Nike Labour
Nike is a company known world wide for its products such as clothing, footwear and sports equipment. Nike has factories all around the globe in third world countries such as Vietnam, Pakistan, India and China. It is said that their labour practices are extremely inappropriate. Most people want to boycott Nike and close down their factories in all third world countries. Nike being such a wealthy and successful company is under the eyes of millions of people. Customers, protestors, human rights agencies, even people walking down the street are watching the company’s every move. Regardless of all the points people raise against the company, Nike should not be boycotted. Nike accepts part of the blame that has been placed but regardless of all the negative aspects that come out of the labour practices of the company, Nike is a provider for the poor population in all the underdeveloped countries that the factories are set up in. Nike has started programs to educate their workers, pays workers above minimum wage and gives them overtime and has also made major changes in the working conditions of the factories after hearing all the complaints.One of the issues that have been brought up again and again is that Nike practices
Human rights agencies have been fighting against Nike for the use of child labour in factories for a long time. They have stated that Nike supports child labour and employs underage children to work in the factories. “Activists estimate that up to one-quarter of the workers involved are children between the ages of 5 and 14” (Unknown, 1996). After Nike realized this information was partly correct, they started to make some major changes in age requirements for these factories. Nike “terminated its contract with the June Textiles factory as soon as it was confronted with the truth by undercover investigators.” (Kemp, D,, 2000). Nike factories follow a set standard of conduct. One of the rules regarding child labour states “The manufacturer does not employ any person below the age of 18 to produce footwear. The manufacturer does not employ any person below the age of 16 to produce apparel, accessories or equipment. Where local standards are higher, no person under the legal minimum age will be employed” (Nike Code of Conduct). Following this code, Nike UK’s head of corporate communications, Yvonne Iwaniuk, said, “We are painfully aware of the situation at the June factory in Cambodia and upon reviewing the situation we have decided to pull out of the factory. We deeply regret what has happened there and are doing everything to address the issues that allowed this to happen.” (Kemp, D., 2000). The Minimum age for footwear factory workers was raised to 18 years and the minimum age for other accessories and equipment was raised to 16 years in May 1998. Nike is a very wealthy and well-known athletic company whose products are loved by millions of people. Time and time again, the company’s ways have been questioned and protested against. Protestors have been fighting Nike for labour abuse in their factories for many years. But eventhough some people might argue that Nike companies are not fair and just to their workers and should be boycotted completely, Nike has already made tremendous changes in their factory conditions and even now as we speak is trying to remedy the situations. The issue of low wages has been brought up time and time again from every different angle possible. The argument is that Nike doesn’t pay its workers enough money for them to survive. However this is not the
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Approximate Word count = 1574
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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