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The role of sweatshops in globalisation
Sweatshop practices and the effects
Case study on child labor and sweatshops
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Global Sweatshops Conditions When we hear the word sweatshop images of children and workers hunching over a desk, working many hard and long hours in restricted spaces with ill-treating supervisors and with pay barely to sustain them another day pop into the mind. This statement is important because all that is being said in it is true. Workers do get paid less, child labor is real, and workers are not treated well by their supervisors also workers get trapped by their supervisors. According to China Labor Watch an organization that is out to stop unfair labor say, sweatshops are real to today and many people are forced to work in them some of their will but some without. Sweatshop workers are taken advantage of because not educated enough …show more content…
Workers are only allowed a little or no amount of rest which affects their health mentally and physically. According to China Labor Watch, “For example, workers in an HP production line must complete an action every three seconds, standing for ten consecutive hours each day.” (“Tragedies of Globalization: The Truth Behind Electronics Sweatshops”).This demonstrates how workers have little or no time to rest in their work space and the amount of work they are expected to do sometimes with no pay given to them. This also shows that many workers are affected by with this amount of labor intensity physically and mentally which can later lead to serious long-term consequences of their well-being. China Labor Watch themselves write, “The factory regularly requires workers to work an exceedingly large number of overtime hours with little or no wage compensation. Workers are forced to take turns eating and work during meal times” (“Child laborers in Chinese supplier factories for American companies”).This proves that workers are overworked a lot with no pay or any type of compensation by their supervisors/factory owner. This also shows that workers sometimes aren’t even allowed to eat properly during their breaks and if they wish to take breaks they have to take turns with their fellow workers because they are overburdened with so much …show more content…
Workers when looking for a job sign contracts without reading them and if ask for a copy of the contract their request is denied. China Labor Watch themselves write, “All of the factories investigated do not sign labor contracts in good faith with workers. Most of the time, workers are not properly informed about the specific details of the contract before signing” (“Tragedies of Globalization: The Truth Behind Electronics Sweatshops”).This demonstrates that workers are not informed as to what they are signing and supervisors are able do this because workers are not able to read or write disabling them from being able to do anything getting workers stuck working for the factory. Some factories do not show the workers contracts which by signing the worker can gain benefits but as said above the factories keep workers in good faith not giving them a chance to be able to earn more money. This also shows that workers are not informed as to how much the workers have to do and are forced to work more without their knowledge or with any pay. According to China Labor Watch, “Labor contracts are written with no worker input or consultation. Workers are merely made to sign the contract and are not given adequate explanation pertaining to its content” (“Child laborers in Chinese supplier factories for American companies”).This illustrates that labor contracts have no compensation
Some of the arguments against sweatshops raised by Americans is the they take jobs away from the American people. In the job force it is becoming harder to find an open position any where. Instead of keeping the factories here the companies are shipped over seas, causing millions of job opportunities for Americans to be lost. Some arguments raised by the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) are the poor working conditions, low wages, long hours, and children in the factories. The damp, dark, and cold environment can depress the workers even more than they may be, causing rates in suicide to increase. Low wages is another concern USAS have. The workers barley get enough money to survive.
Today we see the labor reforms put in place along with organizations that hold business to safety precautions like OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Association. Today, worker’s fight for higher minimum wage but outside of America, there are worker’s fighting for the same rights we did back in the 1900’s. Back in 2013, in Bangladesh, a series of fires occurred. This raised questions about safety and treatment of workers. Within a few months, the government allowed the garment workers to form trade unions along with a plan to raise the minimum wage. And soon after, the United States pushed for Bangladesh to improve their labor standards. All of this happened within half a year, where back in the 1900’s it took over 50 years, starting with the coal miners. Without the workers as a sturdy base for the business, the company with crumble and fall. And without those businesses to help the economy grow, the government will cease to
The mere idea of sweatshops, let alone their existence, seems cruel and unusual to people like us, especially in today's day and age. After all, in sweatshops "workers are subject to extreme exploitation. This includes... (not) enabling workers to cover ...
Some people of North America know about these sweatshop workers, they feel bad and some also protest. They set up NGOs, send funds and donations but they never try to break the tradition of sweatshop working. They all assume that this is best for the society. An Idea can be drawn from William
It is often said that products made in sweatshops are cheap and that is why people buy those products, but why is it behind the clothes or shoes that we wear that make sweatshops bad? In the article Sweat, Fire and Ethics by Bob Jeffcott is trying to persuade the people and tell them how sweatshops are bad. Bob Jeffcott supports the effort of workers of the global supply chains in order to win improved wages and good working conditions and a better quality of life of those who work on sweatshops. He mentions and describes in detail how the conditions of the sweatshops are and how the people working in them are forced to long working hours for little money. He makes the question, “we think we can end sweatshops abuses by just changing our individual buying habits?” referring to we can’t end the abuses that those women have by just stopping of buying their products because those women still have to work those long hours because other people are buying their product for less pay or less money.
In his article “Sweatshops, Choice, and Exploitation” Matt Zwolinski attempts to tackle the problem of the morality of sweatshops, and whether or not third parties or even the actors who create the conditions, should attempt to intervene on behalf of the workers. Zwolinski’s argument is that it is not right for people to take away the option of working in a sweatshop, and that in doing so they are impeding on an individual’s free choice, and maybe even harming them. The main distinction that Zwolinski makes is that choice is something that is sacred, and should not be impeded upon by outside actors. This is showcased Zwolinski writes, “Nevertheless, the fact that they choose to work in sweatshops is morally significant. Taken seriously, workers' consent to the conditions of their labor should lead us to abandon certain moral objections to sweatshops, and perhaps even to view them as, on net, a good thing.” (Zwolinski, 689). He supports his argument of the importance of free choice by using a number of different tactics including hypothetical thought exercises and various quotes from other articles which spoke about the effects of regulation business. Throughout the article there were multiple points which helped illuminate Zwolinski’s argument as well as multiple points which muddle the argument a bit.
Sweatshops are factories that violate two or more human rights. Sweatshops are known in the media and politically as dangerous places for workers to work in and are infamous for paying minimum wages for long hours of labour. The first source is a quote that states that Nike has helped improve Vietnamese’s’ workers lives by helping them be able to afford luxuries they did not have access to before such as scooters, bicycles and even cars. The source is showing sweatshops in a positive light stating how before sweatshops were established in developing countries, Vietnamese citizens were very poor and underprivileged. The source continues to say that the moment when sweatshops came to Vietnam, workers started to get more profit and their lives eventually went uphill from their due to being able to afford more necessities and luxuries; one of them being a vehicle, which makes their commute to work much faster which in turn increases their quality of life. The source demonstrates this point by mentioning that this is all due to globalization. Because of globalization, multinationals are able to make investments in developing countries which in turn offers the sweatshops and the employees better technology, better working skills and an improvement in their education which overall helps raise the sweatshops’ productivity which results in an increase
I. Introduction A sweatshop is a workplace where individuals work with no benefits, inadequate living wages, and poor working conditions (Dictionary.com). Sweatshops can be found all around the world, especially in developing nations where local laws are easily corrupted: Central America, South America, Asia, and in certain places in Europe (Background on Sweatshops). China, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Bangladesh are the main places where most sweatshop products are made (McAllister). Often, sweatshop workers are individuals who have immigrated and are working in other countries.
One of the worst places for child labor is China. According to Liu, the actual legal age to work in China is 16, but their laws are very lightly enforced. Even though their laws are lightly enforced, children in China are still pushed into working at a young age mostly because of their family’s poverty. Chinese child labor has taken the lives of thousands of young children after the child may have worked to many hours or may have been infected from toxic materials (Children Rights). The most common work that kids participating while doing child labor includes mostly agriculture, industrial work, and services (Children Rights). Chinese child labor has an enormous impact on children physically, mentally also, and deprives them of their
China’s history of sweatshops and factories has grown because of economic motives and government conditions. Multinational corporations such as Apple or Microsoft are “large corporations that sell goods and services throughout the world” (O’Sullivan 456). In order to maximize profits, these corporations have to find ways to cut corners and reduce input costs. All of this is done to provide the cheaper prices that American consumers enjoy. Asian subcontractors do not provide their workers with the benefits and wages that are found in the U.S. In China, wages are much lower, labor movements are repressed, and labor laws are not enforced effectively (“Working Conditions”). Many Chinese workers do not even know about trade unions or collective bargaining, which is a tool that laborers have been able to take advantage of in America. By outsourcing production overseas, these corporations seek to take advantage of cheaper labor in China, a ho...
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn are Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalists who spent fourteen years in Asia doing research on the country as well as the sweatshops of that country. In their article "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" they sum up clearly the misunderstanding of sweatshops by most of the modern world. "Yet sweatshops that seem brutal from the vantage point of an American sitting in his living room can appear tantalizing to a Thai laborer getting by on beetles." The fact of the matter is that sweatshops in the eyes of the actual workers are not as bad as they are made out to be, by many activists. Though many organizations that oppose sweatshops and their labor practices try to make the point that sweatshops do not have to exist. But one must consider the fact that, the companies that use sweatshops are creating at least some type of jobs for people that gladly accept them.
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight, and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived, and died in cotton fields, and sweatshops.”- Stephen Jay Gould. Sweatshops exploit people, and children. They take advantage of their poverty, and there need, for a better life. Sweatshops are one of the worst things that ever happened to the business world, and poor people around the world. Sweatshops should be stopped, and ended.
Around in the 1900s, the problem was bad. However, it has slowly come back, although it is now not as bad as it was before. Around the late 1900s, the Chinese government started new schools. Lack of education is a key factor in child labor because without education, children may not know what to look out for, or what is a good or bad situation. If their parents did not receive that kind of education, they also may not know that it is not good to send their children to work. So, it was thought that if more schools were put into place, then child labor would decrease. This worked for the time being, but now the problem is beginning to come back. According to The World Bank, the number of people that finish secondary school in China is 98%, meaning that most children now get an education through the age of 18. In addition to adding more schools, China has put laws into place that prevent child labor. These include the the Law on the Protection of Minors, Regulations on the
Foxconn, one of Apple’s major manufacturer’s, recently had a breakout of suicides amongst their workers because the working conditions were so awful. Workers are often forced to work continuous shifts through meal times and work up to 100 hours overtime in a single month, even though the legal limit is a mere 36. And to make it even worse, Foxconn now makes their employees sign a contract saying that if an employee commits suicide as a result of the horrendous conditions, the family is not even allowed to sue them. Instead of cutting ties with Foxconn upon recei...
These concerns typically include the rights of the children, the responsibility of the parents and employers, and the well-being and safety of the children. In Stefan Spath’s “The Virtues of Sweatshops,” it is made very clear that he, like many others, feel that the general public is highly misinformed on what sweatshops are and what they actually contribute to their respective communities. In the eyes of someone from a developed country, sweatshops and child labor that takes place in them seem primitive and are interpreted as simply a means by which companies can spend less money on employers. He states that when labor unions claim that companies which establish operations in developing nations create unemployment in America, they aren’t really explaining the whole story. The author claims that those who are adamantly protest sweatshops are only telling half the story with a claim like this. He points out in this part that the American people can rest assured that high skilled jobs will not be taken over to developing countries because “– high-skilled jobs require a level of worker education and skills that poorer countries cannot