Case Study - Nike Sweatshops Inc.
| Corporate Sustainability Management | Case Study Analysis: Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops | | | |
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Ethics refer to what is defined as right or wrong in the morality of human beings and social issues are matters which could directly or indirectly affect a person or many members of a society. In this case study, Nike has been accused of subjecting employees in their subcontracted factories overseas to work in inhumane conditions for low wages. The CEO and cofounder of Nike lamented that “The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced-overtime and arbitrary abuse.” Initially, the firm purchased two shoe-manufacturing facilities in the United States but eventually had to shut them down due to tremendous loss in profits. Today, practically all of Nike’s factories are subcontracted and located in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand, where the labour costs are significantly lesser than those in the United States. The founder of Vietnam Labour Watch, Thomas Nguyen, inspected several of Nike’s plants in Vietnam in 1998 and reported cases of worker abuse. At one of these factories which he inspected, a supervisor punished 56 women for wearing inappropriate work shoes by forcing them to run around the factory in the how sun. Twelve workers fainted and had to be taken to the hospital. He also reported that workers were allowed only one bathroom break and two drinks of water during each eight-hour shift. The ethical and social issues in this case are that Nike unethically takes advantage of these labour markets because it provides them with a higher profit.
Nike should also be held responsible for what happens in factories they do not own to a certain degree because low-cost manufacturing has always been their strategy in the market. Although they do not directly own these factories, they should take the initiative to be socially responsible and monitor the minimum working conditions as it would reflect on the
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Ethics refer to what is defined as right or wrong in the morality of human beings and social issues are matters which could directly or indirectly affect a person or many members of a society. In this case study, Nike has been accused of subjecting employees in their subcontracted factories overseas to work in inhumane conditions for low wages. The CEO and cofounder of Nike lamented that “The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced-overtime and arbitrary abuse.” Initially, the firm purchased two shoe-manufacturing facilities in the United States but eventually had to shut them down due to tremendous loss in profits. Today, practically all of Nike’s factories are subcontracted and located in countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand, where the labour costs are significantly lesser than those in the United States. The founder of Vietnam Labour Watch, Thomas Nguyen, inspected several of Nike’s plants in Vietnam in 1998 and reported cases of worker abuse. At one of these factories which he inspected, a supervisor punished 56 women for wearing inappropriate work shoes by forcing them to run around the factory in the how sun. Twelve workers fainted and had to be taken to the hospital. He also reported that workers were allowed only one bathroom break and two drinks of water during each eight-hour shift. The ethical and social issues in this case are that Nike unethically takes advantage of these labour markets because it provides them with a higher profit.
Nike should also be held responsible for what happens in factories they do not own to a certain degree because low-cost manufacturing has always been their strategy in the market. Although they do not directly own these factories, they should take the initiative to be socially responsible and monitor the minimum working conditions as it would reflect on the
References: Case study: Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops http://www.menstuff.org/issues/byissue/nike.html