Nike Sweatshops, Slavery or Opportunity

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Nike Sweatshops
Slavery or Opportunity?

Nike-Helping the poor
Thesis- In the past Nike has had problems with sweatshops, but the company is helping the poor and has changed in many ways. I.Problems
A.Worker wages
1.How much they get paid
2.Can they fulfill their basic needs
3.Can they support a family
B.Quality of environment
1.Conditions they live in
2.Type of protection they use against harm
3.Chemicals or solvents they used to make a product with
1.What are the conditions after improvements?
1.What do they use these harmful chemicals for?
2.Any protection?
3.Are they harmful to the environment?
1.How much can they get paid now?
2.Can they fulfill their basic needs now?
3.Can they support a family now?
III.Helping the poor
A.Gives them jobs
1.What other options do they have?
2.How much do they need to survive?
B.Keeps them away from bad things
1.Lists of bad things they can do instead of a job
IV.Nike as of right now
A.What they so far changed
B.Worker conditions
1.Are they cleaner and easy to handle?
C.Worker wages
1.Are they happy?
Conclusion-Nike has made many mistakes with sweatshops, but they are offering poor people jobs and can help the poor from doing worse things.

Nike plays an enormous role in our youth fashion and athletic attire and has a huge role in our world’s economy and the global effect it has on our earth. Working in the enormous Nike factories around the world is an opportunity to help these people survive. It is not slavery; it is a chance for the poor to get a job and support their families. Nike said they would change their practices and they have. Nike had a few steps to get back into the game. The first step was to identify the problems such as workers’ wages, working environment and then make the improvements, and while doing that they were helping the poor. In the past, Nike has had problems with sweatshops, but the company is helping the poor and has changed in many ways.

Nike had many problems they needed to solve and the company was getting harassed about these problems. The first and most well known problem was the workers’ wages. Most of the workers did not get paid enough. The workers could not even support a family; therefore each person in the family had a job or starved (Connor). The workers did not have enough money to feed their families a decent meal or even pay their bills. The essentials in life that one needs couldn’t be filled by the wages that Nike paid. For example, “In 1996, Nike was not even paying their Indonesian workers the minimum wage.” (Global Exchange). That is pretty harsh because in 2008 Nike made $18.6 billion dollars in profit. Nike can afford to pay more to the workers and the factory, so it helps out the little man in this situation.

Another problem Nike had was that the working conditions were poor and barely passed inspection. The conditions were horrible. Chemicals and solvents were everywhere, and the factories needed to have a big meeting with Nike about this hazardous problem (Turner). In 1997 when it was revealed that workers in one of its contract factories were being exposed to toxic fumes at up to 177 times the Vietnamese legal limit. Although Nike claims that its factories now meet OSHA standards, it gives factory managers advance notice of testing, giving them considerable scope to change chemical use to minimize emissions on the day the test is conducted. (Connor) Nike knew about these problems and did not say anything until they got caught with this accusation. Nike should have known better than to let harm to come to their workers that have been honorable and trustworthy to Nike. Nike was getting blamed for many things such as harsh conditions. They also needed to clean their act up. The workers were outraged and the whole world had seen the little boy making the soccer ball...
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