Page 89 - Copshaholm Curriculum Book_2015

Some of today’s companies that have been accused of profiting from abused labor:
Nike
Disney
Hyundai
Guess
Wal-Mart
Kmart
J.C.Penny
Victoria Secret/Limited
Espirit

CBS aired a special “48 Hours” television program on Nike’s factory operations in
Vietnam. The transcript for the broadcast is available at:
http://www.saigon.com/~nike/48hrfmt.htm

According to the report, fifteen Vietnamese women told CBS News that they were hit
over the head by their supervisors for poor sewing. Two were sent to the hospital
afterward. Forty-five women were forced by their supervisors to kneel down with their
hands up in the air for 25 minutes.

June 1996 Life magazine photo essay detailed the use of child labor in Nike’s Pakistan
soccer ball factories.

The problem of child labor is, in fact, nothing new. Early in this century, the extensive
use of child labor was a fact of life here in the United States as Americans continued to
convert from an agricultural to an industrial economy. However, the exploitation of
children as workers exists as a major problem in many parts of the world. Estimates by
human rights experts reveal that as many as 400 million children under the age of 15
are performing forced labor. Because these children are paid little and do not receive
an education, they have little chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

The child labor problem is predominantly confined to under-developed countries. The
economic reality is that children are typically paid one-half to one-third what is paid to
adults doing comparable work. In addition to low pay, the children are often exposed to
significant health hazards and subjected to extreme physical, verbal and even sexual
abuse. While many children work to add to their family’s income, others are literally
sold into bondage by their parents in return for cash or some form of credit.