We hear a lot about the unfair working conditions in sweatshops in foreign countries. Many people, including my sister protest companies like nike and adidas because they use sweatshop labor. Personally, I think sweatshops have lots of upside. While conditions should be improved, if the sweatshops are completely shut down, the workers are forced to even worse jobs. Mr. Miyahara told my economics class last week about a town in bangladesh with a sweatshop. The sweatshop was shut down and prostitution rates went up as many of the children who were workers were forced to prostitution to make money. While conditions should be improved, protesters should not aim to get these shops shut down completely.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexrees/8-arguments-in-support-of-sweatshop-labor
I think sweatshops have both positives and negatives associated with them. They are cheap labor, making the prices of the products lower, and they provide jobs for people. But, the working conditions are very poor. I think that they are somewhat necessary in society and production of products. No one is forcing these sweatshop workers to work in them. But I do agree with you and think the conditions should be improved because in a lot of sweatshops the work and conditions is not humane.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this semester I toured the tenderloin district of San Francisco, and one of the buildings that our guide pointed out to us was a sweatshop for (mostly Asian) illegal immigrants. I thought it was interesting because he told us that they make t-shirts with a label that says "Made in China" in an effort to scramble any possible police trails leading to their business. He told us that these people have no other choice but to work for 22 hours strait with minimal bathroom and meal breaks, receiving less than minimum wage, only to send what they have made to their family back in their native country and repeat the process again the next day. I personally think that this is a ridiculous cop-out. There are plenty of ways for these people to make money in a safe and respectable environment or demand better treatment from their employers, but most of them are threatened with deportation and to scared to do so. The issue of sweatshops is a difficult one and I am not sure what we can do, other than protest (like your sister does) the companies who manipulate their workers, to solve the problem. I do agree though that these workshops should not be completely shut down.
ReplyDeleteWow I can't believe someone can get away with that in America especially with people like your guide being aware of it. I agree with you that the situation you are describing is an atrocity. I think the issue is the blackmailing. They are being forced to work there, which is the problem in this case. In poorer countries, these working conditions may be a step up to what the workers would otherwise be doing, so I don't think all of them should be shut down, with the exception of the one in San Francisco.
ReplyDeletehttp://sf.racked.com/archives/2013/06/03/tour-guide-alleges-sweatshop-presence-in-tenderloin.php
ReplyDeleteHere's an article that goes into some details of the sweatshop Paige was talking about. The main thing driving this issue is money and power. People in other countries who work in sweatshops would probably want to fight for better wages and working conditions but not all would be down to fight back. Also, they might feel that the higher ranking leaders of the sweatshops are superior over them and may bring their hopes of fighting back down. We can all step up to the plate and try to change something about this but that means people would have to spend time and money on fighting back which most people are not willing to do. I do agree with you, Paige, and Katie that sweatshops should not be closed but for the companies who own the sweatshops to provide better working conditions and wages since the companies are the ones in charge of them.