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Nike and the Negative Controversy with Sweatshops

ABSTRACT
The following will discuss the ethical and social issues in the Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops case. It will also discuss why Nike should be held responsible for what happens in factories that it does not own, and whether Nike has a responsibility to ensure that factory workers receive a “living wage”. It will also discuss if the wage guidelines of FLA or WRC seem most appropriate. Finally it will discuss if it is ethical for Nike to pay endorsers millions while its factory employees receive a few dollars a day.

There are a number of ethical issues that surround the Nike, Inc. and Sweatshop case study. The most important ethical issue is the accusation of their products being made by children in foreign countries receiving a low wage for a day’s work. Ethically Nike should not tolerate underage child labor and should have taken all necessary action to make sure it is not happening. In 2001, Nike came around and says they should have handled the accusations regarding the sweatshop issue better and should have been monitoring their subcontractors closer to make sure this issue was not happening. They wanted to ensure their business was still successful in the years to come, and took the steps necessary in order to regain the public’s confidence again. A social issue regarding the case is when Nike refused to make the personalized shoes for Peretti when he requested the word “sweatshop” to be on his shoes. Unlike Peretti, I understand why Nike would refuse to put that word on their product. To have that on their shoe would be a way of showing whoever saw the shoes that they were proud of that type of behavior that took place in other countries and they did not care about the treatment of the employees in the factories producing their products. Most

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