Question

Mr. Neal thinks that Nike uses immoral labour practices by using "sweatshops", which are factories which use cheap labour from other countries, and that they should have to pay workers more and provide better working conditions. He believes that governments should put higher taxes on goods coming from countries with a low minimum wage to stop companies from exploiting them. Mr. V believes that Nike producing clothes and shoes in other countries is actually a good thing for their economy. He believes that by increasing the demand for labour in these countries, Nike is actually increasing their wages and providing jobs to people who were otherwise unemployed. He does however agree with Mr. Stewart about the working conditions of employees. a) Do you believe that "sweatshops" are good or bad (choose one)? Explain? (3 marks) b) What do you think the Canadian government should do about sweatshops if they are concerned about the working conditions of these workers, but don't want to ban the cheap goods (4 marks) Type your response here...

Answer 1

(a) Sweatshop is usually a small factory or small establishment which violates few labour laws, has very poor working conditions, unreasonable working hours, unfair wages for the labourers and also employ child labourers.

The workers who work in a sweatshop are paid very less wages that they cannot meet their basic needs to live. They can afford either food or medicines or shelter or clothes. They face a hard time in managing all of these needs with such low wages. The children of these sweatshop workers are not able to get good education and hence they are aslo forced to work in these sweatshops.

The workers in sweatshops are forced to work in unhygenic working conditions by using cruel or unfair and unethical practices. The workers are not allowed to interact with external people who visit their workplace and they are threatened and guarded by armed guards.

Any argument in support of this unethical working criteria for sweatshop workers is not going to work as this is inhumane. Although sweatshops give job to jobless but this does not mean that they can be exploited. Sweatshops must follow certain humane criteria for wages and working conditions for their workers so that they can manage their basic needs and live with dignity. If workers are provided with better wages and working conditions, their productivity will increase and it will ultimately benefit the factory or establishment wihich employ them.

Thus, sweatshops are not good as they follow unethical practices to make workers work in bad working conditions and for very low wages.

(b) If the Canadian government is concerned about the working conditions of workers in sweatshops but don't want to ban cheap products, it can promote Lean mnufacturing or lean production. In lean manufacturing, the factory or establishment has to minimize wastes from all of its manufacturing processes and hence, it can increase the production while maintaining low costs.

In lean production process, following principles has to be followed:

• The wastes resulting due to overproduction, unnecessary stock maintenance, unnecessary transportation of goods, overprocessing of goods, unnecessary movement of staff and goods, etc. should be checked.
• The organization should work towards improving skills of the workers so that quality in their productivity can improve and it will result in less wastages due to defects in goods manufactured by unskilled workers.
• The establishment should derive proper value for the goods it produces by analysing the price which the customers are ready to pay for them. Also the goods should be made with features which the customers desire for and unnecessary features must be avoided or removed to avoid wastages.
• Production time should be reduced by properly organizing the flow of production cycle without any inturruption.
• Instead of using push production method, the establishment should use pull production method. This method will increase the production, reduce production time, reduce the use of workplace, reduce extra production and defects in the final product.

Thus, by promoting the principles of lean production, the Canadian government can maintain the production of low cost products which will ultimately promote good working conditions for the workers in sweatshops.