Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lec 2 Unethical Businesses of The World
Lec 2 Unethical Businesses of The World
Lec 2
Sweatshops
Definition:
A shop employing workers at low wages, for
long hours, and under poor conditions.
South Korea
China
Pakistan
Taiwan
Indonesia
vietnam
Labor laws
In china and Vietnam employees are
prohibited from making independent trade
unions
This is a big plus for Nike because there are
no organized groups to strike or fight for
their rights
Ethical issues in Nike
By the 1990s, disturbing stories were
coming from many of the Nike factories
throughout the world. Some described
child labor,
wages were below the poverty level
forced overtime.
physical abuse from factory overseers,
exposure to dangerous chemicals and
poor air quality.
Workers protest
These stories drew the attention of human
rights groups, which began to bring media
attention to these stories, hoping that
pressure from the public could bring about
change.
Groups such as Education for Justice, Global
Exchange and Students Against Sweatshop
Labor led the effort against Nike.
WORKERS PROTEST
Along with the campaigns of human right's
groups, Nike began to see protests from the
factory workers themselves. While Indonesia,
China, and Vietnam all have minimum wage laws
on the books, Nike had successfully appealed
these wages with the governments of these
countries year after year, allowing them to pay
wages well below the minimum rate.
In April 1997, more than 10,000 workers from
Nike's Indonesian factories went on strike to
protest low and unpaid wages,
while 1,300 workers in Vietnam went on strike
hoping for a raise of one cent per hour.
Cont
The next year, 3,000 Nike workers in China
protested dangerous working conditions
and low wages.
All of these protests took place in spite of
the fact that these sorts of worker strikes
are illegal in these countries.
VIDEO
NIKE makes improvements
As pressure from the public and human rights groups
began to mount, Nike made efforts to improve working
conditions for its contracted workers.
Dangerous chemical replaced
In 1998, dangerous petroleum-based chemicals used in
most factories were replaced by less harmful alternatives.
Increase in wages
In 1999, wages in the Indonesian factories were increased
to rates higher than minimum wage.
Independent monitoring system
The company also agreed to allow random factory
inspections from the Fair Labor Association, and to set up
independent monitoring with both US and international
organizations.
NEW STANDARADS
CODE OF CONDUCT
In 2002, Nike issued a company Code of Conduct to
all its factories, regulating the conditions and safety
requirements that work should be conducted by.
HEALTH AND LABOR STANDARDS
The company's 2004 Responsibility Report
established further health and labor standards, and
described increased monitoring plans. This 2004
report was considered a major victory for workers
and many human right's groups, because Nike
included a full list of its factories and their
addresses throughout the world.
Apple unethical practices
APPLE
IPHONE
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Apple Inc. is a multinational corporation
that designs, manufactures and markets
personal computers, software, electronics
and other creative devices.
APPLE
Although Apple has consistently won first
place as the Worlds Most Admired
Company, it has experienced several
ethical issues within recent years.
Apple Inc., in 2011, were accused of treating
their employees inhumanly and like machines.
To cut costs and increase profits, Apple hired
roughly 500,000 employees and started to
manufacture their products at two factories in
southern China. At the plants inShenzhen and
Chengdu, there were reported complaints about
the conditions within and around the working
areas.
FOXCON
Foxconn is the largest and most technically sophisticated
manufacturing operation for consumer electronic products.
In addition to Apple, its clients include, among others, Dell,
H.P, Sony, Intel, and Microsoft. The company is the single
largest exporter of products from China.
Foxconn is fanatic about secrecy and security. Entry to its
plants and other facilities is almost impossible without
specific permission of the plant management and
authorization from the foreign buyers. This secrecy was
well suited to the interest of Apple and other hi-tech foreign
companies who were concerned about protecting their
intellectual property and new innovative products from
their competitors. It also provided Foxconn with a ready
excuse for shielding all aspects of its operations.
FOXCON
Foxconn, one of the companies that builds
iPhones and iPads (and products for many
other electronics companies), has a factory in
Shenzhen that employs 430,000 people.
Foxconn has been under media spotlight since
the beginning of 2010 Concerns over poor
working and living conditions and for
employees were triggered by frequent and
growing numbers of suicide incidents of factory
workers.
unethical issues
There were multiple cases of unethical behavior
from Apple and the terrible things they put the
employees through.
Anti suicide contract
Employees must sign an anti-suicide contract
pledging that they will not attempt to commit
suicide due to the large number of deaths in 2011.
Overtime: workers were forced to work overtime as
well as on weekends and are not able to use their
paid days off benefits because of low salaries
Apple makes employees work around 98 hours of
overtime, almost three times as much.
Unhealthy living conditions
Apple built living dormitories near the factories for employees to
live in. These buildings have hundreds of dorms, each of which is
not very spacious.
24 people are assigned to a room and are subject to be woken up
at anytime for work. and approximately 320 people share just
one bathroom.
Perhaps related to the inhumane hours and tight quarters, at
least 100 workers have been sickened by highly contagious
measles and rubella, the investigator said.
Wal Mart
History of Wal-Mart
The bribes, which may have totaled more than $24 million, were
paid to win permission to open new stories vastly more quickly
than would have been possible if the company followed to Mexican
laws.