Nike Research Paper Posted by admin as Example papers Research Paper: Hitting the wall – Nike and International Labor practice Introduction One should start by saying that having read the Nike company case study I understood that the company despite its great popularity in the USA has certainly been questioned for its notorious exploitory practices abroad. One one had the company strives to minimize its costs and maximize the profits, yet on the other hand some claim that it should do everything possible to benefit the society it works in. The following essay will explore the Nike’s global strategy towards cost minimization, explore the ethics behind it and present numerous educated findings together with my personal opinion. Body Outsourcing is one of the most important business practices that the modern day organizations use in their daily practices to minimize costs and improve competitive advantage. There currently are two main types of outsourcing: traditional and Greenfield 1.
Many workers lost hearing from loud machinery, lost limbs in hazardous equipment, and even lost their life due to the apathy of factory owners. The pay for such jobs remained meager despite these risky conditions. The average blue collar employee received $3.50 an hour, barely enough to get by in society. To make matters worse, workers were forced to work long hours during the week, usually over ten hours a day for six to seven days a week. With such appalling conditions, industrial workers were forced into action.
Nike is not the only Western retailer to face criticism over how foreign workers work in poor conditions because these companies want big profits. When a factory collapsed in Bangladesh and killing more than 1000 workers, labor activists blamed American and European retailers because they wanted cheap production and do not care about safe working conditions. Even U.S. workers are suffering because they had their biggest pay drop on record, even though corporate profits have soared.
Employers had no compassion or empathy for their workers who slaved away in their factories. Because immigrant labor was cheap, it was often exploited by the employer. Workers tried to better the situation by unionizing and have a show of strength with the numbers of workers. The big businesses, used government support to suppress the organization of strikes or work revolts. However, when unions rised up and demanded fair wages, employers would have to consider these demands and negotiations would have to take place.
But these immigrant children did not get any pay, this was child labor because the under aged immigrant worker was used and did not receive pay. It was more of a two for one deal for the factory owner because small bodies were needed to fit a certain job. “They are doing away with a great deal of mule-spinning there and putting in ring-spinning…for that reason it takes a good deal of small help…they get all the small help they can to run these ring-frames.” (65). These requirements cost many immigrants available work, leaving these immigrant men without pay unable to provide for their families. In an interview Thomas O’Donnell explains “…at Fall River if a man has not got a boy to act as “back-boy” it is very hard for him to get along…in many cases discharging men in that work and put in men who have boys…and that has brought my circumstances down very much…our children are very often sickly of not having sufficient clothes, shoes, food or something” (64, 65).
Morgan’s weekly routine we have found the following problems. Mr. Morgan’s commute every week it’s costing him not only time but money as well. He wastes an average of 7 hours a week traveling from restaurant to restaurant. Another problem is that he hands out hard checks; this can be a problem because if he loses his checks the employees will not [Avoid the use of contractions in formal writing (e.g., Don't = do not)] get paid. He also needs to set up a standard for all new hires and employees concerns.
Even though unions had moved to improve the rights, justice and conditions of the workplace, it was not surprising that many workers were sacked for simply joining the unions. In the cities, many of the people worked in factories. Some employers and factory owners treated their employees well; they paid them above the minimum wage with good working conditions but in other cases, the workers were being treated like slaves. The temperature of the factories would rise in hotter seasons, sometimes rising above 40ºC, working between 8am to 6om, working to and fro work. Inquiries for better working conditions or wages were dismissed and so were the workers.
Thoma also gives an example of a business owner who is looking for a worker that can operate a specific piece of machinery for ten dollars an hour. However, the owner can’t find a worker with the skill but a worker like that exists but the pay rate is too low to support his family. The author states this could be viewed as structural unemployment but truly it is cyclical because the economy causes the business owner to offer a lower pay rate than what is
Labor Unions and working Conditions. Working conditions were part of the problems that Labor Unions took care of. At the beginning of the industrial Revolution there were not many laws made for working field, without laws or having being told how to have a company/factory kept, owners were too uncaring and paid a little attention to the cleanliness of the business but more to the profit that was being made. Also owners were not paying their employees enough money, and the factories were unsafe. The cause of the problem was that owners were selfish and very greedy.
If there is no minimum wage, then companies can pay ridiculously low wages to its employees 4. Companies could work together and take advantage of the workforce by forcing them to work for low prices B. Greater costs to society 1. Minimum wage leads to an increase in unemployment and those unemployed people are then a burden on society because the government has to pay for them through welfare