TNCs - Transnational Companies..
A Case Study: NIKE
Use the Wide World article (Sept 2012) and the links below (scroll past the tasks) and PAGE 215
1. List and describe the FEATURES of a TNC - make your own version of 'the organisation of a TNC' using the handout to help you.
2. Make a table of advantages and disadvantages of TNCs - make specific references to Nike where you can.
note the advantages and disadvantages can be for the host country, the workforce and the TNC itself. - complete this activity to help
3. EXAM QUESTION: Use a case study of a Transnational Corporation (TNC) to discuss the advantages and disadvantages for a country or countries where the TNC operates. [8 marks]
[don't forget there are SPaG marks too: 3 marks]
Nike
Nike's Corporate Website
It's HQ is near Beaverton, Oregon - a suburb of Portland. This is the 'birthplace' of Nike. Approx 6 000 people work there. - give some examples of the areas in which they might work.
What jobs are most likely to be happening at its HQ or in its branch offices? look here
Today the company operates in more than 160 countries, 6 continents and brings together more than 40000 employees!
then it has branch offices globally e.g....
EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS, Hilversum, Netherlands (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Headquarters is located southeast of Amsterdam. With more than 1,400 employees, made up of 68 nationalities, the campus is an international melting pot where critical corporate HQ functions are housed to support over 75 countries across the EMEA region.
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
Located in downtown Shanghai on Nanjing Xi Lu you’ll find the prestigious Plaza 66 Commercial Towers, where Nike Greater China makes its home. With annual revenue in excess of US $2 billion and ,2000+ staff, China by far is our fastest growing global market and our second-largest single market behind North America
It's Factories - take a look at the map!
Nike lists 124 plants in China contracted to make its products, 73 in Thailand, 35 in South Korea, 34 in Vietnam and others in Asia. It also produces goods in South America, Australia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Turkey and the US. It employs 650,000 contract workers worldwide
Nike's Code of Conduct for the factories that it outsources its manufacturing to.
What Nike Says...
Our greatest responsibility as a global company is to play a role in bringing about positive change for workers within our supply chain and in the industry. When we look at our overall impact on the world, the needs of nearly 1 million workers in Nike’s contract supply chain overshadows any other group. We also know the size and scale of the combined manufacturing operations has a considerable environmental impact.
We've run the course – from establishing Codes of Conduct that cover worker protections as well as environmental impacts – to pulling together an internal team to enforce it, to working with external bodies to monitor factories. What we've learned, after nearly a decade, is that monitoring alone hasn’t solved the problems. And many of the problems are recurring in the industry.
An extract from Oxfam's Australian website..
Australia''s Oxfam released the report, "We Are Not Machines," which chronicles the working conditions facing Indonesian Nike and Adidas workers. Eighty percent of the workers are young women, ages 17 to 29. According to Oxfam, most of the workers live in extreme poverty, with full-time wages as low as $2 per day. The report also discusses hazardous working conditions, and some of the indignities experienced by the workers.
"Factory managers abuse and harass us because they think it will increase our productivity," one Nike factory worker said in an interview with the report authors. Workplace dangers include respiratory illness from inhaling toxic chemicals found in the glue for the shoes and amputations from unguarded cutting machines. The report also noted that workers have good reason to fear that if they join independent unions, they may face dismissal, jail or physical assault. Because of the low wages and lengthy work hours at the facilities - it is not unusual for some workers to work 60 or more hours a week without being paid overtime - many of the workers send their children to live with friends and relatives, says Andrew Hewett, executive director of Oxfam. "Nike and Adidas workers who want to live with their children are going into debt to meet their families'' basic needs," he adds.
Nike and Adidas-Salomon do not own the factories in Indonesia. The companies have contracts with the factories, which are mostly owned by Taiwanese and Koreans, to manufacture their products.
Nike in Vietnam - this is very detailed but you could try reading just the front page.
Baseball cap factory - but wages and conditions are improving
Nike's corporate responsibility - have a quick look, too much here really!