Deck 11: Globalization

Question 1

Use the ethical analysis template from Chapter 5 to analyze the ethical content of putting factories on a barge to find the best labor costs around the world.

Answer 1

To analyze the ethical content of putting factories on a barge to find the best labor costs around the world various methods are followed.
In the given case GE, has adopted method of cost cutting by following shifting production and making investment in lower-wage countries. It is following cost leadership strategies. It is pursued by following human strategy seeking to minimize labor costs. In this efficiency is achieved from getting higher output at lower cost, so labor is treated as a commodity.

Question 2

In a concise paragraph, paraphrase what you have learned about globalization to explain to a policymaker why globalization has profound implications for domestic employment issues. Based on these implications, should enforceable labor standards (a social clause) be added to free trade agreements? If so, what should the standards be and how should they be enforced?

Answer 2

Increased globalization is a sign of rapid growth in foreign direct investment, world trade, and cross-border financial flows. This somehow leads to unemployment and wage inequality. An emerging global labor market implied decrease in the amount of wages earned and labor standards.
When there is increase in imports from low wage producing countries, it destroys manufacturing jobs, especially in labor-intensive sectors.
Moreover it has led to intense competition that has profound effect in both developed and developing countries. It has reduced collaborative bargaining power.
Enforceable labor standards should be added to free trade agreements. There has to be institutional intervention by the FTA"s to protect workers from suffering the negative effects of social dumping and other pressures of globalization.
Protection can be provided to the workers through creation and enforcement of explicit international labor standards, transnational employee representation or unionism, increased enforcement of national laws, voluntary corporate code of conduct.

Question 3

What is the role of ethics for managers in the global economy? For union leaders?

Answer 3

Globalization has led to large scale interdependence between countries, higher standards of living across the globe through higher efficiency. This has created the need to form central system, permitting businesses to form meaningful relationships throughout the world with least time and cost investment.
The managers need to ensure that resources are accessible to employees and leveraged to balance the geographic reach of a business's operations. They have to manage diversity management by mounting a global perspective that itself to certain geographic requirements, customs and values.
For this managers, must follow the favorable method to approach global demographics from a trade to consumer perspective. Managers must carefully take into consideration the best ways to confine products to preserve cultural identity in the area of their operations.

Question 4

Free trade agreements commonly include enforceable intellectual property rights but not labor standards. Is it consistent to have enforceable property rights but not labor standards?

Question 5

Is coordinated, transnational collective bargaining a good idea for unions and workers? If so, how should it be promoted?

Question 6

How does increased globalization affect U.S. managers, labor leaders, and workers in a unionized workplace? Does labor law need to be reformed because of these effects? If so, how?

Question 7

Globalization represents a major change in the labor relations environment, but ethics should not be overlooked. For many, the push for free trade and increased economic integration is based on the belief that "the social caboose [is] pulled by the economic locomotive." Which ethical frameworks in Chapter 5 are consistent with this belief? How would the remaining ethical frameworks challenge this belief?

Question 8

As a review of earlier chapters, explain how Acosta's actions violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Question 9

Interestingly, the conversations between Acosta, Meraz, and Delgado occurred at the Nogales distribution center in Mexico, not in the United States. Moreover, Acosta was a Mexican citizen who worked in Mexico for a Mexican company. Acosta was not employed by SPT but instead worked for SPT's major customer in Mexico. Nevertheless, Acosta frequently assigned routes to the truck drivers for their return to the United States and sometimes disciplined them. He was seen by the SPT drivers not only as a supervisor but as the voice and authority of SPT in Mexico. In Silva's words, Acosta was his "eyes and ears" in Nogales. Do you still think Acosta'a actions violated American labor law (the NLRA)?

Question 10

Did Acosta's actions violate any human rights standards? If so, should there be any consequences or remedies for this violation?