Sunday, October 31, 2010

Factory workers

It’s the gentleman’s game as people would refer to it and it’s the sports I love to play and I feel so relaxed doing so. Tennis it’s an easy game, your objective is to hit a yellow ball over a 3 foot 6 inch net and hope the other player it’s the ball in the court or into the net. Playing this sport for as long as I can remember now the question that comes into my mind is “who is making this ball and how is the tennis ball being shaped into its structure.”

My first reaction is that all tennis equipment is being made today in China, and Japan in these factories that are horrible working conditions. I came to a conclusion that my hypothesis was true but the factories such as the Dunlop Slazenger’s are also located in South America as well. It would seem like that they want to hide from the outside public what they are doing inside the factories. Inside these factories when you past the management offices and the windows are specially made that it seal off the noise what do you really see. Machines whoop, ping, and gunshot sounds fill the area and the workers wearing their uniforms seem like specks in the landscape. One person is feeding the so called monster whenever it buzz, beeps with hunks of rubber and a consignment of clay filler or chemicals down a chute into a huge mixer below. These people are working shifts that seem not even imaginable to Americans today. Most start their work at 6am in the morning and ends 10pm with one lunch break. This factory pays about 400 pesos a day which is the equivalent to about $32. One of the most difficult jobs in the factory is connecting the two halves of the tennis ball together with the clamp. If there is a problem with the ball it is rejected which costs the factory money and the employee would probably be fired. It isn’t surprising if the whole family is working in various factories across the area and most are at a very young age working to put food on the table for the whole family. Job insecurity, and the health of these people are always plaguing the workers every turn they take. When the balls are being processed the rubber is mixed with petroleum naphthalene and the effect of this causes the room to fill with the gas that is deadly.

I have played tennis all my life since I was four and I can never stop thinking about the game. This game is changing very rapidly every day with the technology they are putting into the racquets is quite fascinating. I am really intrigued in the corporate side of tennis and I would like to pursue furthering my knowledge of this topic. Now every time I play tennis and I pop open a new can of tennis balls I can always think stop and think that people that are producing these tennis balls are risking their health to help me be entertained by playing tennis.

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