Such slavery consists of sweat shops, forced labor, and child labor. In that case, we will discover what’s unethical about modern slavery. Companies such as Nike have been alleged to have their products manufactured in sweatshops in Vietnam, China. The workers were working in bad conditions, caught common colds from other employees, and paid under minimum wage. For such unethical behavior I would create a system to fix the work environments sanitation, and raise the wages to minimum wage for the workers.
INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE HISTORY OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY Michelle Gilruth The Social Issue of Unions There are many social issues that have affected manufacturing over the years. Many of these issues led to the formation of unions. Before unions, unskilled workers did not fair well. They received half the pay of skilled workers like craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics. Many people moved to cities to work in industry and about 40 percent of those workers were low-wage earners.1 As industry grew, women, children, and poor immigrants found themselves the main targets for work in factories.
Iowa Supreme Court orders furlough on Monday Associated Press February 16, 2009 DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court is closing all state court offices on Monday to save money during tough budget times. The decision to close the court on President’s Day means an unpaid day for about 1,600 employees at a savings of more than $335,000. Judges and magistrates are the only court employees who will work on the furlough day because their salaries are set by the Legislature and handled separately. The furlough is planned for President’s Day because it’s a federal holiday when court officials anticipate less impact on the public because other government agencies also are closed. Gov.
Wal-Mart workers filed 30 counts of unfair labor practice with the National labor Relations Board (NLRB). The representations alleged “widespread and egregious attempts by Wal-Mart to silence e workers who have been calling for a change of course at the company” (Our Wal-Mart files over 30 New Counts of Unfair Labor Practices Against Wal-Mart for Attempts to Silence Associates, 2013). These example show that of a US organizations that still continue to abuse labor practices both within our country as well as internationally. Although at times these companies have faced tarnished images, these businesses continue to reap profits while executives and stock holders swim in the benefits. Some common items that we buy that are made in sweatshops are shoes, clothes, coffee, and
This means that during the decade long agreement, players would be paid a guaranteed 2 billion dollars league wide. This was a slight decline from the old collective bargaining agreement which paid the players 2.17 billion over that same time frame. The decline seems modest but over a ten year period, the owners felt that they could benefit from the extra income. The second step the owners asked for was to reduce the length of the players contracts. Owners want the players to only be able to sign for 3 years if they are signing with new teams.
A majority of workers had been there over 20 years and were “resistant” to change. Finally the factory was closed and all five thousand employees were laid off. Then Toyota proposed a joint effort with GM to reopen the plant and the employees were rehired to produce a Chevrolet vehicle. Believing that Toyota’s success was a result of an overworked underpaid labor force, distrust was still rampant among the workers. Yet within three months the plant was producing better cars at half the cost than ever before—and the workers were happy!
Outsourcing U.S. Jobs The outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign countries has driven salaries down and caused the loss of thousands of white collar jobs. Many jobs that were once thought to be immune are now susceptible to being outsourced. Your job could be next. After the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 the blue collar manufacturing jobs that were lost were replaced by white collar technological and high tech jobs. Now these jobs are being outsourced to countries such as China and India where highly educated workers will work for a fraction of what Americans make.
A firm’s performance is negatively impacted because it hires fewer employees, which decreases output and profit. Consumers and taxpayers end up paying for such costs through higher prices. The ability of the United States to stay globally competitive is diminished, thus efforts to cut costs push many companies to send jobs abroad. In the long-term, members of a union also become affected due to changes in the market environment—e.g. new entrants, including foreign competition within the domestic boundaries, so they may have to adapt to such changes by accepting lower wage rates.
Yet, because there were jobs overseas that were doing the same thing for less, the US wanted to continue lowering wages. This concluded in the definition of a sweatshop to alter slightly. Now, it includes places that fail to pay a living wage or income that enables a family to support itself at a decent standard. Currently, the apparel industry, known most for incidences such as the ones stated above, has the most active sweatshops. However, the reasons for this go deeper than the United States hunger for fashion.
Situational Background In the 1980s, Nike maintained several production factories in Korea and Taiwan. However, towards the end of the decade, wages and unionized labor in those countries began to threaten Nike's bottom line. As a result, Nike started to urge production contractors to move to Indonesia, China, and Vietnam. Lower production costs in those countries would allow Nike to keep producing the same high quality products at a cheaper rate. In 1991, real problems began to emerge when it was discovered that wages and working conditions at Nike factories were extremely poor.