waterlily
For many people, such as those in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, working in sweatshops is a common way of life. A sweatshop is a work place that has been given this slang name because of the work conditions inside the factory itself. Conditions are rumored to be hard, often involving long working hours and barley lit, small workstations. Often, sweatshops will entail utilizing women and young children to accomplish a majority of the work. Working in such places is not a choice for most, but is the only way to provide for their family, even if it means working up to sixty five hours a week. Nike is just one of the many large corporations which are involved in using employees in sweatshops to fulfill their work needs. Nike owns sixteen Indonesian plants and employs more than 500,000 workers in Asia alone. Indonesian workers are paid close to $2.20 per day. Most of the workers, actually about 90% of them, are women. Many of them are either forced to work overtime or feel compelled to work extra hours in order to feed and house their families (Levy 1). In an article entitled, "A Living Wage to End Sweatshops," Charles Kernaghan states that Disney pays workers in China thirteen cents an hour. "Nobody can survive on this
Yet another point to consider is "How do we help these people in need?" Well, due to an outrageous number of protests by human rights activists, Nike, Reebok, and others pledged a code of conduct. Maybe such actions are only the first steps toward ending international sweatshop abuses. However, it is good that Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne, Patagonia, and LL. Bean, are among some the corporations who participated in this "code of conduct" programming. To prevent the code from becoming merely a public relations device, manufacturers must agree to factory inspections carried out by truly independent groups, not just auditors hired by the companies. Second, violations must be announced publicly and quickly. This carries two beneficial effects: consumers will be reassured that the inspections are not a sham, and companies will be prodded to correct deficiencies without delay. Some critics, however, said the code would only lead to "kinder, gentler sweatshops." Whatever the case is, under the new code are the elimination of child labor, a guarantee of pay at the minimum wage prevailing in the country of manufacture, a maximum sixty hour week, the end of abusive working conditions, and protection of workers' right to organize. Unsettled as of yet are details of inspections and sanctions, which are critical to the success of the code. In exchange, companies will be able to emblazon merchandise with a "No Sweat" label. This will be a signal to the buyers that sweatshop labor was not used in its manufacture (Editor 1-2). " 'No sweat' requires sweat equity," written by an Examiner editorial writer, asserts that the new code will not solve all the world's problems, nor should it be expected to do so. No realistic, economically sophisticated person should expect Nike or Reebok to pay workers far above their country's prevailing wage, no matter how "just" that may seem to United States critics. What is more important is halting abuses such as those reported by the same U.S. critics. In the end, it comes down to this: any publicity surrounding the beating and mistreatment of workers is not good news for any corporation trying to present the "all-American" image (Editor
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1473
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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