Nike’s Unethical Sweatshops By George Burke, Kristine Irwin, Bozhong Liu, Byren Malone, Phillip Rodriguez, Yawen Fan
BACKGROUND ● 1970--Remove factories from where people asked for Higher Wage Rate ● 1990--Sell Goods From the Sweatshop Nike is just making profits!
What were the ethical issues? Nike products are made in sweatshops where workers are treated terribly. -Up to 15 Hour Days -6-7 days a week -13-20 cents an hour Slums are equally bad -Open sewers that flood during rainy season -Giant Cockroaches and Rats Ethical Lens: -Nike was just acting in the results lens. Everything they did was just focused on making a profit.
It gets worse The company supervisors pay off political leaders Rubber is burned in field where children play Children of workers don’t go to school, community is stuck in this cycle
Stakeholders The Trouble-Makers The Victims Activists - Nike Inc. - Workers in Vietnam, China, - Fair Labor Association Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea - Worker Rights Consortium - Upper Management, CEO Phil Knight - Communities surrounding Factories - United Students Against Sweatshops - Nike Contractors, Supervisors - Workers mainly young women - Team Sweat - The 1992 Barcelona Olympics - Feminist Groups - Athletes (Sponsored, like Michael - College Students Jordan, Collegiate Athletes) - Individual Activists: Ballinger, Kathy Lee - Investors and Shareholders Gifford, Andrew Young - Consumers all over the world, - Companies associated within Nike’s especially in the America Supply Chain
Ethical Alternatives and Alternative Impacts What Nike did… ● Did not pay much attention to manufacturing companies ● Focused on lowering costs ● Denying use of sweatshops What Nike should’ve done… ● Evaluate outsourcing manufacturing companies carefully ● Taken human rights and legal requirements into consideration ● Admitted the use of sweatshops from the beginning ● Label products sweatshop free Outcome… ● Sweatshop workers would live a better lifestyle ● Nike’s public image would have not taken such drastic downfall ● Nike would have higher credibility in the public eye ● Public would be willing to pay higher prices due to sweatshop free labels
Best Outcome ● 2005 Nike began to publish complete list of factories it contracted with conditions and pay rates for each ● Started to acknowledge social responsibility ● Most ethical outcome would be to decrease or stop outsourcing to eliminate problem ● Strict labor laws in US to protect workers and ensure fair wages ● Company wants to make most money possible
Lessons Learned ● Corporate decisions are heavily criticized by the public ● Being clear and transparent provides companies a better public image ● Actions always have consequences ● Owning up to consequences provides credibility
Conclusion ● Nike’s use of sweatshops was unethical ● Using sweatshops in order to increase profit can hurt a company’s reputation ● Worldwide companies like Nike are under the public scope and need to behave accordingly Thank-you!
Bibliography http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-solved-its-sweatshop-problem-2013-5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Sweatshops http://sweatshopsandnike.blogspot.com/2009/07/nike-sweatshops.html http://www.rarasuperstar.com/archives/6230/nike-sweatshops http://www.glogster.com/softpretzelexperience/sweatshops/g-6mqv6bs59vrs960q59dbsbt http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/dec/12/british-high-street-sweatshop-probe http://www.rstreet.org/op-ed/the-case-for-boycotting-the-sochi-olympics-and-the-rio-ones-too/ http://www.teamsweat.org/2009/05/07/more-consumers-join-the-fight-against-nikes-sweatshops-2/ http://steverunnerblog.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html http://arteknyc.wordpress.com/tag/nike/
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