Role of the Consumer

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Thesis

• NGOs should focus on exposing sweatshops
  conditions to consumers, raising market awareness
  in an effort to improve corporate social
  responsibility.

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A Boomerang Pattern

• Corporations don't need to directly listen to
  NGOs but do need to listen to consumers.
• If NGOs focused on changing consumer sentiment,
  corporations would need to listen.

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History

• Sweatshop Abuses
• Verbal
• Physical
• Sexual
• Denied Unions
• Low wages
• Long hours
• Child Labor
• Human Trafficking

• What are sweatshops?
• According to the US Department of Labor a
  sweatshop is any factory that violates more than
  one of the US labor laws which are
• Paying minimum wage
• Keeping a time card
• Paying overtime
• Paying on time
• According to the Union of Needletrades Industrial
  and Textile Employees (a US garment union) a
  sweatshop is any factory that does not respect a
  workers right to create an independent union
• Global Exchange and other NGOs add to the
  sweatshop description that its if it does not pay
  a living wage

The Free Trade Area of the Americas The FTAA
allowed multinational corporations to benefit
from cheap labor in the Americas but this made
countries from the rest of the world decrease
theyre wages to get some of the MNCs money
causing wages to further decrease in the Americas
and all over the world
It was created on the basis of institutionalism.
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NGOs and Their Approach

• Co-op America
• Empowering individuals to make purchasing and
  investing choices that promote social justice and
  environmental sustainability.
• Demanding an end to corporate irresponsibility
  through collective economic action.
• Promoting green and fair trade business
  principles while building the market for
  businesses adhering to these principles.
• Building sustainable communities in the US and
  abroad.

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Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)

• Definition Companies develop a specific
  understanding of their impact on the society at
  large and strive to avoid harm as a result of
  their activities on customers, employees,
  shareholders, communities and the environment.
• CSR defines the voluntary measures to improve
  the general quality of life by going beyond the
  legal obligationsin a given national context.

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NIKE, Inc.

• Exposed in the 1990s, after using child labor
• Faced with harsh criticism and pressured by
  consumers, NIKE adopted a CSR policy as well as
  making some efforts to improve the working
  conditions of factories in the garment industry
• NIKEs Code of Conduct

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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

• Founded in 1962
• Despite allegations and exposed use of factories
  with sweatshop conditions, it continues to make
  no real effort in stopping these violations.
• The attractiveness of low prices gives reason for
  consumers to turn a blind eye towards unfair
  labor conditions.

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Role of the Consumer

• When consumers exercise the right to choose,
  they become the ultimate arbiters of human
  decency in the marketplace.
• Consumers have been successful in persuading
  companies to do the right thing in the past.
• Companies ultimately supply what the consumer
  demands.

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What Consumers Need to Do

• If consumer demand for clothes made in fair labor
  conditions was high enough, a movement would be
  initiated among corporations to do something
  about it.
• Consumers would have to live with paying more for
  clothing, but the benefit would be having peace
  of mind.

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How to Approach Consumers

• Push for an aggregate consumer social conscience
  through various media channels, forcing
  corporations to listen.
• http//youtube.com/watch?v2nAe4_b9itk

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Works Cited
Pictures 1. (nike) http//www.nicholsoncartoons.
com.au/cartoons/human_rights/img17.jpg 2.(child
labor) http//images.google.com/imgres?imgurlhttp
//www.coopamerica.org/images/sweatshops_lg.jpgim
grefurlhttp//www.coopamerica.org/pubs/realmoney/
articles/nosweatshops.cfmh235w240sz22hlen
start6tbnidgen14sbrqf8aHMtbnh108tbnw110pr
ev/images3Fq3DSweatshops26gbv3D226hl3Den 4.
Company Breakdown http//openlearn.open.ac.uk/fil
e.php/2392/DD205_2_001i.jpg