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Sweatshops
From CopperWiki
Sweatshops are factories or workplaces which violate two or more of the most basic labor laws including child labor, minimum wage, overtime and fire safety laws. Sweatshops are widespread in Asia, China and Latin America , where young children often work alongside their mothers in cramped, dangerous conditions. However, there are also sweatshops in Europe and the United States , where people work long hours for poor pay and are denied the right to join a union.
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[edit] Why should I be aware of this?
It is highly probable that the clothes we are regularly wearing have been made in sweatshops. It is widely known that garments from sportswear companies like Nike and high-street shops like Gap are made in sweatshops. For many, the word sweatshop conjures up images of dirty, cramped, turn of the century New York tenements where immigrant women worked as seamstresses. High-rise tenement sweatshops still do exist, but, today, even large, brightly-lit factories can be the sites of rampant labor abuse.
[edit] All about sweatshops
Well-known companies purchase from or get products manufactured in sweatshops. Like all businesses, sweatshops like to keep their costs low. However, they fail to comply with minimum wage laws. The US Department of Labor estimates that over half of the sewing factories in the United States are paying below the minimum wage. Wages in some U.S. sweatshops are estimated to be 60 cents per hour, in comparison to Haiti’s 30 cents per hour. Both of these pay rates can be considered starvation wages.
Another problem is that some factories use child labor to increase their profits. Over 200 million children work in factories in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Asia.
[edit] Exploitative workplaces
Here are some of the common characteristics of these exploitative workplaces -
- Sub-minimum wages
- No or few employment benefits
- Non-payment of wages
- Forced overtime
- Sexual harassment
- Verbal abuse
- Illegal firings
Children working in sweatshops sometimes survive on as little as one bowl of rice per day, and go 24-hours or more without sleep. Death due to exhaustion isn't uncommon. “Freeing" these child workers from the hell of the factories doesn’t help as they depend on the work to help their impoverished families. Without work, the children will be tossed out into the streets to fend for themselves with nowhere to live, and no money to get home, since their wages are normally sent to their families.
[edit] What can I do?
A short list of the things you can do right now about sweatshops:
- Star a dialogue with your family, friends and neighbors about the things we buy and where they come from.
- Read and educate yourself as much as possible on sweatshops and how they are run.
- Write and call the corporations about their programs to end sweatshops. This will keep the pressure on.
- Attend a meeting, join a chapter or donate to one of the many organizations dedicated to fighting sweatshops.
- Start your own chapter if there isn't one in your town. You'd be surprised how many people have a genuine concern about the issues and want to make a difference.
- When you go shopping ask the sales people if they know of items not made in sweatshops. Aside from fair trade stores and the savvy few, most will have no idea, but it spreads the word and gets people thinking. You can ask to speak with the manager as well and start making your way up the corporate ladder, if you're shopping, they're listening.
[edit] Unlearn
Sweatshops offer workers some advantages in foreign countries. In Malaysia, women have an opportunity to work at Motorola instead of working in the rice fields. The average pay in Malaysia is $108 per month. However, if you work for Motorola, you are paid $300 per month. Women are changing their culture and learning to speak out and voice their opinions. They are setting goals to own a business, to go to college, or to be independent. The economies of third world countries are also improving due to American money being spent there.
