Facts and Assumptions
• Amex sells high-quality electronic products. In order to keep costs low and price the products reasonably, they outsourced manufacturing to contractors in the Asian region where labor costs are cheaper like in China.
• Preet’s team is responsible in making sure that shipments are orderly as possible. These include shipments from Amex’s contractors in Shandong, China, where more shipments are falling behind schedule.
• Preet visited the factory in Shandong, China and discovered the following: i.) A group of employees using harmful chemicals to clean components, did not wear protective face masks. ii.) Employees worked long hours, more than company policy mandated eight-hour work day, and sometimes with no breaks. iii.) Sometimes, employees would work very long shifts but were denied sick leaves. iv.) There were several cases of suicide at the plant from overworked employees. v.) The factory managers did not hire more workers because the factory doesn’t have enough money to pay for it.
• Preet wrote a list of recommendations, and together with
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Since Amex does not own the Chinese factory, are they still accountable for the working conditions of its suppliers? Why or why not?
YES! Most of what we buy from developing countries is grown or manufactured by workers whose rights are ignored in important ways. It’s a fundamental fact! May it be a cell-phone component from China or the Indian cotton in your shirt, these are likely processed by workers who were not paid minimum wage, forced to work overtime or exposed to hazardous chemical.
First, providing good working conditions is good business. Watchdog groups could do a costly job of damaging your company reputation, if you aren’t careful about your labor practices. Moreover, not only do poorly treated workers typically make poor-quality goods, desirable employees want to work for companies whose values they share, just as consumers want to buy from companies that put values into
Large corporations such as Nike, Gap, and Reebok and many others from the United States have moved their factories to undeveloped nations; barely pay their employees enough to live on. Countries such as China, Indonesia, and Haiti have readily abundant cheap labor. There should be labor laws or an obligation of respecting workers to provide decent working conditions, fair wages, and safety standards.
1. What is their business strategy to grow profitably and compete over the long term?
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Both of these company’s stress the importance of human rights, minimum wages, and healthy workplaces for all employees. The Governments of these low wage countries try their best to ignore and disregard these conditions that are not normal. The benefits of these workers working under these conditions are too high and production is increasing in countries such as China and India.
This factory collapsed and killed over 1,000 workers (Abrams, Rachel). In addition US companies use child labor that never would be ok in the domestic market. GAP has been accused of using 8 year old workers and Apple 15 year olds (Lamarque,Hannah). Other companies work minors over 19 hours per day (Lamarque,Hannah ). Can you imagine the backlash if a US company tried these practices? Overall, if they guarantee these rights in their home markets, they should treat their employees and customers abroad with equal human rights protection.
Apple, the giant electronic device company in the US, also makes a massive profit from the cheap labor in China. As same as Walmart, the workers for Apple Company have to work overtime because the hourly wage can’t support their families, and they have to work in the environment full of dust and metal. Foxcom is a company of Apple in China, which manages the processing of Apple products. In the plant producing IPhone 5c, a 15 years-old boy is killed because of the unclean condition, and he was too tired. The average working hour is more than 60 a week, so many workers have to sleep overnight at the workplace, and some even work both day shift and night shift to feed their families. Although the workers of Apple Company are suffering, the profit of this company is still increasing. Last year, the avenue of Apple was 42.1 billion dollars, and net profit was 4.8 billion dollars. The cost to make an IPhone is about 200 dollars, but it is sold by 700 to 900 dollars each. Workers in China get 1.5 dollars an hour, so they get 268 dollars a month, and that is three times less than the price of a phone. Apple gains the huge profit, but they haven’t given any benefit to these workers. China is just one of many countries suffer in selfish of the giant companies. Côte d’Ivoire is a country in Africa, and it is famous with production of cocoa, and it’s also where the
Ethically speaking companies should protect their workers from being overworked, but in reality some of these companies are the same ones with sweatshops in 3rd world nations. The world is money driven plain and simple. If allowed, companies will either overwork an employee or find one that they can. Care for quality of life in the business world is a relatively new concept thanks to laws and demands by customers.
It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance." Many people in the Western world either do not know or choose to ignore the fact that a massive amount of products that come into North America from faraway lands are produced in sweatshops, including shoes, clothing, and toys. This ignorance over the inhumane and unjust labour conditions happening in factories on other sides of the globe is precisely what keeps these horrifying practices alive. China is home to one of the most enormous and concentrated sweatshop systems in the world. There are approximately 150 million people in China working in ghastly conditions, having to live off nearly unsustainable pay, and being refused benefits
There are two sides to the issue of using cheaper labor in other countries. Some can argue that using cheap labor in developing countries constitutes exploitation. In some extreme cases, this is potentially true. For example, by making empty promises time after time, diamond cartel De Beers has repeatedly taken advantage of the lack of governmental regulations and communication in African nations. It could be argued that the developing countries house factories that not only use cheap (though market rate for the area) labor, but unfairly exploit employees. Examples of this exploitation could include using physical force to detain workers to make them product more product, or promising them a certain pay, but reneging come
Almost everyone knows sweatshops are not acceptable places to work or support. Sweatshops, per definition from the International Labor Organization are organizations that violate more than two labor laws (Venkidaslam). There are several arguments against sweatshops. First, is that these organizations exploit their workers. They provide them low wages and some pay below the minimum wage of the home nation. Moreover, these workers are forced to work more than 60 hours per week and are mandated to work overtime. In addition, workers are subjected to unsafe environments and sexual abuse. Finally, sweatshops are known for their child labor, where children below the legal working age are paid extremely small wages. Anyone who is against sweatshops will say, choosing to partner with these organizations are unethical.
"Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group in Amsterdam. Experts say many of the fires could have easily been avoided if the factories had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods and have too few fire escapes, and they widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.
In this factory, workers are unionized, get paid more than three times the minimum wage of the country, work in safe working conditions and are treated with respect. The company they make clothes for is Alta Gracia Apparels, a college apparel supplier. The article then goes on to talk about how in a world where companies will do anything to find the cheapest labor possible for as little cost as possible, Alta Gracia Apparels has managed to stay relevant in its market even while paying its employees three times the minimum wage of the Dominican Republic. Joe Bozich, the chief executive of Knights Apparel, the parent company of Alta Gracia Apparels, has said that due to the success of this “experiment,” he plans on expanding the workforce and even duplicating it in countries such as Bangladesh and Haiti. A worker interviewed by the Huffington Post goes on to say that she is treated with respect and “not like a machine,” unlike other factories that she has worked in. When asked the question “what would you be doing if it were not for this job” she said that she would either be unemployed or most likely would work in another factory with dreadful
The historic average returns from 1950 to 1996 and from 1929 to 1996 are given In Exhibit 3. We chose the latter time period as we considered it would give us a more reliable estimate of the risk-free rate by discounting both the Second World War and the Great Depression. It is necessary to evaluate the expected length of the project and utilize a risk free rate applicable for the same time period. Ameritrade is investing $100 million dollars in technology, which is considered a long-term investment, in order to become the largest brokerage firm. We consider their
American Express, also know as AMEX, is a global financial services company headquartered in New York City and founded in 1850. With 54,000 employees and a revenue of over 35 billion dollars American Express stands tall on the New York Stock Exchange (Sec.gov). American Express is best known for it’s credit cards, which make up about twenty-five percent of total dollar volume in credit card transactions in The United States of America (Reviews.greatplacetowork.com). American Express’ goal is to maintain a leading and almost elite reputation with as many qualified card holders as possible. American Express does this by concentrating on the customer’s experience and branding that experience. American Express’ key components in maintaining and further exceling into this goal includes focusing on their human recourses, social responsibility, and marketing techniques.
The American Express company also known as Amex, it is an American multinational corporation. The company was eventually started as an express mail business in Buffalo, New York. It was formed as a joint stock corporation through the merger of express companies owned by Henry Wells( Wells Company), William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo and company)and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield and company).