The LA Times wrote an article that was later picked up by a bunch of blogs about an Ikea factory in Virginia that pays workers minimum wage, gives them minimal vacation and tries to prevent them unionizing.
Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company.I find it somewhere between sad and funny that instead of arguing for improvements in US labor laws the LA Times and the usual left-libertarian blogs complain about a company maximizing profit within the legal constraints imposed by the society. If we want better working conditions we need to make it part of the political discourse, not just whine about companies following the law.