Business ethic cases - Essay Example

Assignment The Great Non-Debate Over International Sweatshops A Summary The article “The Great Non-Debate over International Sweatshops” by Ian Maitland deliberates the merits and demerits of the criticism on the subject of ethics with regard to companies contracting arrangements; exploiting workers in international sweatshops operated by them in Third World countries on by proxy basis. The article, ingeniously depicts the ensuing arguments and counter argument in a manner that baffles the reader — as to whether, Maitland is in agreement with the critics or the corporations that are under attack by the critics — to the very last section.

At which point, he reveals his own convictions on the matter.Maitland begins by presenting the case made by the critics against the corporations. As stated in the article companies have been accused of pursuing cheap labor all over the world to: get away with paying workers less than living wages; take advantage of child labor; avoid human rights abuse issues; indirectly supporting repressive regimes that denying workers the right to join unions and do not enforce minimum labor standards in the workplace, etc.

He describes how the campaign against international sweatshops was exposed on the television, forcing the publicity- shy retail giants to take the defensive1. For example Maitland explains how Charles Kernaghan, who runs the National Labor Coalition (NLC), brought attention to the fact that Kathie Lee Giffords clothing line was being made by 13- and 14- year- olds working 20- hour days in factories in Honduras, and also arranged for teenage workers from Central American sweatshops to testify before Congressional committees about abusive labor practices.

Kernaghan, went on to deliver a masterstroke, when one of the workers held up a Liz Claiborne cotton sweater identical to ones she had sewn since she was a 13- year- old working 12 hours days, during one of these hearings.2 Maitland notes that this incident had an extremely damaging effect on the companies that held their public images to be sacred. The media had a field day withimage of young exploited girl displaying the Claiborne logo and making accusations of oppressive conditions at the factory.

3 Consequently, the companies for whom their image was sacrosanct and meant everything to them, petitioned for peace to protect their image, which they deem to be their most valuable asset.4 The companies adopted certain codes of conduct on human and labor rights in their international operations to ensure appropriate levels of pay and safety standards in sweatshops operated by them. Companies that adopted these codes include: Levi- Strauss, Nike, Sears, JCPenney, Wal- Mart, Home Depot, and Philips Van- Heusen.

5Finally, after establishing the arguments against sweatshops, Maitland winds down the article with a contrary argument saying that the confrontation between the companies and their critics, have seriously addressed the real issues, such as: what wages and labor standards need to be established in international sweatshops?6 Moving on Maitland points out that if there were a rule that said “that American MNCs [multinational corporations] that wish to be ethical must pay the same wages abroad as they do at home, . . .

[then] MNCs would have little incentive to move their manufacturing abroad; and if they did move abroad they would disrupt the local labor market with artificially high wages that bore no relation to the local standard or cost of living.”7 He establishes the facts that developing countries that would make labor more expensive would be likely to loose much of the foreign investment. Resulting in fewer jobs, for the poor of developing countries whose main advantage was the availability of low-cost labor.

8He supports his arguments with the example of the young women making Nike shoes in Serang already earn the minimum wage, yet it still places them in the top half of the income distribution in Indonesia. The statement where Phil Knight, the co-founder and Chairman of Nike, Inc., teasingly reminds critics that the average worker in one of Nikes Chinese factories is paid more than a professor at Beijing University — is just another example that proves Maitland’s claim that the best cure for the ills of sweatshops in third world countries, is more sweatshops.

9ReferenceMaitland, Ian. “The Great Non-Debate over International Sweatshops,” in Case Studies in Business Ethics, 6th Ed., ed., Al Gini and Alexei M. Marcoux (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc., 2009), 199-211.