Sweatshops in Third orld Countries
Not so long ago when the word sweatshop was mentioned, images of Charles Dickens would surface, for the notion of sweatshops seemed to be a thing of the past. However, in recent years, sweatshops have been at the forefront of media attention. They are back, actually they never truly went away at all, and they are back in full swing around the world, mostly in third world countries. Cheap labor has always been appealing to corporations, and as the business world has become globalized, outsourcing work to countries such as Mexico, China, Korea, the Philippines, India, Africa, and Taiwan have become common practice among companies from industrialized nations.

Until the last few decades, perhaps the last mention of sweatshops by the media occurred in 1911 when a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly women (Sweatshops Pp). This incident brought attention…...

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Works Cited

Ivins, Molly; Smith, Fred. Symposium: Opposing Views on Sweatshops.

Insight on the News. Nov 29, 1999; Pp.  http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1571/44_15/57893725/p1/article.jhtml 

Sweatshops

 http://www.domini.com/shareholder-advocacy/Issue-Spotlight/

Thus it can improve the fates of the sweatshop workers' children, by infusing income into the poorer nation. The argument in favor of the employment of illegal workers in the United States is that the workers chose their lot by illegally immigrating and often work under better conditions than they would on their home soil. Also, the children of the illegal workers will improve if the children are allowed to remain in the United States.
Thus, we cannot always assume that it is automatically wrong for sweatshops to exist, simply because workers do not feel the optimum satisfaction with their lot in life at this present moment in historical time. However, there are still powerful arguments against sweatshops besides immediate worker unhappiness or desire for higher wages and better employment. Having low wage employees legally drives down the cost of labor in the nation as a whole, and thus having…...

weatshops
Are weatshops a Necessarily Evil?

Within the last few years, Americans have become aware that sometimes when American corporations send manufacturing tasks to foreign countries, those tasks end up being performed by people we would view as not yet adults -- young teenagers, and sometimes even workers younger than that. The companies argue that they do not always have either control or knowledge that such practices are going on, thus excusing them, in their eyes, from any moral responsibility. However, others argue that the managers of companies are responsible for all the actions their company takes, and that if they don't know about the use of children in sweatshops, they should.

While some companies have taken responsibility for the use of sweat shops and taken action to prevent it, the pressure on companies is significant, and those who ultimately act as middlemen, farming the work out to those sweatshops, try to hide…...

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SOURCES

MacLeod, Calum and MacLeod, Lijia. 2000. "Chinese court case puts focus on child labor; Dangerous jobs include low pay and long hours." The Washington Times. July 28.

Staff writers. 2000. "Paper: McDonald's Uses Sweatshop." AP Online, August 27.

A utilitarian would argue that to ensure the greatest happiness, for the greatest number, perhaps some suffering in the interim must be endured by the current generation of factory laborers in the developing world, so that industrialization can develop and so capitalism can take hold there. Moreover, the ethical quandaries we experience are not merely relegated to clothing -- what of how we profit off of the labor illegal immigrants, who enable restaurants to produce cheap food by working as dishwashers, for example, for no benefits and sub-minimum wages? Where can we draw the line, it is not practical to live in an entirely 'just' society. Of course, a Kantian would respond that what is wrong, and no rationalization can be right -- would we want others to turn a blind eye to our own exploitation as workers?
And would it really cost companies so much more to pay workers…...

Sweatshop Girl: Sadie Frowne
In "The Story of a Sweatshop Girl," Sadie Frowne describes her life journey from peasant farmer's daughter to factory worker. Her description includes details of her daily life, and the difficulties she faces as a sweatshop girl in the early 20th century. Her narrative also illustrates prevalent social values of the time, as well as her individual values. Her focus on the specific details of her situation show that she is writing this account so that people will understand what life is like for a factory girl, and to gain sympathy from readers for the difficulties facing factory workers.

Frowne's piece begins by recalling her family history and how she came to the United States. Many readers of her time can probably relate to her experience, having come from traditional Eurpoean cultures themselves, or having relatives who were immigrants. When Frowne praises her mother's strength and positive…...

The organization explains that consumers can take the initiative to speak out against companies that use sweatshops. (Ten Ways to end Sweatshops)
They can also join campaigns such as OXFAM which attempt to ensure that special events such as the Olympics are not utilizing products created in sweatshops.

Ten Ways to end Sweatshops)

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to discuss sweatshops, the impact that they have on the world and what can be done to end the proliferation of sweatshops. We began this discussion with a definition of sweatshop. We found that sweatshops are places of employment where people are exposed to horrendous conditions for very little pay. We also found that many American companies use products that are produced in sweatshops. We akso found that there are many things that Americans can do to place pressure on companies that choose to utilize sweatshop labor.

eferences

Ten Ways to end Sweatshops. http://sweatshops.org/tenways.html

United States…...

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References

Ten Ways to end Sweatshops.  http://sweatshops.org/tenways.html 

United States Against Sweatshops.  http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/ 

O'Rourke, D. 2003. Outsourcing Regulation: Analyzing Nongovernmental Systems of Labor Standards and Monitoring. Policy Studies Journal.. Volume: 31. (1). Pg. 1+.

Foo, L.J. 1994. The Vulnerable and Exploitable Immigrant Workforce and the Need for Strengthening Worker Protective Legislation. Yale Law Journal. Volume: 103. (8.). Pg: 2179-2212.

Others say that sweatshops are but part of the natural course of economic development of any country that seeks to progress. But it is by no means a reason turn a blind eye to the lamentable conditions of women and children in these factories. Social movements working towards establishing a world that is just have gained inroads in influencing government policies to put an end to the abuse of women and children in the workplace. Initiatives such as the Clean Clothes Campaign, Ethical Trading Initiative, Fair Trade campaigns in Europe and the U.S. have gained ground to introduce alternative means of doing business to usher in a society where prosperity is shared and enjoyed not at the expense more vulnerable sectors. These initiatives are characterized by their campaigns not only to instigate changes in policy but more importantly in bringing in a new perspective and changes in attitudes of…...

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References

Canadian Labour Congress. (n.d.). About Sweatshops. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from Stop Sweatshop Abuses: http://sweatshop.clc-ctc.ca/en/about.html

Co-op America. (2004). Guide to Ending Sweatshops: Celebrating 21 Years of Building Economic Alternatives. Washington, D.C.: Co-op America.

Green America. (n.d.). Green America's Ending Sweatshops Program: What to Know/Sweatshops. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from Green America: Economic Action for a Just Planet: www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/whattoknow.cfm

Kristof, N.D. (2009, January 15). Opinion. Retrieved January 28, 2009, from International Herald Tribune: www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/15/opinion/edkristof.1-408134.php

The article also speculates that Apple could go through public relations problems about their practices, and that it could even create shortages of some Apple items if the sweatshop merchandise is removed from the Chinese company and built elsewhere. Finally, the article suggests that Apple should build their own plant in China, where they can regulate the workers themselves and make sure they do not live and work in such harsh conditions.
It seems hard to believe that these conditions still exist around the world today. It also is hard to understand how companies can take advantage of human beings that way, and that they justify it by making profits. Americans should take more of an interest in understanding just what goes into manufacturing the products they use every day. Perhaps if more people actually took an interest in these global issues, and refused to buy products from companies who…...

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References

Hesseldahl, A. (2006). Fixing Apple's "sweatshop" woes. Retrieved from the Globalexchange.org Website:   Jan. 2007.http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/4010.html6 

Cross-Cultural Perspectives - Apple's Sweatshop Plants in China
The world that the Apple technology company enjoys "…could not be rosier and its future shiner," according to researcher Ajinkya Khedekar, writing in the Carnegie Council's publication -- Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The author goes on to assert that Apple has "reached the pinnacle of success in 15 short years" and its market capitalization ($500 billion) makes it one of the most "valuable and highly profitable companies in the world" (Khedekar, 2012, p. 1). But that rosy financial and technological future has been clouded somewhat by the fact that its "value culture" (what it charges for its products) is different than its "cost culture" (the working conditions and wages it pays are less than appropriate for a company that is profiting so mightily). This paper delves into the cultural issues that result from the poor treatment of Chinese workers vis-a-vis…...

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Works Cited

Duhigg, Charles, and Barboza, David. (2012). In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad.

The New York Times. Retrieved January 9 from  http://www.nytimes.com .

Greene, Jay. (2012). Riots, suicides, and other issues in Foxconn's iPhone factories. CNET

News. Retrieved January 9, 2013, from  http://news.cnet.com .

Nike: From Sweatshops to Leadership in Employment Practices
Nike

Discern how a more effective ethics programs and a more viable code of conduct could have mitigated the ethical issues faced by Nike.

Ethics programs are expressions of the increasingly common point-of-view that corporations, as legal persons, have an ethical responsibility to society as well as to shareholders. Early on in its corporate history, Nike branded itself as a youth-friendly brand, and many of its customers were idealistic and cared about ethics. Its philosophy of being the best one can be seemed to cohere with a particular ethical worldview that stressed personal empowerment. Thus, it was a great shock to the world when it was revealed that Nike products were manufactured under ethically questionable circumstances (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell 2011: 217).

Nike stated that workers in its factories were paid above the minimum wage in the nations where it based. Its critics contended that these…...

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References

Connor, Michael. (2010). Nike: Corporate responsibility at a tipping point. Business Ethics.

Retrieved November 30, 2011 at  

Ethical issues have a particular resonance in American society at the present time, given the perceived failure of many of our public institutions to live up to the ethical standards they espouse and considering the consequences diminishing of public confidence in political leaders, religious leaders, the business community, and so on. A problem the fashion industry must face is the degree to which the goods they sell have been produced under sweatshop conditions. By definition, sweatshops are manufacturing sites, in this case for clothing, where ill-paid workers labor under difficult and even dangerous conditions, with too many workers cramped into too small a workspace, with unreasonable expectations as to the amount of goods produced, and without accepted safety features and government inspections. Sweatshop conditions were once more prevalent late in the nineteenth and early in the twentieth centuries in American cities. With more and more clothing goods made outside the…...

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Reference

American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (2002). AAFCS: Professional Code of Ethics.  http://www.aafcs.org/who/ethics.html .

Good grief" (1995, April 8). The Economist 335, 57.

Miller, C. (1997). "Marketers weigh effects of sweatshop crackdown." Marketing News 31(10), 1, 19.

Paine, L.S. (1994, March 1). "Managing for organizational integrity." Harvard Business Review, 106.

Nike Sweatshops: Behind the Swoosh
Should We Inflict Western Values On This Society? Concepts of Social esponsibility, Integrity, and Other Business Ethics Practices

Forcing Western values onto the society in question might not be required, but as corporate social responsibility (CS) and ethical principles become increasingly recognized, businesses can govern behavior through their respective organizational cultures and ethical codes, thus doing away with the need to have additional laws, while also avoiding the issues of unfettered choice. CS and ethics demand that Nike assume their responsibility of helping resolve social issues created by them or prevent potential social issues they might be responsible for, through imposed work ethics. Firms have special ethical obligations to all of their stakeholders. Also, stakeholders possess certain rights of making particular claims on a company. For instance, workers can expect fair pay and safe workplace conditions for their hard work and customers can demand safe, efficient, and…...

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References

Nisen, M. (2013, May 9). How Nike Solved Its Sweatshop Problem. Retrieved from Business Insider:  http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-solved-its-sweatshop-problem-2013-5 

Paharia, N. (2013, June 28). Consumers Think Sweatshops Ok If 'Shoes Are Cute,'

Research Reveals. Retrieved from Georgetown University:  https://www.georgetown.edu/news/paharia-sweathshop-products-study.html

While cases such as that of Kukdong graphically illustrate the importance of CS and codes of conduct, anti-sweatshop activists continue to display considerable hesitation and equivocation as they wrestle with implementing CS in China. In the words of the late activist Trim Bissell of the Campaign for Labor ights, China has become a "planetary black hole" attracting global production with its cheap labor, but "the anti-sweatshop movement has been without a China strategy."9For example, in January 2000, the University of California (UC) announced that it would not allow any university-licensed products to be produced in countries that do no tallow freedom of association and collective bargaining, in effect banning products made in China (China and the American Anti-Sweatshop Movement (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:MfmUl9ll5pwJ:laborcenter.berkeley.edu/globaleconomy/china_american.pdf+china+sweatshops+unions&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9&ie=UTF-8)."

Efforts are underway to accomplish several things when it comes to China's sweatshops. The first thing that the union and labor leaders are demanding is that the world pay closer attention…...

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References

Frequently Asked Questions About Sweatshops and Women Workers

  (Accessed 5-25-06)http://www.feminist.org/other/sweatshops/sweatfaq.html 

US union to tour China factories (Accessed 5-25-06)

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3706779.stm

589). This may sound harsh, but it has been shown in many countries that this is the best practice for the employment and the economy.
While conditions in some sweatshops are unimaginable, in many countries sweatshop workers actually have better working conditions than many other workers have, and make more money as well. For example, a worker manufacturing shoes for Nike in a Chinese plant actually makes more money than a professor teaching at Beijing University (Maitland, DATE, p. 585). In fact, workers in many sweatshops make much more money than other workers in their areas, so they consider themselves well paid, even if their wages seem miniscule to westerners.

In conclusion, international sweatshops need standards and guidelines, and their workers should receive fair, decent wages for their work. As former Labor Secretary obert eich notes, "Low-wage workers should become better off, not worse off, as trade and investment boost national…...

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References

Arnold, D.G. And Bowie, N.E. Sweatshops and respect for persons. Ethical issues in international business. 591-604.

Maintland, J. The great non-debate over international sweatshops. Ethical issues in international business. 579-589.

Rivoli, P. (2001). Labor standards in the global economy: Issues for investors. The ethics of globalization. 535-545.

This is circular logic that appears to dehumanize our freedom and minimalize our existence. The atomization of the responsible self is unimaginative and restrictive, I'll choose something else to listen to if I have a choice.
Question 7

Work itself is exploitative in nature. Only when a person can work for himself or herself can exploitation be limited to being self-imposed. Labor and work do not belong to anyone, they are mere expressions of idea, to claim them as a tangible thing is confusing and appears to have a disingenuous motive.

Question 8

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder and even though there are characeristics of a perfect market such as large amounts of buyers and sellers and a shared responsibility, there is undoubtedly some flaw within the system. Perfect markets would require no exchange of money, only ideas as money itself is a market within itself causing a chain reaction…...