Disney Inhumane Working Conditions

Sweltering heat, long hours, unfair working conditions are a few descriptive words that Americans use to describe a sweatshop. I believe our judgment is being misguided by the success of our nation, and it is imperative we redefine the word “sweatshop”. Individuals that endure life in third world countries know hardships that Americans could not imagine. If we were to recognize these economical differences it may shine a light on why these workers seek sweatshop jobs. In many of these cases, children must work to aid in the family’s survival. If these jobs are voluntary and both parties agree to working conditions, it results in a mutually beneficial arrangement. One of the worst things we can do as outsiders, to help these impoverished

“Child workers work with heavy machinery and toxic material” according to John H. Cushman in the article Nike pledges to end child labor and apply US standards aboard. Many children have gotten sick lost limbs or even died in horrific and painful ways because of their working conditions. Every day when they go to work they risk losing an arm or even losing their life they are in no way safe. Additionally in some areas if children are not working hard enough they get physically punished. these are only a few of the many cruel ways child labor works.

Child labor is a serious problem that affects children from third-world countries all over the world. These children are exploited by multinational corporations ,for their cheap labor all over the world. People, then buy products that come at a cheaper price, from these multinational corporations.These children are often overworked and treated unfairly. People need to stop buying items from countries that endorse child labor.

Sweltering heat, long hours, and unfair working conditions are a few descriptive words that Americans use to describe a sweatshop. I believe our judgment is being misguided by the success of our nation, and it is imperative we redefine the word “sweatshop”. Individuals that endure life in third world countries know hardships that Americans could not imagine. If we were to recognize these economical differences it may shine a light on why these workers seek sweatshop jobs. In many of these cases, children must work to aid in the family’s survival. If these jobs are voluntary and both parties agree to work conditions, it results in a mutually beneficial arrangement. One of the worst things we can do as outsiders, to help these impoverished

A majority of the clothing worn and purchased today in the United States has been manufactured overseas in sweatshops. Since the beginning of factories and businesses, owners have always looked for a way to cut production costs while still managing to produce large quantities of their product. It was found that the best way to cut costs was to utilize cheap labor in factories known as sweatshops. According to the US General Account Office, sweatshops are defined as a “business that regularly violates both wage or child labor and safety or health laws”. These sweatshops exploit their workers in various ways: making them work long hours in dangerous working conditions for little to no pay. Personally, I believe that the come up and employment of these sweatshops is unethical, but through my research I plan to find out if these shops produce more positive than negatives by giving these people in need a job despite the rough conditions.

Mattel, Inc is a billion-dollar corporation that designs, manufactures and markets a broad variety of toy products. Like many before and several after, Mattel lost their way for a short time and was caught off-guard by an investigative report aired by NBC’s news program (Sethi, Veral, Shapiro, & Emelianova, 2011, p. 486). This interview concluded that an Indonesian factory of Mattel’s was employing underage workers, who were working long hours and doing an extreme amount of overtime. Even though Mattel disputed these finding, they found it among themselves to come up with some corrective actions to make sure these types of misunderstandings don’t ever happen again (Sethi et al., 2011).

“A soul-searching debate is now coursing through the country: Child labor is universally condemned, but is it fair to multinationals to cut and run when incidents arise of children working?” writes David Montero in his article titled “Is Doing the Right Thing Wrong?” While child labor in the United States (U.S.) is not accepted, it still runs rampant in second and third world countries, which is why children often find their way into factories. When this happens people often boycott the companies where this is found, but boycotting is not the way to go. Just boycotting companies doesn’t do anything, and can often hurt the very children people are trying to help. Then there’s the actual legal workers, boycotting a company for having child labor has negative effects on the legal workers and can often derail needed progress that these second and third world countries desperately need. People often jump to boycott

Many of the products that are used and consumed in the United States are made in other countries. One of the main reasons for multinational corporations to produce goods in countries other than the United States is the cost of production. It is far cheaper to produce goods such as blue jeans, paper goods, and plastic toys to name a few. In recent years the conditions in sweatshops in China, Japan, and elsewhere have garnered public outcry from Countries like the U.S. and most of Europe. The main contention, child labor in dangerous and horrid conditions. However one often overlooked example of child labor in sweatshop-like conditions exists were many people never thought. The chocolate we eat. “From 2013 to 2014 more than 1.1 million children in the Ivory Coast were engaged in the most common Worst Forms of Child Labor as recognized by the United Nations… up from 791,181 children from 2008 to 2009” (Berman, 2015). The benefactors of this child labor are huge multinational enterprises such as Nestle, Mars Inc., and The Hershey Co.

Child labor laws have been put in place to protect children who desire to work. During the time of the Industrial Revolution, children were being treated harsh and unfairly. Because of this, it was decided to put in place certain laws to avoid the unfair treatment of these children. These laws include a limitation of age, hours and days worked, and the amount paid. These labor laws are very important to the safety of the working children in our nation.

Companies abuse cheap labor who are forced to work in a polluted working condition, but refusing to provide any equipment and protection. Many companies from the U.S. Exploit the cheap labor resource from Asia especially China and Taiwan. China and Taiwan are two countries mostly provide cheap labor for the U.S. Companies. Up to 78 percent of all products in the U.S, are imported from China and Taiwan. Even though, the labor in these countries are treated poorly. According to News Track article, Chinese employees get paid for 90 cents an hours compare to 9.5 dollars minimum as the U.S. Labor(Talk). Moreover, most children and women in China and Taiwan are not encourage to go to school because of financial issue. Up to 58 percent of children from 5 to 17 years old dropped out of school and work as labor for surviving. They get paid the same amount as adults but have to work 2 or 3 more hours a day. Because their families are too poor so they willing to work to earn some money, their families need that extra source of income for surviving task. In the journal article “Knowledge Of And Attitude To Contraception Among Migrant child Workers In Mainland China”, the author has done some researches discovered that over 23 millions child are working as labors from China and Taiwan. They have to work in extreme conditions for long hours, mostly 12 to 16 hours a day with 2 or 3 short breaks take about 5 to 15 minutes and work excessive overtime without a single day off during the week(Ip). Furthermore, they have to work under risky condition. Most industries in China provide a hazardous working condition for labor which later will negatively affect their health and create many illnesses and diseases, but they receive extremely low wage and no provision of health care or insurance. According to an article “China Blast kill 16”, almost 637 thousand workers at a supplier in China were injured after 1 year of working by using poisonous chemical. The employees work in

However, we can still find children being abused. We can still discover children being abused and used as the lowest form workingclass people. Such websites like Human Rights Watch, allow people to keep up with child labor events through the world. Hundreds of thousands of children continue to be exploited in the United States. Many forms of evidence has been gathered that informs people that children as young as eight and younger are put to work in arenas such agriculture, heavy industrial, farms and ranches. The children are victims to five times the fatalities of their adults and older children, who suffer injuries related with these industries. The most extreme child labor employment are sweat shops. Sweat shops are no secret to many people in the world. Sweat ships force children to work in unbearable type conditions. Even though they are protections in place, the illegality of employing children and the consequences that follow are tragic to say the least. This is not only true for the child ,but also for our society as a whole.

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.

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.

The primary step of my project is raise awareness of child labor because although it is not seen in a place like America, it is relevant in other countries and we are unknowingly supporting it. For example, Nestle and Hershey’s attain their cocoa from farms that use child labor. Or H&M, which supplies clothes made from cotton picked by children (Lamarque). Mostly importantly Microsoft and Tesla, who use cobalt, a substance dangerously mined by children (Sanderson). All these companies have profited through products of child labor because they are cheap. In fact, the National Labor Committee states that a Microsoft supplier paid child workers “$.65 per hour to work 16.5 hour days.” (Carlson) With such a salary, a child would barely buy food. Unfortunately, we are unwittingly supporting child labor by consistently buying

Substandard working conditions in the less developed world are usually described as terrible places where employees are subjected to both mental and physical abuse, near impossible quotas, long hours, extremely low wages, and unsafe working conditions compared to western standards. All of this within an uninhabitable environment that corporations knowingly force the world’s impoverished people to submit to. Through pure ignorance, complete disregard, or lack of moral direction, many corporations have taken the concept of