NIKE and Child Labor Essay examples -- Business Management

NIKE and Child Labor Nike Company started in 1984, in Portland Oregon by Tinker Hatfield, a former pole-vaulter and architect. Hatfield worked his way into the shoe industry. He got his idea from Converse’s in the early 1970’s slogan, Limousines for the Feet. In Hatfield believe our culture have a lot of interest in shoes, just as much as our culture back in the 1950’s were interested in owning cars. They began introducing their Nike shoes and products to the society by images of people and things like the production of the Nike Air Jordan. This product was named after Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player and biggest star at that time. In advertisement, Michael Jordan would show us a quick lay up to the goal or a fast break away from an opponent while wearing the Air Jordan. This high top basketball shoe gave an image of speed and quick moves to a younger group of viewers. With this in mind, Hatfield and associates learned that a product had to be able to have implied performance. Know Nike is doing well in the United States. The minute the market accepted their products they started looking for alternative to minimize their cost and to increase their profit. A lot of reason caused that to happen, one of them the labor cost over here in the U.S, is higher than it is in the other countries like (China, Indonesia, Vietnam†¦etc). An estimated 200 million Children around the world go to work every day. Their ages ranges between 5 and 17 years. According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 171 million children are engaged in unsafe work environment, of which 111 million are younger than 15. Some 8.4 million children are trapped in the worst forms of child labor, including slavery, t... ...ause of the cheep labor and the benefit that heir companies gain in term of profit for example the shoes cost them in labor about $1.90 a day to produce, but on the other hand it will cost them about $6.35 an hour in the US. Therefore children are trapped going to work because governments and international agencies do not put enough priority into education and because globalization without a social dimension allows crooked employers to profit from exploiting children. In my opinion I think that the International Labor Organization, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), and WTO (World Trade Organization) should work hand to hand to create and in force soon kind of rules to protect these kids from this kind of iron grip. References: 1. http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/children.cfm 2. http://www.american.edu/TED/nike.htm.