Manufacturing plays an important part in the economy of the country. It offers good remunerations to employees and reduces unemployment level in the country. Furthermore, manufacturing employs more than half of the scientist and engineers in the country and is responsible for about two thirds of the private sector research and development. However, in the past few years, USA importation of manufactured goods has increased tremendously. For instance in 2011, 97.8% of total imports from China were manufactured goods. This scenario has raised queries about the reasons why importation of manufacture goods has increased instead of increasing the production. One major concern is whether the workers producing these manufactured goods are working under unfavorable conditions (Scott, 2013).
Workers Exploitation in Manufacturing of US Imports
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have deduced that structural adjustment programs in most conglomerates have led to a reduced standard of living. In most multinational companies, labor costs have been reduced to pave way for greater yearly revenues for the companies at the expense of the employees. For this reason, most of these companies have opted to reduce their manufacturing process in the country and have opened manufacturing companies in developing countries where labor is cheap. Globalization has made it possible for large organizations which have the capability to employ thousands of American citizens to opt to abandon the country and increase their profit margin by exploiting cheaper labor in other countries such as China, India and the African continent (Shah, 2006).
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In an instance in the US, residents of Massachusetts went to court to try to forbid corporations from doing business with regimes that violate certain rights of people. More than 600 key corporations in the country formed an alliance to fight the petition saying that it is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the court agreed to let the corporations work with what they wanted and not what benefited the workers (Shah, 2006). From the above example, it is evident that these companies do not care about their employees and they will do anything to increase their turnover. These employees are better off in an alternative type of job and not in companies that they will be exploited and they will not have the capability to do anything about it because not even the constitution or justice system supports them.
Should Consumers Boycott or Increase the Purchase of Imported Goods?
Production of manufactured goods outside the country is cheaper; therefore, both the wholesale price and the retail price of the finished product are cheaper. As much as this is beneficial to the consumers, they should have a sense of patriotism and humanity and boycott the purchase of the imported goods. This is because the goods have been manufactured under inhumane circumstances whereby the laborers have been mistreated and underpaid and worked in the least favorable conditions. In addition to inhumanity, it is bad for the economy when firms take the employment opportunities somewhere else leaving millions of Americans unemployed. Through boycotting the purchasing of foreign produced items, the companies will have no choice but to increase their production in the country thus creating employment.
Standards for Work Rules
Socially responsible companies, civil society organizations, international bodies and multinational companies should come up with standards of work that will help improve the lives of millions of workers around the world. These organizations should come together to create a lasting solution to abusive labor practices. These solutions should be enforced in all the related countries to prevent some countries getting exploited at the cost of others. They can easily do this by offering tools and resources to relevant companies that are beneficial to workforces; they can provide training to their employees both the laborers and the management, to increase their skills and knowledge in their relevant fields; they can provide diligence through conduction of regular individual assessments of the working conditions and promote accountability and transparency of individual companies. All the involved parties should work hand in hand to enforce these work rules and the judicial system in different countries should embrace the standards set for the benefit of their citizens (Fair Labor Association, 2016).
References :
Fair Labor Association. (2016). Protecting Workers’ Rights Worldwide . Retrieved on August 10, 2016 from www.fairlabor.org/our-work
Scott, R. E. 2013. Trading Away the Manufacturing Advantage.Economic Policy Institute . Retrieved on August 10, 2016 from www.epi.org/publication/trading-manufacturing-advantage-china-trade/
Shah, A., (2006).Corporations and Workers’ Rights. Global Issues: Social Political Economic and Environmental Issues That Affect Us All. www.globalissues.org/article/57/corporations-and-workers-rights
