We are the reason that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Demand here effects lives there. Poor people are being kept poor, thanks to companies like Nike. People have to work overtime, and if they don’t, they either get the sack or they get abused both physically and mentally. Workers are so poor that they cannot take the risk and say no, because they need the money so much.
Even children have had to work in order to earn money because of their poverty. Child labour is one of the most serious human rights abuses in the work place. They are being denied something all children should have an entitlement to, a childhood. A right to play, a right to grow up without the worries and responsibilities of survival. A right to an education without which they can never aspire to a better quality of life. Should such huge responsibilities be placed on such little shoulders?
In the U.S.A. and Europe a Nike shirt costs thirty pounds, yet the workers may only get about a quarter of that price per week in wages. The third world kids are victims of poverty. We the consumers are victims of high prices and ignorance. Every time we wear an item of clothing produced by named brand manufacturers we advertise their products. We have been given false hopes, the way that Nike gives false hopes to the workers in their factories.
The clothes we buy from Nike are made in factories from China to El Salvador. These factories can only be called sweatshops. The conditions people are expected to work in are nothing short of appalling. Wages are abysmal; hours are long and welfare non-existent. Workers who remained anonymous for fear of loosing their jobs were interviewed by Sarah Strickland in Phonom Penh and are quoted as saying, “Some only earn £20 a month. They have to get their card stamped when they go to the toilet and sometimes they faint from exhaustion and the heat.” One particular worker who said he had worked for two years without a holiday told her, “When I asked for two days off, they cut my salary.” The manufacturers were also approached for their comments on the state of the garment industry in Cambodia. Van Sou Ieng, chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association told Ms Strickland “Some of the workers have unrealistic demands, like asking for forty hour, five day weeks.” I wonder how many hours per week he works and for how much pay? I would be very surprised if he wasn’t entitled to holiday pay, sick pay and a substantial pension.
I think the workers in these factories should be paid more because they are being kept poor and it’s unfair. The children working in these factories should not have been there, they should have been in school, playing and having fun not receiving pain in a factory.
However this is a complex issue, consider this, if you buy Nike products, those factory workers will be kept poor. If you don’t buy them they will still be poor, maybe more so.
So what can we do about it? Well, we could try protesting to companies like Nike. A letter of disapproval might be a start, but will these multi-million pound companies listen to us? I think we should protest to the world trading organisations and persuade them to set standards for all companies around the world. Standards that are fair to everyone; the factory workers, the companies and you the consumer. A world trade mark could then be a sign of quality without cruelty, a guideline for the unsuspecting buyers around the world that the product didn’t cost someone more than a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, and doesn’t cost us our peace of mind.
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Rich man - The executives of the large companies who make their
money from us all
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Poor man - The consumer who is being conned by these companies
and kept in the dark about the way in which their products are produced.
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Beggar man – The people in third world countries who have little or
no rights in the workplace, slaves to their rich masters.
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Thief – The Multi-million pound companies, the “fat cats” of society,
making their money from exploiting others.
By Vicky Bishop
