“It was back breaking, it was finger-numbing. It was particularly rage-inducing not because it was painfully hard work, but because children hunched over hour after hour, squinted at the threads, cleaned one collar after another, one cuff after another, one arm piece after another until the piles were depleted,” (“My Life as a Sweatshop Worker”). These are the words of Raveena Aulakh, a Toronto Star reporter who worked undercover at a Dhaka, Bangladesh garment factory. The extreme environment illustrated in the reporter’s account develops an image that is known as a sweatshop, which is commonly defined as a shop where workers are employed to manually produce goods at extremely low wages for long hours under substandard conditions. Unfortunately,
The subject of sweatshop and child labor is one of great controversy. The first thought to mind when speaking of sweatshops is probably a vision of sketchy factories in far off Third World countries such as Bangladesh or China working their employees 15+ hours a day in cramped up in a dust-filled space for little wages. Not in America though, right? Most Americans would be horribly upset if they found out they had been unknowingly supporting a business that uses sweatshops to produce its merchandise. Odds are though, businesses that exploit such labor are being supported in every shopping trip a person takes whether it be shopping for groceries, clothes, jewelry, or athletic gear. And, unfortunately, it’s more prevalent in America than many may believe.
let’s end the sweatshops Sweatshop, or sweat-factory is a negative but alarming term for a workplace that has socially unbearable working conditions. Sweatshop pricks the bubble that workers are hired or forced to work for long hours with poor pay. Work can be dangerous there and violence can be used by people in leadership. No access to entertainment provided in the workplace is another factor that brings no joey to workers when they are suffering great stress at work and no medical care available could help physical tragedies happen anytime. Plus child labor is part of sweatshop too.
Abstract The global garment industry, worth more than $400 billion dollars today, is a very lucrative industry. Garment factories in developing countries working for retailers in developed ones shows how efficiency is increased and every party can benefit through outsourcing of labour from developed countries; retailers and consumers get clothes at cheaper prices while employment is provided to areas plagued with poverty. However, it is evident that many of these garment factories are sweatshops, which are factories and businesses that violates local or international labour laws, such as providing workers with atrocious working conditions, providing minimal compensation or even employing child labour. Like it or not, many of our clothes does not come ethically and they have probably encouraged labour exploitation in one way or another.
Sweatshops are good for poor nations in the sense that they allow people who have no job at all a chance to earn money. There are many people who rely on the income that these jobs provide for their families to be able to buy food and water and other esstentials to basic living. These jobs may not be ideal, but they are better then other jobs that these poor nations may offer. Using Bangeledesh as an example, 60% of the nation was in poverty before sweatshops moved there in the 1990s. Now that number has been reduced to 30%, which is a big improvement for the population that lives there. (Powerpoint on Global division labor)
Sweatshops are a major a major epidemic in today’s society. Sweatshops can be found in almost any part of the world, especially overseas. In this article I will tell you everything that I studied about sweatshops, and let you decide if you want to help solve this devastating problem.
After viewing the horrors of sweatshop abuse, Clara Lemlich was simply enraged. Her rights and the rights of other working women in sweatshops were being denied, whether it was being overworked, not receiving pay, or suffering from excruciating injuries. It was not right, but what could a small russian girl do? On page 179, it says “ There is no reason for them to work us so hard, to strip our dignity from us. In this country where all are free to speak their minds, it is becoming difficult to say nothing.” Clara witnesses this injustice and joins the union to help fight. “I have only been in this country for two years but quickly, I learned you have to fight for what you want, you have to take what you need.”- Pg. 236. Overtime Clara choses
The world of business is and always been a pragmatic domain where firms are perpetually competing and will do whatever it takes in order to get ahead. As this struggle played out over time a system has developed in which the prosperity of the business has now far outweighed the wellbeing of it’s’ employees. This imbalance of power has paved the way for businesses to employ abusive labor practices most notably sweatshop labor. Sweatshops are defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as “A workplace in which workers are employed at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions.” When it comes to this topic two popular schools of thought have emerged, those who oppose the lack of moral standards practiced in sweatshops, and those who believe
Student Name Professor Name Subject Date What are the Moral Implications that come with Sweatshops and the idea that we as people have the ability of autonomous choice in life? Sweatshops are morally legitimate because individuals who work in the sweatshops choose to do so.
Omar Shaout Professor Hopkins 1/31/15 PHI 1600 Unit 3 Research Article 1 1. Sweatfree FAQs | Global Exchange. (2011, January 1). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://www.globalexchange.org/fairtrade/sweatfree/faq Title: "Free Trade" and Sweatshops 2.
Let’s go back to China. China contains thousands of sweatshop factories, employing millions of personnel. The country currently has the 2nd largest economy in the world, right behind the United States. In addition, the countries with the largest population of sweatshops control about a quarter of global economy. Sweatshops provide employment to millions of workers across the globe, regardless of the pay.
3. Globalization Throughout the last decades, globalization became a real phenomenon, but history tells us that it is actually not a new social, historical phenomena, but has, under different names and manifestations, been with us for a long time. It is actually not only the continuation of the liberalization of international trade, which began in the mid-19th century with the launch of cross-border trade over long distances and later with intensive large-scale mobility of labor and capital. During capitalism, globalization has amplified due to the lust for profit, which is driven by capitalists across the globe. Indeed, globalization has significantly strengthened ever since.
The film “The True Cost” directed by Andrew Morgan, goes into great detail on the global world of fast fashion, and how it affects the global apparel industry. The countries in which the clothes are produced, there are significant issues with labour regulations, all to accommodate North America’s demand for fast fashion consumerism. The global North consumers demand for fast fashion have effects globally, leaving workers underpaid and exploited. Through management methods and outsourcing, firms search for the lowest costs for the consumer, without concern about the consequences for workers. Relocating the garment industry to the global South can arguably be the downfall of workers as they are sacrificing their lives for their job.
The most pressing societal problem in the United States is the emphasis that is put on productivity and valuing human lives and human dignity in monetary terms. This emphasis is the cause of many other societal problems such as depression and bullying, which of lead to the ultimate effect of death. This cycle of abuse due humanity infatuation with monetary gain creates rifts in society between the young and the old, husband and wife, parent and child; these rifts cause the loss of human dignity within the workplace because of the greed of the owner or managers as well as in the home due to basic necessity and ambitious desires
Through globalization, people around the world share information as well as goods and services. As a result of globalization, consumers around the world enjoy a broader selection of products than they would have if they only had access to domestically made products. International trade has stimulated tremendous economic growth across the globe-creating jobs and reducing price. As globalization accelerates change in technology, more jobs are created and as a result more people are employed thus increasing their purchasing power. As the demand of consumers rise, more and more products are produced to suit the needs and wants of the people.