Examining Unfair and Unsafe Labor Practices in US Companies

This essay delves into the pervasive issue of unfair and unsafe labor practices within the United States, arguing that U.S. labor and employment laws often favor employers, undermining fundamental workplace authorities of workers. The essay examines various violations, including the infringement of workers' rights to freedom of association, the role of insufficient penalties and delays in enforcement, and the exploitation of workers in global supply chains, citing examples from companies like Wal-Mart, H&M, GAP, and Amazon. It highlights the impact of such practices, including unsafe working conditions, low wages, and the suppression of union activities. The essay further explores the limitations of current legal protections, the rise of individual employment settlements, and the implications of court decisions like Epic Sys Corp. v. Lewis. It concludes by emphasizing the need for fair trade methods, ethical labor product manufacturing, and the development of corporate responsibility to address these critical issues. The essay also suggests that consumers should support Fair Trade and companies must take action beyond tier one of their supply chains.

Running head: UNFAIR AND UNSAFE LABOR PRACTICES
UNFAIR AND UNSAFE LABOR PRACTICES
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Introduction
Unfair labor practices are identified as actions performed by companies or unions who
are unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as well as other labor laws. The
NLRA offers employees the authority to act in amalgamation in order to improve the terms and
conditions of other employers by establishing union agencies or collaborating with other unions.
Unfair Labor Practices refer to dominating or offering unlawful aid of upkeep to a labor union
(Andrias, 2015). Such practice further refers to the discrimination towards employees in order to
encourage or dismay affiliation in labor organization or substituting labors who slowdown the
business operation to safeguard an unfair labor practice (Galiatsos, 2015). The thesis statement
of the essay is “U.S labor and employment law acts on basis of contract which unfairly favors
employers and undermines fundamental workplace authorities of workers.”
Discussion
U.S firms have violated Laborers Rights to Freedom of Association. U.S law allows
broad range of employer strategies which interfere with worker organizations. As per reports of
Andrias (2019), many American firms have been offering penalties which are too insignificant to
sufficiently deter workers from violating regulations, there are still prevalent extensive delays in
enforcement which have been threatening the effectiveness of already weak laws. As per reports,
nearly 50% of Wal-Mart merchandises come from overseas suppliers and has been charged of
paying off its executives in foreign companies to conceal these unfair labor practices (Secunda,
2018). In addition to this, Wal-Mart paid its laborers in its factory in Bangladesh with $37 per
month. However, as per reports, the conditions in the working settings showed severe lack of
safety and precautions (Hitchings-Hales, 2018). For example, in 2012 fire broke out in one

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factory which resulted in the death of over 100 workers, while before that it killed over 32
workers.
On the other hand, similar unsafe and unfair labor practices have been found taking place
in U.S garment firms such as H&M and GAP (Sainato, 2019). As per reports, garment
associated global supply chains have been relentlessly offering critical jobs and insignificant
amount of wages to its women employee base, thus making them highly susceptible in global
value chains. In addition to, similar findings have been found by Hitchings-Hales (2018) who
claimed that renowned retailers resembling Marks and Spencer and Zara as well as Next have
been performing unfair and unsafe labor practices by exploiting cheap employment of Syrian
expatriates in one of the largest factories in Turkey. As per these findings, some child refugees
had been paid less than $1.24 an hour and further health and safety guidelines had been declined
for the sake of generating higher manufacture. In the view of Ibrahim (2017), these unsafe and
unfair labor practices have been identified as modern slavery which tends to result in human
trafficking along with widespread human abuse and exploitation. However, Gap Inc. has agreed
that gender-based workplace abuse and ill-treatment has been considered as major issue and an
appropriate subject for ILO action (Fisk & Rutter, 2015).
Even though major statutory protections have been beneficial for workers, union
associations started to destabilize since the 1980s. As per studies of Ibrahim (2017), U.S workers
have attained false sense of security from these conventionally established common law and
statutory protections. At the same time, organizations in the United States who showed
discontentment with expanded employee protections started depending on individual
employment settlement that has been external to the trade union setting in order to bring
resolution to workplace conflicts instead of seeking legal advice from courts. However, taking

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into consideration the judgment of US Supreme Court in 2018 in Epic Sys Corp. v. Lewis, a new
type of “liberty of contract”, it has been noted that employers have the potency to force workers
into unequal, unsafe and individual working arbitrations with impact that employers would face
challenges in upholding workplace rights and privileges (Fisk & Rutter, 2015).
By drawing relevance to these factors, Galiatsos (2015) has mentioned that there has been
labor protest under the New First Amendment in America. Low income employees across the
United States have lately engrossed the country’s attention with public demonstrations
demanding for workplace justice and equality. However, as these employees and the unions
supporting them recruit new as well as groundbreaking approaches in order to establish their
offices and enhance their working situations, companies and recover their working conditions,
companies as well as National Labor Relations Board have alleged them with violating section 8
(b) (7) of the National labor Relations Act which proscribes restraining to organize workers or
attain employer acknowledgment of a union. However, in the years from when section 8(b)(7)
enactment has been executed, the National Relation Labor Board has understood any restrain
broadly along with the exception intently. Ibrahim (2017) has cited example of Wal-Mart who
has filed charges in opposition to Our Wal-Mart in 2012 with an accusation that workers’
agendas have been to protest retribution and further to enhance workplace conditions.
Furthermore, it has been noted that OUR Wal-Mart as an entity exists in order to assist
employees stand in collaboration and is not unification or acting as negotiating agent. However,
the NLRB procedure leads OUR Wal-Mart to agree to restrictions on its labor confinement
activity along with repudiations in a range of forums (Ibrahim, 2017). Moreover, the sole
exclusions from NLRB prohibition on organizational hindrances have happened due to picketing
against employers who pay less in comparison to earnings which are standard in the U.S in

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addition to confining laborers to protest against unfair labor practices. Meanwhile, report has
revealed that Amazon has been the topic of over 50 prejudicial labor practices cases, whereby
majority of the complaints highlighted by workers being withdrawn or terminated. In 2014,
Amazon has agreed to change few of its store workplace regulations in order to resolve NLRB
enquiry.
Nonetheless, the status quo throughout the industry in the United States, in internal audits
as well as for several groups have been monitoring labor conditions of products manufactured by
these companies significantly necessitates undertaking fair trade methods and practice ethic labor
product manufacturing (Galiatsos, 2015). However, in order to monitor as well as improve the
treatment of second-tier laborers, U.S firms must strictly follow FLA (Fair Labor Association) to
improve their corporate-liability programs. Furthermore, American consumers must purchase
products from Fair Trade to condemn labor violations at mills and manufacturing plants which
are frequently subcontracted in order to provide the materials intended for the first-tier factories.
In addition to this, it is important to develop an avowed responsibility from companies in order
to take action outside tier one (Sainato, 2019). Thus, shows great importance on identifying the
actual areas of problems which leads to unfair and unsafe labor practices.
Conclusion
Hence to conclude, with the claim that U.S labor and employment law acts on basis of
contract which unfairly favors employers and undermines fundamental workplace authorities of
workers, the aforementioned discussed firms have been providing $15 minimum wage aimed for
all US hourly workers, prospects for career development, industry-leading welfares in addition to
hands-on training by employing emerging technology. Furthermore, these organizations have
been maintaining an open-door policy that reassures employees to bring their remarks, queries,

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in addition to worries straight to their management team intended for discussion as well as
resolution. In addition to this, companies like Amazon have agreed to modify some of its
warehouse workstation guidelines in order to resolve NLRB inquiry into contentions it
unethically penalized workers. Considering these, NLRB in addition to courts can no longer
control restraining that solely endeavors to persuade labors and bosses to unionize or that
purposes to involve the community with skirmishes for amended labor situations.

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References
Andrias, K. (2015). Building Labor's Constitution. Tex. L. Rev., 94, 1591.
Andrias, K. (2019). An American Approach to Social Democracy: The Forgotten Promise of the
Fair Labor Standards Act. Yale Law Journal, 128.
Fisk, C., & Rutter, J. (2015). Labor Protest Under the New First Amendment. Berkeley Journal
of Employment and Labor Law, 277-329.
Galiatsos, C. B. (2015). Beyond Joint Employer Status: A New Analysis for Employers' Unfair
Labor Practice Liability Under the NLRA. BUL Rev., 95, 2083.
Hitchings-Hales, J. (2018). ‘Hundreds of H&M and Gap Factory Workers Abused Daily.
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fashion-workers/
Ibrahim, N. (2017). ‘The new American Apparel: claims of 'ethically made' abroad clash with
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american-apparel-claims-of-ethically-made-abroad-clash-with-reality
Ibrahim, N. (2017). ‘The new American Apparel: claims of 'ethically made' abroad clash with
reality. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/12/the-new-
american-apparel-claims-of-ethically-made-abroad-clash-with-reality
Sainato, M. (2019). ‘We are not robots': Amazon warehouse employees push to unionize.
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