Nike Slave Labor

One of the biggest and most popular brands in America, Nike, who targets athletes of all ages to be better athletes engages in unethical behavior by exploiting people from other countries by providing bad working conditions and low wages. Nike produces athletic equipment as well as apparel that is not only appealing to athletes, but also to the general public. However, the people that work for Nike and make these products are people being physically abused by supervisors and have to deal with horrible working conditions. According to an article written by Zaid Jilani, he said that thousands of women in Indonesia are being exploited by companies such as Nike where the wages being paid to these women are not enough to survive. Nike is well aware of what they are doing to these people in Indonesia, but still continue with it because the profits they receive at the end of the day is more valuable to them than the poor working conditions they offer to these Indonesian women. This shows that Nike uses the the Utilitarian approach because the company weighs out the pros and cons of the situation and still decides to produce products in Indonesia where it’s perfectly legal to pay low wages and have bad working conditions even though it is

Regarding the most controversial social and yet throughout the history of NIKE to the end of 2020 is expected to have only topics contract factories that demonstrate a commitment to their employees and include protection and workers ' rights, issues health and safety, and a progressive movement toward defining the approach of the "just wage" proposed by the fair Labor Association.

In his report of Nike’s suppliers, Young did not mention the serious health and safety issues at the plant.21 In short, more than simply another example of poor working conditions at one of Nike’s supplier’s plants, this episode called into question the company’s honesty about and commitment to labor and environmental/health standards. These three events, combined with the numerous others that were reported in the press, created a major public relations problem for Nike. (Appendix C traces the number of negative articles about Nike that appeared in major publications.) Increasingly, labor and environmental problems at Nike’s suppliers’ factories were becoming a major problem for Nike itself.At Nike shops. Nike’s Response: Learning to Become a Global Corporate

While in 1999, Nike established an association known as Fair Labor Association which is a non-profit organization formed by companies, human rights representative, labor representative. The purpose of creating this association is to protecting workers' rights. In which the code of conducts are comply with the U.S. OSHA (Occupational safety and health administration) that will assure the safe and healthful working environment. The code of conducts includes setting the minimum age of worker and maximum working hour per week under labor and employment law. Nike also encourages other brand joining this association.

Similarly, Nike’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices were in question. Truly, their CSR was insufficient and lacked in moral obligation to the communities in which they operated. Conversely, supervisors in the overseas factories were just trying to ensure they met production goals and kept costs low so Nike would continue to do business with them (Nisen, 2013). As a result, Nike expanded their compliance staff, invested in the training of staff and overseas suppliers, developed additional auditing protocols, hired third-party auditors to check their internal audits, and spent millions of dollars to improving working conditions in overseas factories who made Nike products (Locke, 2013). According to a case study, “Nike auditors and compliance staff to be serious, hardworking, and moved by genuine concern for workers and their rights” (Locke, 2013, p.

Nike is a worldwide global corporation that has its shoes manufactured on a contract basis in places like Asia, China, and Vietnam. Although it does not actually own any of the manufacturing locations, it has long been accused of having its products manufactured in facilities that exploit workers. Although Nike admits some wrongdoing in the manufacturing facilities of its contractors, it claims to have started a commitment to improve working conditions in those facilities.

With Nike rapidly growing, in the 1990s reports began to surface of Nike sweatshops. In 1996; in a United States (U.S.) magazine, an image appeared of a young Pakistani boy sewing together a Nike football that shunned Nike (Wazir). Likewise, the next year another report surfaced that reported that workers in Nike factories in Vietnam were exposed to fumes 177 times over the legal limit allowed in Vietnam (Wazir). Feeling the pressure to act due to low demands (Nisen), Nike’s co-founder and chairman Phil Knight pledged to overhaul these conditions; nevertheless, three years later Nike came under scrutiny again for their abuse and exploitation of employees (Wazir). Even with the unrelenting criticism towards Nike (Nisen), the impact of these reports upon Nike’s success has been little, as Nike has continued their dominance over its competition (Lutz).

Nike soon realized even though they have attempted to make changes within their subcontracting companies it has not been enough. Nike realized they have an ongoing obligation to the workers, as well to the different cultures that are involved. Nike implemented a process called The Compliance Generation, which involves increasing their business value by establishing the function, fighting fires, building a global team, and establishing partners. Employee management interaction making the work more systematic, building excellence in management audits, building environment, safety, and health global process, creating transparency, and creating ratings. Nike wants to have a transformational focus on building excellence in factory remediation, developing a sustainable sourcing strategy, building business integration and accountability, increasing contract factory ownership of corporate responsibility, and building industry conditions (Nikebiz, 2010).

Nike is the largest shoe company in the world. Much of it ’s success is attributed to its outsourcing of manufacturing which has saved the company a significant amount of money. During the 1990’s, Nike faced harsh criticism for use of sweatshops in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.

The company Nike operates in over 50 different companies. This makes them a very large global company. Nike makes all kinds of products including gym shoes, clothing and apparel, equipment and accessories. “In 2004, Nike products were manufactured by more than 800 suppliers, employing over 600,000 workers in 51 countries” (Locke, Kochan, Romis & Qin, 2007, p. 6). Nike came under fire because of their workers that work outside the United States. In other countries, labor laws are unlike those within the United States. Large corporations often exploit the fact that they can pay laborers significantly less outside of the United States. Companies may also provide less than favorable working conditions to its labor force outside of the United States.

According to Waller & Conaway (2011), in the 1990’s, a very large percentage of businesses, particularly large corporations involved in consumer products, made it their top priority to build a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR entails business organizations to incorporate societal expectations at any given point regarding lawful, moral, and unrestricted expectations that society may have (Waller & Conway, 2011). Nike must always be aware of all laws and principles in the communities where it contracts the manufacturing of their products.

In the world of shoe production by Nike, production mostly happens overseas in third world countries. Nike pays many professional athletes such as LeBron James to endorse their products, while the people who are making the products get paid close to 50 cents per hour. Nike has attempted to take steps toward better workers’ rights, but most of their factories include oppressive work practices(“Ethical Consumer Guide. Shop Ethical!”). With this being said, Nike has been very unfair to the employees that work as hard as they can to barely make it in life.

Like often, no changes are usually made unless a tragedy has been struck or when the public decides to advocate for such issues. However, in third world countries they don’t get off the hook that easily. South Asia, in particular, has been a central area for the production of Nike sportswear. Unfortunately, the working conditions were far less than tolerable. Nike’s factories overseas had minimal standards and the repercussions of exploiting employees were not seen as a threat. For several years, little was known about Nike’s factories, simply because no light was being shed on the topic. However, when news came out about the reality overseas, Nike didn’t hesitate to address these concerns. Some recommendations that were given to Nike include giving workers the rightful wage, ensure factories had eliminated any forced overtime, investigate thoroughly any allegations that are brought up, provide employees with the companies Code of Conduct, implement a compensation fund for any workers that are injured or killed etc. Phil Knight’s speech had addressed theses concerns and he had ideas of his own such as implementing an education program at the factories overseas. In conclusion, Nike and its CEO had made a drastic progress into eliminating the sweatshop threats against them, and I hope are making additional necessary changes to grant all their workers the rights they

Unfortunately, the same factor that contributed to Nike’s exponential growth (low-cost labor and production) also contributed to hurting Nike’s public image as a leader in “athleticism, health and fitness, and innovative marketing and design” (Locke, 2002). Nike was criticized for unethical practices by their subcontractors, which included underpaid workers, poor working conditions, child labor, and abuse (Locke, 2002).

(Nike, Inc Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2014). Their goal is trying to incorporate sustainability principles as well as practices in whatever they do; develop sustainable materials, design and advocate for changes in the industry. The main reason to select Nike was because; it became a controversial company across the globe. Customers were protesting against Nike for excessive use of child labor and sweatshop allegations and failure to raise the wages in foreign countries. However, Phil Knight promised that they would ensure a change soon. Thus Nike was the first company to publish a list of contract factories as well as published a CSR report including the wage scales as well as the conditions in the factories. It also has started to recycle shoes into a material called the “Grind”, used in various ways. Nike has also given many donations to Oregon Cancer Institute, sports organizations and many more. Nike is at the discretional level of CSR where it has CSR has become a part of its