Sweatshop History and Law

In the 1900s, workers formed the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) to organize against low wages and dangerous working conditions. Their first strike was known as "The Great Revolt." 60,000 New York City garment workers took the streets to fight for their rights. Women and children protesting were beaten or targeted with guns. Children? WHY would you beat a child? Why would you beat anyone because they are fighting for their rights? They are abused, payed low wages, work in life threatening conditions and put a gun is put in their face. This doesn't make me excited to join the work force. Despite the threats, they won wage and hour standards. Their fight was strengthened after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. President Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This law sets a minimum wage, requires overtime pay after 40 hours a week, and prohibits child labor.

However Sweatshops are in full force because companies have moved overseas. Sweatshops are still in New York hiding in the same building as the past. It is estimated that 4,500 of New York City's 7,000 garment factories are sweatshops.

http://www.heartsandminds.org/articles/sweat.htm

Shop with a conscience

Sweatfree.org encourages consumers to shop with a conscience because you may never know what work went into that $85 shirt you're wearing. It also provides a list of websites with sweat free products. Justiceclothing.com provides a wide-range of sweatshop-free clothing. This site provides union-made clothing. Autonomieproject.com sells is a Fair Trade fashion and footwear company. Their products are economically friendly. There are sites for, sports equipment, coats, footwear, men, women and baby clothes.

They expects Healthy and safe working conditions, Wages and benefits decent enough to lift workers' families out of poverty. It's interesting that on the other end of the spectrum, this is the exact same goal. Pro-Sweatshop activists argue that keeping sweatshops will help the economy and lift people pit of poverty. I wonder which act is more effective? Just like the WRC, they believe in fair treatment and respect for workers. They also want retailers and their suppliers to be responsible for ensuring decent working conditions.

I had no knowledge that their are website out there that sell sweatshop free clothes. It sounds like a great idea, but I can't help but be paranoid and skeptical. Are there independent investigators at the factories all the time and do they know for sure that nothing shady is going on?

http://www.sweatfree.org/shopping

Disney: Squeaky Clean

The media was in a frenzy when word go out that TV host Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line was made in sweatshops where workers either never got paid or received pennies for their sixty hour per week job. What many don't realize or seem to ignore according to an article entitled "Kathy Lee, Disney, and the Sweatshop Uproar" by Norman Solomon is that the clothing line and ABC which airs "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee," is owned by Disney. While the press tore into Gifford, Disney remained Squeaky clean and remains that way. Gifford was vocal about her innocence,"I felt like I was being of all people, being kicked in the teeth for trying to help kids." After that many charities with her name attached came to life. However, a few days later, word broke out that the garment workers a few blocks away from ABC studios worked for sixty hours with no pay. Gifford's husband was on the case, rushing to the factory and handing out three hundred dollars. Since then Gifford had announced that all factories producing her clothes will be inspected. Throughout this whole mess and I'm pretty sure Kathy Lee never bounced back from this, Disney managed to stay clean. Long story short? Disney owns EVERYTHING.

http://www.albionmonitor.net/sweatshop/ss-solomon.html

Plantation, Supermarkets, and Sweatshops oh my

Workers on plantations face long hours, terrible working conditions and most like little or no rights. Once again, Tesco is mentioned in this article. This company lives for low prices which results in a nightmare for workers. Working eighty hours a week still isn't enough for a livable wage. Export Processing Zones are industrial areas as a result free trade zones being put up all over the globe. Most of the time minimum wage is suspended, safety is ignored and union are illegal. It's bad enough being a slave worker but they really crush hopes by not allowing unions. Then again, in many countries where union organizations are allowed, it has done nothing for them. With very little job safety, no medical services or maternity leave, women are most vulnerable to violence and sexual harassment. 80% of workers are women and face discrimination because of it.

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/supermarkets
http://www.waronwant.org/overseas-work/sweatshops-and-plantations

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Those four words may ring a bell. They changed the life of workers forever. This fire happened in New York City on March 25, 1911 and killed 146 garment workers. These workers either died in the fire or jumped to their death. 146 workers. The number is staggering. The company owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris employed 600 workers, mostly young immigrant women from Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe. The fire began on the eighth floor by a lit match or possible sewing machines. To this day, no one is entirely sure. The ninth floor had only two doors that lead outside. One stairwell was already filled with smoke and flames by the time the garment workers realized what was happening. The only fire escape quickly collapsed.

Sixty women jumped out of windows and died. Others opened the elevators and plunged to their death. Those who didn't try to escape died by the fire and seven 'survivors' died at the hospital.

The owners were put on trial but later acquitted. Not with out paying $75 per deceased victim. Does this make up for the 146 deaths? In my opinion absolutely not. The American Society of Safety Engineers was founded soon thereafter. Is that all humans are worth? Am I worth merely 75$?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims indeed and of an entirely different kind. Bangladeshi garment workers face forced overtime, eight hour weeks and horrible working conditions every day. The garment making business is vital in Bangladesh. Two million work in this industry and is responsible for 75% of Bangladesh's exports. Retailers deny knowledge much less involvement when the process of making their products is discovered. However when they demand lower prices from factory owners, the first thing to get cut is labor costs. Much like education being the first to be attacked when budget cuts arrive.

On a happier note they have gotten a little attention. That is when factories are on fire, resulting in many injuries and deaths. Events like this helped raise the workers wages but still falls short to what they really need. The National Garment Workers Federation led strikes but as long as retailers like Asda, Primark and Tesco demand lower prices, these workers still need help.

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/supermarkets/fashion-victims/inform/13593-fashion-victims

Child Labor

The International Labor Organization estimates that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries. 61% of those children in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. These children are severely beaten, denied education and most likely scarred for life. Perhaps with hopes of ever being able to escape. Most athletic shoes are made in sweatshops in Asian countries and the factories are filled with children. Other products made with the use of child labor include Toys, Rugs, Chocolate, Bananas, and Coffee. It makes you hesitate taking sip of that coffee. Bananas? Who knew? Even I'm shocked. Toys? That is even worse. Something children are supposed to enjoy becomes something made with forced labor. These children really are denied a normal childhood.

Vegan.com wants to end Sweatshops. How do they hope to do so? By making companies disclose the treatment and pay of workers and how and where products were made. There also needs to be independent monitoring maybe that of the WRC. Also when violations are discovered, the workers need to be protected.


http://www.veganpeace.com/sweatshops/sweatshops_and_child_labor.htm

Working Slaves

An article entitled "Indian workers' struggle shines light on human trafficking, slave labor," spoke about Indian workers tricked into slave labor. They took jobs for the relief effort in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They were promised green cards. So they emptied their pockets as much money as twenty thousand and gave it to their employers. Instead of green cards, they were given temporary visas and out twenty thousand. They fought back but were given sympathy at best, even from the Indian embassy.

The sad truth is this subject is given very little attention and each case is barely different from the next. There are a large number of reports unaccounted for which is bad enough, but if they're ever uncovered they not have a voice to fight back.

In the article it states that slavery exists in plain sight in Florida. People are promised jobs with decent salaries and green cards. Soon they are deceived and in debt.First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting workers from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and other Asian countries were routinely beaten, denied medical care and forced to live in horrible conditions. This moved one employee of the company to 'resign in disgust' the article says. His words were, "Every U.S. labor law was broken."

What stood out? The last few sentences. In some places Slaver is in plain sight and nothing is being done about it. For a nation which holds such high standards for law, how can they allow every law they've ever written to be broken in their own country?


http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr009=v29yt8h827.app5b&page=NewsArticle&id=9509&news_iv_ctrl=1261

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is very much in relation to sweatshops. Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (Sweatshops for example)and servitude which is another word for slavery. I'm sure you've seen movies where the teenager is mad at their parents the run away. They desperately need an escape from their overbearing, 'harsh' parents. At the end of the movie they are reunited with their parents in a swell of music. They met people, learned about life and themselves. The sun shining down on them making them seem angelic. Running away seems like the perfect idea. They still have their cellphone and know where there homes are.

Here's the reality: Some of those teens never return home. Running away almost seems like a luxury for some. To be able to come back when they want. Some warmly welcomed back into the arms of their parents. For others in more precarious situations it is an escape from a nightmare. Human trafficking is a horror most do not understand nor could even fathom what some go through. People both young and old are trafficked. Some are sold into slavery by their own families, most of the time for money or to pay back a debt. Others are taken from their home. Extreme violence can be involved as well.

According to the 2004 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders. 70 percent of those people are female. 50 percent are children. This isn't just an international epidemic, it happens in the United States as well. According to the U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States.

People are trafficked for money, sex, slavery and labor. These are just reports the government has discovered. Who knows how many people are still being trafficked as I type. The number is no doubt much larger. A thought that makes me shiver.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html

A Better Alternative?

In the article "Nike to the Rescue?" author John Miller speaks of famed reporter Nicholas Kristof and his stance on Pro-Sweatshop, explains why more needs to be set up in Africa and the problem with Anti-Sweatshop campaigns. Surprisingly, most men in Namibia's capital would rather work in Sweatshops than as Construction workers and laborers. The danger and risks in factory jobs are far less risky than that of construction. Workers earn more in factories than working on farm. It seems when Sweatshops aren't set up unemployment, death, and starvation rises. Once again most would prefer to work in Sweatshops.

Kristof believe activism hurts more than it helps. Although there is no excuse for worker abuse, then don't seem to mind as much. A reporter by economists Ann Harrison and Jason Scorse shows there is no negative when it comes to employment. Campaigns for higher wages seem to destroy jobs rather than help them. The argument? Wages only make up part of factories' costs.

The most telling, persuasive side of Pro- Sweatshop seems to be above all else the people don't want us to interfere. They like their jobs. They want to keep their jobs. There is no drop in employment and it helps these countries and Island's economy. Is that enough?

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0906miller.html

Two Cheers for Sweatshops

They're dirty. They're dangerous. Yup you guessed it. Sweatshops and according to this article, they're not all that bad. "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn follows the two in their travels in Asia. There they meet a man named Mongkol Latlakorn. His 15 year old daughter works in a sweatshop. Like any father, he's concerned about her health, (the needles she uses to make clothes went through her hand twice) but even more concerned with whether the sweatshop closes or not. In Cambodia they also met a grandmother named Nhem Yen. She moved to an area polluted with malaria. As a result her daughter and son-in-law died leaving her with two grandchildren and three kids of her own. When I read this I thought: Why in the world did she move there in the first place?

Her answer: Food. Protection is also factored into the equation Her and her family needed wood. She hoped she could cut wood and sell it. A large mosquito net costs $5. She wanted to be able to buy a net large enough to cover all of the children instead of having to decide who would sleep protected, while the other lay exposed.

Sweatshops are responsible for substantial economic grow in Asia. It is estimated that their economic will match ours of half a century ago if they continue. All that these two Pulitzer Prize winner reporters talked to didn't mind the long hours. They didn't mind the one or two week vacation once a year. They didn't mind their young children working in dangerous factories as much. In this case for the sake of their families. To have some kind of income is held at the highest point, above all else. To have some kind of income for food and shelter from various diseases.

If put in this situation, would I feel the same way that most people do about sweatshops. Would I risk starvation, death and disease for my family as well as myself? Would you? It seems there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Sweatshops. What would you do?

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000924mag-sweatshops.html

Pro Sweatshop

Most people would think the past and current working conditions and wages of sweatshops in economically starving countries as horrible. However, some beg to differ. They argue these conditions are better than they were in the past. If the working were considered horrible in the past and present, what are they like now?
To add to their defense, they reason that if wages for living were bad, they wouldn't have taken the jobs. I wonder if they had a choice. Also, they say these jobs are better than working on a hot farm for 10-14 hours. The absence of the work provided by sweatshops leads to prostitution, starvation, and malnourishment.

According to UNICEF'S 1997 State of the World's Children study found these jobs to be more hazardous and dangerous. While critics point out that workers don't have enough money to buy shirts and shoes, the other party is quick to say the standard of living is different from others place, so what we consider barely enough money for a day in say America is enough for people in Honduras.

The cons seem to far outweigh the pros. Does this side have a point. I don't know. What do you think? Would you rather work in a factory or on a farm?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop#Current_status_of_sweatshops

Taiwan

Taiwan seems to be having labor issues, according to an article entitled Critics Accuse Taiwan of Operating Sweatshops by Andrew Perrin, Taiwanese garment conditions are described as being 'Straight out of a Charles Dickens novels' activists say. Taiwan garment factories set up in Central America to produce goods for the U.S. market. According to Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, Taiwan has the worst reputation in terms of their treatment of workers. Examples of this include obligatory overtime, physical violence, union busting and pregnancy tests as a condition for employment.

A decision to fire and sue union leaders at its Chentex plant in Managua caught the attention of the National Labor Committee . The workers were 8 cents per hour and complained about poor ventilation, limited bathroom breaks and physical abuse when they didn't comply with their rules. They were paid 20 cents for every $30 pair of jeans delivered to such major retailers as J.C. Penney, Target, Sears, Kmart and Wal- Mart and the military. Colleges demanded action from congress. As a result, the plant lost orders from its U.S. buyers and were demanded to re-hire the people that were fired.

Nien Hsing vice chairman John Chen of the plant in Managua says his company employs more than 13,000 people in Nicaragua alone and ignored U.S. labor activists who criticize Taiwan as people who want to protect U.S. business interests.

It's nice to see the U.S. took action, hopefully something they are still doing. This article stood out to me when i read the $60 a month salary the workers get while being subjected to physical and verbal abuse. The response of the vice chairman makes me wonder what is going on to though.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0815-02.htm

Worker's Rights Consortium

The WRC is encouraging Universities to consider selling “living wage” clothing through their bookstores. This would progress toward higher standards in companies' production of university logo apparel. The idea is that Universities would buy apparel with companies willing to meet higher standard in terms of full respect for worker's rights, and a long-term commitment to supplier factories.

The WRC's memo brought out ideas that are worthy of thought:
Bookstores may consider working with licensee(s)that would consider higher labor standards voluntarily because if see a substantial interest among enough bookstores in buying such products, licensees may be interested in making and selling them. This would offer a profit-making opportunity for any licensee that is willing to voluntarily adopt and enforce higher labor standards, including payment of a living or non-poverty wage. It would allow the WRC to see whether higher labor standards, can be effectively carried out at the factory level.

We all know how expensive college books are, but the next time you walk into a bookstore (assuming they're associated with WRC,) think of what good it will do.

http://www.workersrights.org/LivingWageApparel.asp

MEMO:
http://www.workersrights.org/university/memo/012208_DSP_update.html

USAS

United Students Against Sweatshops is a student organization that fight to have Sweatshop- free collegiate apparel produce for Colleges and Universities. They work with Worker Rights Consortium which is an independent organization in charge of investigating collegiate apparel producing facilities Their most recent campaign is called the Designated Suppliers Program which build a stronger fight for campuses involved in the anti-sweatshop movement. The success of this program will force clothing companies to produce apparel in 100% sweatshop free factories. It will also give workers who have suffered for so long a voice. Workers will have a voice while they work and fight for truly livable wages.

This association is the largest anti-sweatshop community group in the United States in Canada. Their main goal? To give workers a voice, to force companies to give them the respect they deserve aside from decent wages. Also to protect the workers have their to sustained. No loop holes, No surprises or fine print.

The articles I found especially United Students website sway me in a certain direction. Most may think of Sweatshops as something of the 'olden days' something of the past, but here we have a community of young people of this generation actively fighting for workers rights, demanding respect for these workers. They have a large number of Universities on their side and are still encouraging others to do so. What did I get out of their statement of intent? First of all Sweatshops are still very much in existence. Workers are not being paid Livable wages. What exactly does that mean? That word Livable? Does that mean workers don't have enough money to put food on the table? To put clothes on their backs? A roof over their heads. To support themselves and that of their families? LIVABLE. That word definitely stands out. What does that word mean to you?

http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=viewid=16&Itemid=27

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Students_Against_Sweatshops

Sweatshop By Definition

Sweatshop-(noun)A shop employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions.

I've always associated 'Low wages', 'LONG hours', 'child labor laws', and 'Poor Working conditions' with the word Sweatshop. For now that is all the knowledge I possess on the subject. Sometimes, for a fleeting moment I think 'Maybe it's not that bad. Maybe some people don't mind working in Sweatshops. Am I missing something? I must be. It is my hope that after a while, I will come to a better understanding of the word Sweatshop and form a more concrete opinion. If you'll join me on this journey, perhaps your opinion will change as well. Then again now that I think about it, SWEAT is in the word. Sweat isn't usually associated with good things. With burning of calories. Exercise of course. Sweat could be a serious warning, stress even. I get stressed just thinking about the word. Sweat doesn't sound too appealing now does it? Oh well, Neutrality (until evidence proves otherwise) may be best suited in this journey.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sweatshop