Child Labor

What do you know about sweatshops?

What is a sweatshop?
A workplace where workers are subject to exploitation

Long hours
Absence of a living wage or benefits Poor working conditions Verbal and/or physical abuse
* Since workers here are paid less than their daily expenses, they are never able to save any money to improve their lives

Child Labor
Estimated 250 million children between 4 14 work in
developing countries

Many children forced to work Denied an education and normal childhood Some children confined and beaten Some denied right to see family

Some abducted and forced to work

NIKE
Just Do It?

Nike Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzq31hpGZOI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ

Soccer Balls
If you buy one today, most likely made by a child

About half of the worlds soccer balls are made in

Pakistan (went through a process of production where child labor is involved)

NIKE is known to produce its equipment in countries

that are developing why?

Very cheap labor, authoritarian government and lack of

human rights appeal and union movement

Sweatshops and Nike

Indonesia, China, and Vietnam produce Nike products Why these 3 countries?

Labor laws are poorly enforced Cheap labor is abundant Local laws prohibit workers from forming independent trade unions

Nikes Excuse

Dont own factories They only market shoes

Sweatshops and Nike

Vietnam and Nike

There are about 35,000 workers at five Vietnamese plants More than 90 percent of them are young women 12-hour days making Nike shoes Produce shoes in an unhealthy environment full of toxic chemicals Recipients of beatings and withheld wages Employees are making 20 cents an hour Earn $2.40 a day - only slightly more than the $2 or so it costs to buy three healthy meals a day Not allowed to use the bathroom more than once in an 8-hour shift Allowed to drink water only twice per shift

Sweatshops and Nike

Facts
In many cases, employees are actually spending more
just to live and work at the factories than they actually make.

Michael Jordan was given a shoe contract for $20 million

dollars in the mid 1990s. At the same time Nike and the factories paid the entire 35000 contracted Vietnamese employees only 30.5 million dollars for their work for the entire year.
pair; the shoes retail for up to $180 in the United States.

Total labor costs for the shoes amount to less than $2 a

Current Events as of 2006

Any changes in the last 10 years?
Not many

New laws
Little change No enforcement Corruption

Payoffs Double Books Hidden Production Scripted responses

Companies Supporting Sweatshop Factories

GAP Mattel

OLD NAVY
Banana Republic Reebok Adidas Bridgestone Firestone Starbucks Sears

Dell
Hewlett Packard Motorola G.E.

Walt Disney
Target Home Depot Apple Wal-Mart

Pakistan
Average person makes $5 a day
Child labor all over Pakistan Population of Pakistan approximately 400 million Important center for the production of goods for export to
international markets (especially sporting goods)

Exports of goods brings in $385 million into Pakistan

economy

Pakistan continued
Has long been documented that child labor exists here
(even in news) but little is done about it

Child labor is against the law in Pakistan but the

government does little to enforce it

Very little money given to education system therefore

education is a lower priority

Nikes success story is not based on good name and advertising alone but also attached to it is the tears of tortured workers and child labor.

In groups discuss
Why do we continue to buy products from a company like NIKE, while knowing that in most cases, the product has been made by a child?

Something to think about

When a person states that he/she is working for Nike, it gives a very good status symbol.

But what if the person is a 9 year old child? What image will it give you as a consumer when you buy those products or brands that employ child labor?

What can we do?

Consumers should take immediate action in order to
eradicate child labor and practice discharged by these multinational U.S. corporations.

This can only be done by not buying their products which

are produced in the third world and which have suspicion of a child being involved in the process.

Child labor is a human rights issue. It is a human right to

grow up as a free person, attend school and not be forced to work!

What is globalization? How does it affect how we live?

NIKE Endorsement Deals hit $1.4 billion

Tiger Woods ($100M/ 5 years)

LeBron James ($90M/7 years)

Michael Jordan ($47M/5 years)

Kobe Bryan ($40M/5 years)

Manchester United ($484M/13 years) Englands Soccer Team

The Fifth Estate

Made in Bangladesh
On that day when the 8-story Rana Plaza came crashing
down in Dhaka Bangladesh, the world became transfixed by the endless stream of bodies and the harrowing stories of survivors. As the body count grew eventually topping more than 1,100 -- so did the questions about how such a tragedy could happen and why companies behind the clothing brands we all love were connected to clothes being made in such dangerous conditions. In Canada, the story hit close to the bone, when tags and clothing bearing the name Joe Fresh appeared in the rubble. Fast Fashion -- the cheap, trendy clothing that changes every few weeks rather than once a season -- was suddenly under greater scrutiny than ever.

Just dont do it
After watching the movie clips from class, write
a 1 page reflection on what you learned about Sweatshops, how you feel about the topic and how this will affect you as an individual and a possible Nike consumer.