Third Party Contractors and MNCs Multinational companies have to uphold an image and it’s not as easy to get away with the same practices as there has been light shined on these issues. Even if using third party contractors helps them in legal cases of human rights in court, it still looks bad on a company when they use these contractors. Looking at Foxconn, Apple has been under a lot of scrutiny for using them. The conditions in their facilities are known to be overcrowded, unsafe and they have also been caught using under age workers. These MNCs have a social responsibility and just because they can win a court case, it doesn’t mean they will win the trust of their consumers and help them in their main goal to maximize profits. U.S. multinational corporations have sent millions of jobs overseas since the early 2000’s. The corporations have a lot of interest in protecting their investments in foreign labor and third party contractors provide that labor. The issue is the difference in labor laws. The U.S. is extremely different from how a country like China’s labor laws work, therefore we have a lot more concerns with how these companies treat their employees. Protected lawfully or not, it’s not ethical.
Moral Conduct Statements a Part of Advertising? Social responsibility has become a large part of multinational companies advertising. In my opinion, companies use their social actions and ethical conduct as a way to boost buying confidence with their consumers. After the oil spill in the gulf, BP launched a social responsibility initiative to boost their brand reputation. Since the beginning of the oil spill in April of 2010 and the end of August, BP spent three times the amount on advertising than it did from April to July in 2009. This shows that BP felt it was important to spend over 93 million dollars on advertising to promote their brand image in the wake of a crisis. Although this isn’t an attempt to describe the treatment of their workers, it shows the importance of advertising a company’s brand image. I find that any company that uses social conduct statements to be advertising as they are trying to protect their profits. In my experience, I base my purchasing decisions on how much I want the item and if there is a company that provides a substitute that supports better moral and social conduct, I will buy it instead. I do buy Apple products knowing that the conditions at Foxconn are less than satisfactory as most of my friends and acquaintances do the same. I feel like some companies know consumers will buy their product because of how desirable it is, regardless of their social responsibility. This may show that some of the social responsibility is on us as consumers. It is only fair that we be made aware of where our products are manufactured and by whom they are made by. I personally