Case scenario
What potential decent work deficits can you identify in artisanal mining and how could you address them?
Potential work deficits in artisanal mining is there are not many options for work surrounding mining. Yes, miners need stores, assistance is needed with getting their miner’s license, mining itself, washers, carrying food and supplies to the work site. With these jobs focusing around mining there is not much variety currently being offered to many people of the community. Without resources members of the community can try and become miners and potentially work under dangerous circumstances. Like Olivette, people can start as miners and expand into business owners and be able to employ more members of the community if their business is large enough. Another way to address the deficit is to create more jobs and not just stores. If there are too many stores, stores owners could potentially become in completion with one another. Restaurants, opening a lodge and possibly opening a store that strictly sells tools used for mining. These businesses will be a great solution to the deficit because they will require many workers to help
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Page 202 of Socioeconomic and environmental impact of mining on women in Kasigau mining zone in Taita Taveta County states: standards and regulations protect the health and safety of the worker and particularly women, and enhance sustainable engagement which leads to prosperity. This is a good start from the government creating regulations to ensure the safety of miners. Based on week 7’s reading the government does not necessarily seem to be purposely enabling businesses, but instead focusing on the safety of the people. By making mining safer, this will allow the mining business to expand and with the expansion of mining more businesses such as stores can
Mr. Flint’s comments were discussing what could happen during collective bargaining with employees’ pay and benefits, which is his opinion. Moreover, David Walsh writes, “Employers can make predictions about the likely consequences that unionization will have for the business—consequences that are objectively because of economic reality that is beyond the employer’s control.” (Walsh, 2013-2016, pg. 511) However, Mr. Flint’s comments were discussing a decrease in pay and less benefits, which could be construed as a threat.
In signing the Stone Mountain Coal Company's contract the coal miners did not simply agree to sell the company their time and labor; they signed away their lives. In a capitalistic society one goes to work in an industry of their choosing, is compensated with a fair wage. In such a society the business one works for has no authority over where their workers eat, sleep, or spend their leisure hours. However, the town of Matewan is trapped under the hegemonic power of the coal company. The coal company has a monopoly over the predominant natural resources in the area. Their ownership is not only limited to the coalmines, but to the general store, and the much of the town's housing. Within the bonding contract of the mine workers are forbidden to buy their supplies from anywhere other than the general store, and are forced to reside in the coal company's housing. The coal company enforces this by paying their workers in company script...
Submerged in the impoverished urban border culture which they helped create, the maquiladoras draw young women north from all over Mexico’s interior. The women migrate with hopes of acquiring jobs in the booming foreign-owned factories and are plunged into a new border “country” that is far from a promised land. Maquiladoras are a financial endeavor for foreign industrialists who hope that by situating factories in Third World countries they will substantially cut production costs. The industrialists have been accused of taking advantage of Mexico’s cheaply accessible labor force and less restrictive health and safety codes in order to achieve these lower production costs. While preliminary surveys on the effects of maquiladora work on women’s physical health show little to no adverse side effects, researchers and advocates are not completely convinced that long term health effects will prove positive.
paltry wages paid to miners”(Grant Andrew, 2007). This means that the mining sector is contributing to poverty by taking away workers from agriculture and also lowering the wages of many citizens within Sierra Leone. An article...
In the mines of Lavrion, located near Athens, the state banned the removal of metal supporting poles and excessive smoking of the oil lamps used for lighting—this is perhaps the first regulation in history concerning occupational health and safety.6 If a contractor disobeyed these rules, they would be severely punished, regardless if the majority of workers were slaves (in Athens, slaves were generally treated humane, being welcomed into their families with a ceremony and protected from mistreatment by the law).7 Although they are not always adhered to, modern safety rules descended from these roots exist: disregarding societal status, disability, race, or gender, many employers and governments have strict regulations to prevent injury in the workplace. Before and even during many eras of discrimination, slavery, and prejudice, there existed very few (but some very important) universal safety regulations that have inspired modern
Foreman Ronnie Clines said he did not understand that Stone was asking him whether he had conducted the dust parameters checks and he stated “no”. Furthermore, his answer mistakenly led stone to believe they had not conducted the dust parameter checks on the # 2 Unit. In addition, Cline said the mechanic, the roof bolter and miner operators are required to conduct the checks dust control parameter checks and he forgot to go across the section to get the results of the dust parameter checks from the miners and post them on the communication board.
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
An estimated 1 million diamond miners in Africa earn less than $1 a dollar a day (Brilliant Earth n.d.) Children as young as 8 forgo school for daily wages ranging between $0.15- $0.60 (The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School 2009). According to Adele Farquhar, a man fighting for legal ownership of a diamond mine, the problem isn’t people mining for precious diamonds, it’s those buying the diamonds originating in conflict areas; "People think it's a Zimbabwe problem but they forget that there is huge international complicity. You can't stop the Zimbabweans until you stop the money men. The people in Zimbabwe are getting next to nothing for these diamonds. The guy with the pick and shovel is literally earning $5. The guy to go and find is the one making $1,000. Go and look at the money and see who else is benefiting. That's why there's no momentum to stop this thing” (Cahill 2009). According to Time, the owner of the mines usually takes around 70% of the value when diamonds are sold to
According to statistics, there are several benefits and disadvantages of mining related to the economic sector. Some of the main benefits of mining are that it leads the economy to expansion and decreases poverty. It also helps in improving and increasing employment by proving more jobs. Moreover, the economic demand for goods and services makes the economy of local communities thrive. However, when it comes to justice, there are many things in which the industry sector falls behind. For example, “Mor...
The authors collected and analysed data from 71 mining areas in Australia, and then they use statistical method to find relationship between gross value of mineral production and quality of life indicators. They found that mining activities have positive impact on regional income, employment, communication access and education. In contrast it has negative impact on life expectancy. The main limitation of this paper is that there is no causality test between all of life indicators as an independent variables and mining activity as dependent variable. In this case the authors only focus to show positive or negative relation between dependent and independent variables. They main recommendation to solve the problems is to do causality test between variables. Furthermore they also suggest to provide comprehensive measurement on other indicator. The result of this paper have strong connection with the Garmett’s article. This paper will be a good source for my article
Rare metals such as cobalt play an important role in our daily lives. Devices from car batteries to cell phones contain rare cobalt, and as the demand for these devices increases, so does the demand for cobalt. However, the process of mining these materials horribly impacts both the environment and the miners. Most cobalt miners live in the African Congo, where they work for extremely low wages with little if any regulation. Child labor is a frequent force, as many children either cannot afford to go to school or need to work in order to be able to pay for school in the future. Artisanal mines are the worst offenders, with no regulation nor advanced mining technology, but since they produce much cheaper cobalt than industrial mines they continue
Accidents and problems engendered in sweatshops have caught people’s attention and more people are trying to efface them. The Real Cost of Cheap Fashion states, “After the accident, many big brands pledged to improve garment factory conditions…. trained about 2 million workers in safety procedures…. hired engineers to inspect their factories.” This claim supports that enhancing garment factory conditions can give people some time off of work, can give people better tools, to make things go faster and easier, and could also, make sure people get paid more. Also, training people in safety procedures can make sure that things like the Triangle fire never happens again. Finally, having people inspect the factories can insure that people are safe, and procedures are set in place to make sure that if anything bad happens, people know what to do. Lastly, major companies are starting to realize the dangers of cobalt mining, and therefore, they are looking into how to fix, get rid of the dangers. New York Times Upfront says, “Some tech companies promised to reexamine their cobalt suppliers. Earlier this year, Apple announced that it had stopped buying cobalt mined by hand in the DRC until could verify that the element was being collected safely” This also shows that , by limiting their products using hand mined cobalt, they are limiting the cobalt mining jobs, which limits the dangers, and health concerns. As you can see, although many people’s lives lives are put in danger, many people have started to recognize it and are taking very serious action to try and fix
In a typical year, the mining industry is responsible for almost 20 per cent of Canada's total export earnings3 (See Appendix A). As for the employment rate, over 70 per cent of the mines are owned by Canadians and approximately 108,000 Canadians are directly employed in the mining industry4. Mining is very important in Canadian life. Not only do the products power the family car and heat the family home, the manufacturing sector, the high tech industries and even the better known resource industries are all dependent, in some way, on the mining industry. The mining industry will continue to be an important support to the economy. Mining is taking full advantage of the quick expansion of computers and microelectronics.
Business conduct within the Mining industries have changed overtime as the rapid demand of constant supply in raw and refined materials have increased. Due to such demand, the mining industry and the business within requires low-cost, high capability labors which only resource rich developing countries has to offer, as most of these countries have no legal regulation on labor services. This leads to issues such as exploitation of workers with focus on the dignity principle, the inequality of power under the fairness principle and bribery under the citizenship principle within the Global Business Standard codex. (Paine et.al 2005). The other standpoint however is foreign business within the mining industry, and specifically within developing countries can act as an instrument for economic growth for the nation and raising living standard for the employees, whilst providing a competitive advantage from the easily available labour for the business. (Campbell 2010) Finally, it’s about applying basic business conduct benchmark through the principles of the GBSC where businesses continue to source labour from developing nations whilst applying a higher ethical code of conduct toward its employees.
Warhurst, A. (1999). Mining and the environment: case studies from the Americas. Ottawa, ON, Canada: International Development Research Centre.