Florida Atlantic University Sweatshops Labor Relations Discussions

Lesson 1 Kia- Respond with 150 words

According to the text, sweatshops are essentially a form of modern slavery, which continues to exist in the United States and the world. Also known as the ” gloves off economy “, many employers will not follow labor standards, such as pay wage, health benefits, environment standards. Employers will also not follow safety standards, that can put employees in danger. Employers will not follow certain appropriate behaviors and responsibilities, such as discrimination and sexual harassment. An example of a most popular sexual harassment in sweat shops, would be quid pro quo sexual harassment, which is asking sexual demands in return of a higher job placement. Other types of inappropriate behavior by management in sweat shops, would be unfair termination of employees, not related to job performance. Examples consist of ; forming a union, termination based on race and age, falsifying medical records, and not allowing the use of the bathroom at work.

Another type of sweatshop is a ” white collar ” sweat shop, which consist of high stressed and over worked group of employees, but in terms of technology. It is still an environment of burned out employees, working long hours, and work overload. The companies are not providing proper labor relations in these sweat shops, and many employees are not able to leave.

If I was able to review each product prior to purchase, to see if it was made in a sweat shop, I would. Whether or not the product has other alternative product options, by other competitors, would aid in my decision as well. Intentionally I would not buy product made in sweatshops.

Lesson 1 Shari – Respond with 150 words

Sweatshops are workplaces that have very poor or socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions.

I think over my lifetime that I have bought a product/products that have been made in a sweatshop. I mean most of the cell phone cases that I have purchased from Amazon.com are made in China and most of the things there are made in sweatshops.

Now if someone told me that a certain product was made in a sweatshop, I would still go ahead and purchase it. The reason being is that you have to think of the people working in these places, they are treated so poorly and lots of times these people we speak of are only children. Maybe the products aren’t made with the best materials or of the best quality but you have to support the efforts of others who are working so hard and tirelessly to make ends meet for their families, who nonetheless sometimes have nothing else or no other way of putting food on their tables at home.

The video that we watched in lesson # 1 states ” Children are working in these places (sweatshops, factories, etc) and are only making 10 cents an hr”- this is very sad and disgusting”. They can’t even be in school and get an education in order to better themselves. Instead they have to help support their families and they can’t even be a regular kid who enjoys their childhood and who can socialize with others.

As our textbook, Budd, Labor Relations Management, (2020), states on pg. 5- “Having a voice is the ability of employees to have meaningful input into work decisions. With this being said, children as young as they are do not have a voice when it comes to child labor, they are simply just expected to do as they are told, obey instructions and follow through.

According to (Dosomething.org), sweatshops often have poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labor and a lack of benefits for workers. They do not allieviate poverty. The people who are forced to work spend the majority of their paycheck on food for their families.

Lesson 2 Kia- Respond with 150 words

According to the text, the human resource management school of thought also believes that independent unions are unnecessary ” third parties” that prevent employers and employees from getting ” closer together” ( Budd 2017). Foreign auto mobile companies are in the competitive auto industry market, and unions bring along higher wages, which means lower company profits. Unions bring a collective bargaining outlook, which will mean health benefits to employees, resulting in less profit, but a thriving economy.

I believe Honda created a restrictive hiring process, to restrict union workers from being selective. From a economic mainstream view, the union would promise Honda employees a voice, equity, and efficiency. Honda wants efficiency, but that conflicts with the voice. In the car industry, the company’s goal is to sell as many cars, and there are a lot of brands to choose from. The auto mobile business has been known as a traditional bureaucratic management system, that treats their employees, like assembly machines. The human resource management school views this labor problem as poor management, and lack of care for the conditions of the employees. Honda wants maximum production, for less cost. I believe it could be a anti-union tactic, and it is discriminatory, and probably illegal.

I honestly do not know if Honda’s restrictive hiring policy should be illegal, because I cannot tell a company how to run their business. I do believe that some union practices should be utilized in certian product industries, and with technology advancing, many jobs will be done by robots, especially in the car manufacturing industry.

Lesson 2 Travis– Respond with 150 words

Foreign auto companies tend to focus on being union-free here in the United States because of most of the locations that they are going to. They have mainly moved to rural areas around the country and unions aren’t very popular or sought after, therefore these foreign auto companies stay away from union groups. A union “is an organization of workers dedicated to protecting their interests and improving wages, hours and working conditions” (Silverman 2020). Union workers have the right to speak up when they need to in any manner and i feel that this is a big reason as to why foreign auto companies are union-free also. For example, if they did offer a union, then a worker can bring up any means to ensure the working conditions remain safe. I don’t think that foreign auto companies want to hire people who can openly speak up and talk about what needs to be said.

While reading into depth about Honda and their practices, i am comfortable to conclude that their restrictive hiring policy is an anti-union tactic and completely discriminatory. Honda was only hiring people within a close proximity to the business and even if workers were willing to move closer, they were still let go and not allowed to reapply. Thousands of laid-off workers from unionized facilities were forced to leave, which had me thinking why? I think that Honda implemented the restrictive hiring policy because they wanted to limit the amount of union workers. It is a discriminatory act because of the 19 out of 20 countries that were involved, “96% of the population is white”( Boudette 2007). Lastly, although i do feel that Honda’s restrictive hiring policy is unfair, i don’t think it crosses any legal lines. It is just an unfortunate means of the rich getting richer and taking advantage of the poor. It is completely unethical because they are wrongfully terminating these workers, which affect their families and lives.