Working rights Charter

Nike Sweat shops:

Since the 1970s, Nike has been accused of using sweatshops to produce their products. They found cheaper labor in under-developed countries, such as Vietnam, China etc. After workers there asked for higher wages, more rights and other benefits. The factories moved to different locations to continue giving workers the minimum wage and operate at a low cost. Nike denied the criticism throughout the 1990s. In 2001, Nike director Todd McKean quoted in an interview that technically they did ‘not own’ the factories and that they have ‘no control’ of what happens in those factories. These accusations went so far when Nike pulled out of contracts when Activist groups wanted to place a code of conduct. So Nike would monitor their working conditions in factories where the products are made.

There are currently many activist groups protesting against Nike. Causing much anger through students, teachers, investors and workers etc.

The man behind the committing of ending Nike’s injustice is Jim Keady. Jim Keady was the founder of an activist group called ‘Team Sweat’. It is initially one of the largest groups that protest against Nike. He himself travelled to Indonesia to live among Nike Factory workers. Surviving on just $1.25 per day. The employees were poor people looking for any income. The global alliance for workers and communities showed survey results saying, 70% of the workers in Thailand were satisfied with their supervisors and 72% thought their income was ‘fair’. Meanwhile in Vietnam, most workers said the factory was a good place to work and planned to work for a few more years, 85% felt safe there. Other than that, they felt the factory offered a more stable and higher income than farm work.

The number of more workers working at minimum wage in poorer Asian countries has increased Nike’s revenue dramatically. This increased the flow of money because of the significantly low wage. Though solutions began to spark during the 1990s where Nike has released a code of conduct. Spending $10 million dollars a year following this code of conduct. It is called ‘shape’, Safety, Health, Attitude, People and Environment. In addition they have also monitored working conditions.

Improving working conditions in Poor Countries:

Recently there have been factory disasters in which factories collapse killing many people and wounding many others. Saying it will become more and more common. A recent disaster of a collapse involved the deaths of at least 96 people and wounding more than a 1000 people. It was said the factory owners built three additional floors to the factory, though it already had five. The factory was not designed to support 8 floors so it eventually collapsed.

The incident happened after a factory fire that killed 112 workers after this had happened. But there are solutions that can be done to prevent these, but still nothing has happened to improve working standards. Here are some possible solutions:

1. Allowing unions to play a role:
Unions can not only help workers but also help maintain the buildings. 2. Enforce using better material for building factories
For some reasons companies spend insanely low money to build structures for their workers to work in. Which may not only endanger the lives of the workers, but people near the factory. 3. Doing monthly working condition checks
This can notify people beforehand what needs to be done to prevent tragic accidents.

Raise the minimum wage for workers:

Most of these workers are treated like nothing and are given money barely enough to survive for a day. Unreasonable working hours, child labor and a lack of benefits for the workers. Some workers believe this is not right and they want more rights.

A solution to this problem is to give workers more benefits, do monthly surveys on the workers opinion of their supervisor, conduct investigations etc.

Improve accommodation and treatment of workers:

Many workers live on low wage, bad accommodation, forced to live to the extreme.

Here is an example of where the workers. Sometimes the harsh methods of practice enforced on workers has encouraged workers to commit suicide. Resulting in the installment of steel wire on the windows.

These sweatshops have thousands of employees in them. In which these workers work long painful hours, who sleep in basic conditions and work 24 hours a day to meet expectations for the speed it takes to produce a massive amount of products. This is not only because of why they want to commit suicide but to receive compensation from the companies to their families. This also has resulted in thousands of their employees to be taken in by mental health centers.

Workers complain there is no entertainment, no TV, no nothing, just people to complain about with. They say, sometimes there’s no one else in the room because they’re all working so you sit there doing absolutely nothing.

At the moment i want to see these poor living conditions to improve and for company leaders to know what really goes inside their own company.

Less working hours, more rights and benefits:

A lot of workers in sweatshops live on no benefits, absolutely no freedom and incredible amount of working hours. They have no rights, they’re not allowed to leave, and they even have to buy back their own items. Sometimes it gets so extreme the factory owners hire armed guards to make sure no intruders get in or no workers sneak out. Millions of people including children have no rights and are forced to work in extreme conditions, unreasonable hours and low wage.

There are currently many anti sweatshop organizations worldwide trying to enforce companies to stop using sweatshops and abusing their own workers.

These workers are forced to work non-stop daily to keep up with the required production speed by companies.