor violations,” (Montero). The chief executive of Nike is trying to reduce the amount of children that produce their goods in unfair conditions. The executive wants consumers to know that they are buying products that were manufactured the proper way of not having children make these items in appalling conditions that could threaten their health. The evidence suggest that working conditions is another reason that the United States consumers should not buy products that are made by

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Additionally, Nike Inc. entered a globalized market because the organization had a solid financial base that could support its factories abroad. Though critics argued that Nike implemented a cheap labor policy to manufacture its products, nevertheless, without a stable financial base, it would have been difficult to globalize the organization. In a related development, Nike’s presence in the globalized market encourages a massive inequality in the society. While suppliers were much better off, the laborers were worse off and the organization looks the other way because it was part of doing a business in the globalized market. So, it is fair to say that entering a global market costs

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Price Strengths 1. Low Cost Manufacturing Nike has a company who use the low cost manufacturing for production footwear. All of the Nike’s footwear virtually is manufactured outside of the United States by independent contract manufacturers such as Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Nike was operate multiple factories around the worlds. In 2014, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia manufactured roughly about 43%, 28%, and 25% of total Nike branded footwear and it has also operations in other country such as Argentina, Brazil, India, and Mexico.

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Stated in Nike Pledges to End Child Labor and Apply U.S. Rules Abroad and This Company Is Employing Children? They state “slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse,'” and “forced labour, prostitution, involvement in drug trafficking, carrying heavy weights or any other activity putting a child’s physical or mental wellbeing in danger.” With the workers being treated like this shows terrible side of it all. Also this could be with any business that uses (or speculated to use) child labor like Nike or Saga Sports. Horribly treated, virtually no pay, and no brakes, how could anyone do

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The Nike and other companies pay worker in China and Vietnam less than $2 and in some cases $1. The saga company makes a contract with Nike, but what they don’t know is that Nike has an abuse standard because they use children as workers. So what they start immediately is broke the contract with Nike, which lost money for both companies, which means that the workes (the children and other people) would not receive a good

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They take a broad view, as they recognize the impacts from their directly controlled operations are a small part of the total system. An important factor is Nike 's outsourced manufacturing model, which

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This is due to Nike gets its merchandise generally from foreign manufacturers. To operate profitably, Nike need to get good value on products and supplies and, in turn, offer good value to its customers with accessible solutions. Publics: Many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalization groups as well as several anti-sweatshop groups

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Nike has managed to shift their Manufacturing unit into Asian country’s were the labor is cheap to be exact wages of USD1 an hour were so little as one-tenth of those given in the US. No wonder that a pair of shoes which were sold for $150 in 1991 is made by indoasian women who were 58 cents a day but the situation has started to change and due to that reason the company has managed to minimize cost of production and not only double triple the the revenue as comparing to the year 1996. Finally we come up with promotion and advertising campaigns which became a grand success not only because they introduced sportspersons , they also introduced innovative ideas and wise strategies and the image of the Product, due to this process we can say that Nike targeted a huge no of audience and created a Prestigious brand which will be easily available for average people . they also came up with great tag lines such as ‘there is no finish life’ , and in the 1980 they changed it into “ JUST DO IT “ these quotes of tag lines are considerd very simple but very attracting and extremely encouraging for the customers .

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