An Exploration of Reebok Sweatshops 1119 Words 5 Pages

CASE SUMMARY Walk through Tong Yang Indonesia (TYI) shoe factory, an 8,500-worker complex of hot, dingy buildings outside Jakarta, and company president Jung Moo Young will show you all the improvements he has made in the past two years. He did so at the behest of his biggest customer, Reebok International Ltd., to allay protests by Western activists who accuse the U.S. shoemaker of using sweatshops. Last year, Jung bought new machinery to apply a water-based solvent to glue on shoe soles instead of toulene, which may be hazardous to workers who breathe it in all day. He installed a new ventilation system after Reebok auditors found the old one inadequate. TYI bought new chairs with backs so that its young seamstresses have some support while seated at their machines--and back braces for 500 workers who do heavy lifting. In all, TYI, which has $100 million in annual sales, spent $2 million of its own money to satisfy Reebok. But to Jung's surprise, he says. ''The workers are more productive, and the new machinery is more efficient.'' This article is real case of a particular factory in Indonesia which produces shoe, primarily for Reebok. It reveals how one of the world’s most powerful companies is influencing lives and working conditions in one of the poorest countries in the world. The lowest paid workers earn only $1 for every shoe, which is less than the legal minimum wage, and not enough to feed one person. CASE ANALYSIS In fact, more than a dozen companies have joined efforts to create an industry wide system for verifying that consumer goods sold in the U.S. are made under humane conditions. The most ambitious effort involves the Fair Labor Assn., which grew out of a Presidential task force of companies and human-rights groups. It plans to send outside monitors to factories worldwide to ensure that they meet minimum standards on everything from health and safety to workers' rights to join unions. The problem is that such companies are the exceptions. Although many multinationals operate facilities in Asia and Latin America that are as well run as any in the West, far too many still buy from factories where practices are appalling--especially in such labor-intensive sectors as garments, shoes, and toys. And many companies that claim to adhere to labor codes are still in the window dressing stage.