Unlike Hobby Lobby, which has its policies and mission rooted in Christian ideals, the apparel giant Nike, Inc. serves as an example that change is possible. The company suffered tremendous backlash in 1991 when an activist published about the poor working conditions in some of the textile factories for Nike overseas, specifically in Indonesia. While Nike did provide some formal response, the following year in 1992, the same activist publishes “The New Free-Trade Heel: Nike’s Profits Jump on the Backs of Asian Workers,” (Ballinger). Further controversy arose as protestors spoke out against Nike at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, urging the boycott of Nike products. Amidst some efforts for Nike to investigate the claims, the company faces further backlash, forcing layoffs due to weakened sales by 1998. In 1999, former President Bill Clinton established a task force that evolved into the Fair Labor Association (FLA), amid the Nike sweatshop rumors, as well as other companies. FLA is responsible for protecting workers’ rights through transparent audits. As a participating member, Nike performed factory audits between the …show more content…
The initial start of Patagonia was for profit; however, as the company began to expand their operations into clothing, learning about the raw materials and inputs into their products led to an awakening moment for the owner. The founder and owner, Yvon Chouinard, questioned whether his company could operate under practices that did not necessarily align with his own beliefs. The mission to change Patagonia’s operating practices from start to finish - from manufacturer to supplier to vendor, and ultimately to consumers, is a duty each company owes its stakeholders and a change Chouinard pursued. Ultimately, the paradigm shift in operating practices has yielded the company an annual revenue of 300 million dollars and the respect as one of the most socially conscious
Abstract Patagonia's mission statement is, to use business to inspire and implement solutions to environmental crisis? Patagonia is a clothing company that focus is on selling environmentally safe outdoor apparel. This papers focus is on the history of Patagonia their environmental marketing strategies and their competition. There has also been some outside research done to see what the public perception of Patagonia is. Introduction Patagonia's History In 1957 a young climber named Yvon Chouinard could not find pitons (a form of climbing protection) that he liked.
The issue that is at hand is if the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 is being violated, which says that the federal government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless that burden is the least restrictive means to further a compelling governmental interest, allows a corporation the ability to deny its employees the health coverage of contraceptives to which the employees are entitled by federal law, based on the religious objections of the corporation’s owners. But the debate over the legitimacy of the case has ripped a path all the way to the Supreme Court. Hobby Lobby argues intensely that they should be exempt from certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act, because of the owners Mennonite religious beliefs and practices. What is at risk here isn't just the freedom of religion, but about power over one’s health care.
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court. It was
.... In addition, this company has already made adjustments in the way they are making their product by using organic cotton to improve the quality of their product. Furthermore, while Patagonia is making definite changes towards their social responsibility considering the needs of their customers while still increasing the amount of product they are producing.
One major controversy in America today deals with the corporate company of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides health care, sex education, and information pertaining to anything in reproductive health care to men and women around the world. Over 1.5 million people get provided with sexual education every year through Planned Parenthood, and 2.7 million people in the U.S alone annually visit Planned Parenthood, and over 5 million men and women around the world. This company’s main goal is to prevent unintended pregnancies, and inform young and old on the measures to take if and when unwanted pregnancies happen. There are many different view points with this organization today, and currently it is a major controversy in the eyes of our government.
Nike has been under a great deal of pressure to correct the misdoings that have been done regarding production facilities in the East. As Nike is responsible for these plants, their reputation has been tainted with increasing public debate about ethical matters. While Nike still promotes itself as one of the industry leaders in corporate social responsibility, workers in Asia are still forced to work excessively long hours in substandard environments and are not paid enough to meet the basic needs for themselves or their families. They are faced to a life of poverty and are unfortunate subjects to harassment and violent threats if they make any attempt to form unions or tell journalists about labour abuses in their factories. Phil Knight’s speech regarding Nike’s steps to improving human rights in Asian countries was a step in the right direction for Nike, but it would have been much more effective had Nike fully followed through with these initiatives.
Pittman, B. (2012, September 14). Nike sweatshop history: Should action be taken?. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/americanlaborcrises/labor-crises/nike-sweatshop-action
...rible situations for people who do not have the laws like U.S. workers have. Even though NIKE has implemented different methods to improve the companies’ image, there have still been many reports that show there has not been much change at all. At a net worth of 67 billion dollars and expected to grow, loyal customers is what allows this multi billion dollar company to grow in profit, the only way there will be an impact on those working in NIKE sweatshops is if today’s society takes action.
Nike has always been a company that's been questioned ethically. People have heard about the stories of the sweatshops in Southeast Asia exploiting adolescent employees for unreasonably small amounts of money. This had blemished Nike’s reputation several years ago, but since then, it has strived to become a truly respectable company. Located on Nike's website you can find Phil Knight's credo about ethics. It is as follows:
Nike does not merely sell products these days. They spend billions of dollars for advertising contracts with famous athletes like Tiger Woods to increase the value of the brand by associating the factor of lifestyle to their products. The company's image has been damaged many times by press releases as well as a variety of NGOs who have long pointed out the inhumane working conditions in the production facilities of sporting goods manufacturers. This leads to the question whether should Nike orientate the regulations of the suppliers to the labor standards in their respective countries or those in the United States? The labor conditions are so inhumane that Nike at least should try to converse to the US standard to improve the situation. The following analysis of an abstract of Nikes’ Responsibility Concept, including SHAPE and their Code of Conduct, should give an insight into the difficulties of the Sweatshops.
Phil Knight started his shoe company by selling shoes from the back of his car. As he became more successful in 1972 he branded the name Nike. In the 1980’s Nike Corporation quickly grew and established itself as a world leader in manufacturing and distributing athletic footwear and sports' attire. The Nike manufacturing model has followed is to outsource its manufacturing to developing nations in the Asia Pacific, Africa, South and Latin Americas; where labor is inexpensive. It quickly became known for its iconic “swoosh” and “Just do it” advertisements and products. Its highly successful advertising campaigns and brand developed its strong market share and consumer base. But, the road has not always been easy for Nike; in the late 1990’s they went through some challenging times when their brand become synonymous with slave wages and child labor abuses. During this period, Nike learned that it paramount that the company understands its stakeholders’ opinions and ensures their values are congruent with their stakeholders. Nike learned that their stakeholders were concerned with more than buying low cost products; their customers were also concerned with ethical and fair treatment of their workers. Because Nike was unwilling to face the ethical treatment of its employees, the company lost its loyal customers and damaged its reputation. Nike has bounced back since the late 1990’s and revived its reputation by focusing on its internal shortfalls and attacking its issues head on. Nike nearly collapsed from its missteps in the late 1990’s. They have learned from their mistakes and taken steps to quickly identify ethical issues before they become a crisis through ethics audits. This paper is based on the case study of Nike: From Sweatsh...
With the increasing awareness and publicity of poor working conditions in subcontracted factories in East Asia, Nike has stimulated an uprising of activist and watchdog groups working toward seeing these conditions changed. With Nike in the negative spotlight, various organizations have revolved around generating a negative outlook on Nike’s practices of social irresponsibility. Certain campaigns such as the “National Days of Consciousness” and “International Day of Protest” were organized to educate people on the deplorable working conditions in Nike’s Asian manufacturing plants, and were designed to get more people involved in global employment issues.
The essay, “The Noble Feat of Nike” by Johan Norberg basically talks about the effects of Nike going into third world countries, particularly Vietnam. Norberg explains how Nike’s factory gains from being in its desired location, Vietnam. Vietnam being a communist country comes to Nike’s advantage, because if they were located elsewhere they would have to pay workers higher wages and use more of their machines. Workers in these countries are provided with an air conditioned building with regular wages, free meal plans, free medical service, and training/education to operate the machinery within the factory. The workers find all of this beneficial and in their own favor because of the fact their earning double to five times the amount in wages than if they were working outdoors on a farm. This great deal, blinds them to notice the meaning behind the company’s location in Vietnam. The Nike factory was rather clever in making their location in that specific area to gain benefits for Western owners. The catch Nike gains from is simple. The owners pay factory workers only a small monthly sum from what they make selling the shoes to customers. Globalists state that the company doesn’t pull this fast one on the Western population because of our advancements compared to the Eastern countries. Western people would protest and strike to demand better wages for their work, but the people in Eastern countries have no choice but to deal with the injustice in order to support their families and educate their children.
In June of 1996, Life magazine published a article about Nike’s child labor that was occurring in Pakistan. The article showed a little boy who was surrounded by pieces of Nike sports gear. The articles were shoes and soccer balls. Nike then knew then that they had to make some major changes in the way they were producing their items.
The reason that I reach these judgments, for the most unethical decision, Nike lacks of social responsibilities in term of both legal and ethical responsibilities. Although, there were some people agree with sweatshops because it was better than the firm leaves the workers, it was the best of the workers’ only bad options or it was a path from poverty to greater wealth, but if at least Nike improved their workers working standards, it would help to better increase their quality of lives.