Most MNCs in the UK are based on the free agenda, but a few companies are based in the Fairtrade system. Some well known companies such as Body Shop, Starbucks and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk have all gone fair-trade. This helps producers and farmers in LEDCs by paying them higher amount of money. This gives them opportunities to educate their children and live a better and easier life.
Fairtrade is making itself heard, after Cadbury’s chocolate switched their most popular chocolate bar, Dairy Milk to fair-trade. Other companies like Divine chocolate supported the fair-trade organisation. They are associated with the group Kuapa Kokoo. Other companies such as Primark have recently been investigated, and it has been discovered that they are very harsh to their workers and only pay them 60p a day to make cheap clothing. Many people around the world thinks that this is very unfair and Primark should be paying them much higher.
Nike also exploits their workers in a very similar way. There is an organisation set up to fit injustice in Nikes sweatshops they are called team sweat. Team sweat has been monitoring the sweatshops in LEDCs owned by Nike and has tried to gain the worker’s wages. Team Sweat is still confident that they can change it.
The co-operative is a fair trade shop where all their products are acquired via Fair-trade. I have done a little bit if research into a man that joined the co-operative fair-trade. Luis who is 48, and he has been a cane farmer all his life. His land has been in the family for many generations. He watched his father do the farming business since he was very little. As he took over the business of his father, he had difficulties with the business since he wasn’t getting a fair deal from MEDCs. He suffered quite badly as he couldn’t pay for his children’s school fee etc. He had to work day and night but still he couldn’t earn more money. After he joined the fair trade system with the co-operative, he got much higher and better deal and he could now afford to send his children back to school again. He also had an extra money to spend on clothes, shoes etc. He is now living a very happy and comfortable life. This just shows how much the fair-trade system can work and how useful and precious it is for the workers in LEDCs.
There are many workers in LEDCs who are suffering their lives out there and the only thing that they can do to live their life is by doing their worr. Their work is their only choice and they can’t leave and look for another one like in MEDC because either it is too far from where they live or they can’t find one.
In my opinion, this trading system needs to stop now or the owners of MNCs should pay their workers higher and make it fairer. This is not going to be easy and will take a lot of time but it needs to change now.
