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Global Big Business Is the Most Powerful Force for Improving Labor Standards in Developing Countries. Discuss.

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Global big business is the most powerful force for improving labor standards in developing countries. Discuss. In their insatiable hunt for increased profits, large corporations have developed an increasingly global presence. This presence exists to facilitate both the import and export of goods and reflects the fact that for many companies, potential customers are no longer restricted to the domestic market. Advancements in communications and logistics have rendered geographical distance between markets a relatively straightforward problem to overcome. This is demonstrated all over the world by the automobile industry. It is these advancements that have enabled big businesses, particularly those who manufacture tangible goods such as …show more content…

In May 1993 a fire decimated the Kader toy factory in Bangkok, killing 188 workers and injuring a further 469. Many fatalities were blamed on the fact that the fire exits had been locked shut to prevent the workers stealing toys. This also accounted for many injuries, as workers were forced to jump from the building to escape the blaze. This fire would not have been as devastating had Western labour standards been enforced, such as those set out in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, where provision of adequate escape routes is mandatory. Dangerous labour conditions in manufacturing environments throughout the developing world are still prolific. A report in 2003 on globalization and China’s labour standards concluded that in some Chinese factories ‘a startlingly high incidence of severed limbs and fingers has been recorded. In Shenzhen City alone there were over 10,000 certified cases among a migrant population of 3-4 million’ (Chan, 2003). These examples identify a lack of health and safety standards that would not be acceptable in developed countries, even though factories such as these produce goods for Western consumption. International laws do not require similar working conditions across trading nations, even though the principles behind the laws that enforce Western working conditions are for the benefit of human workers, not simply human workers in one part of the world as opposed to another. As Drusilla K Brown observes, in

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