Sweatshop Labor

Sweatshops have been around for centuries, beginning around the late 1880’s. Sweatshops are classified by three main components, long work hours, very low pay and unsafe and unhealthy working environments. Sweatshops are usually found in manufacturing industries and the most highlighted production is clothing corporations, who take full advantage of the low production costs of their products. Many may think sweatshops are a thing of the past but they are still affecting many lives across the nations. There are many ways sweatshops affect lives, but a recent article titled “New study finds ‘more sweatshops than Starbucks’ in Chicago” explains that there are many low wage industry jobs that are violating labor laws in the United States alone. The article also reports how employees who are working in such conditions won’t speak up in fear of the retaliation employers will implement. Analyzing Sweatshops through the lens of the Sociological perspectives will help us better understand the illegal conditions of workplaces that still exist today.

Sweatshops a big issue in today’s society, even though their existence can sometimes stay hidden from the public’s eye. A famous author named Berry states, “ most of us get all the things we need by buying them and most of us know only vaguely, if at all, where those things came from; and most of us know not at all what damage is involved in their production. We are almost entirely dependent on an economy of which we are almost entirely ignorant.” The majority of people in the US have no idea where the clothes they are purchasing are actually coming from. Most people would not support the exploitation of their own race of people. If they were able to see and come to realization about what is actually happening they would have a much different change of heart.

A majority of the clothing worn and purchased today in the United States has been manufactured overseas in sweatshops. Since the beginning of factories and businesses, owners have always looked for a way to cut production costs while still managing to produce large quantities of their product. It was found that the best way to cut costs was to utilize cheap labor in factories known as sweatshops. According to the US General Account Office, sweatshops are defined as a “business that regularly violates both wage or child labor and safety or health laws”. These sweatshops exploit their workers in various ways: making them work long hours in dangerous working conditions for little to no pay. Personally, I believe that the come up and employment of these sweatshops is unethical, but through my research I plan to find out if these shops produce more positive than negatives by giving these people in need a job despite the rough conditions.

Furthermore, make minimum safety standards. Improving health and safety conditions would cause a greater good than harm. In 1988, after nationwide survey by more than one hundred state and federal officials, The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) identified the garment, restaurant, and meat-processing industries as those most frequently considered sweatshop industries. These three have the most widespread problems, committing multiple violations of labor laws and safety regulations (Foo 2180). For example, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. Their conditions were horrible. Women stitching up clothes with over forty one workers, 125 of them women and children who were mostly immigrants. Being burned to death most jumped out windows in the building. This terrible tragedy was the first out of many accidents. There should have enforcement of laws to ensure that these incidents are not repeated again (Rosen 1). Also, if they are

     As companies grow larger and more competitive, they are looking for cheaper ways to produce their wares and increase their profit. That is, after all, how companies are able to succeed, by giving their customers a comparable product for a cheaper price. This increases sales and the overall bottom line. Which seems to be a beneficial plan for both the companies and the consumers. That is, as long as the consumers don’t know how the product is being produced. The places that produce these products for an extremely cheap cost are called “Sweatshops”. A sweatshop is a small manufacturing establishment in which employees work long hours under substandard conditions for low wages. Sweatshops came about

ATTENTION GETTER: Somewhere, someone in this room is more than likely wearing a piece of clothing or accessory that has been produced in a human sweatshop. A Sweatshop is an unfit working environment considered to be too dangerous and difficult to work in. Their widespread outbreak happened in the mid 1800’s where clothing could be produced faster and inexpensive without regulations from overseers’.

In the essay, “Sweatshop Oppression,” written by Rajeev Ravisankar, portrays how consumers seem to live in a “low-cost driven consumerism” (para. 2) based society, which unfortunately allows many companies such as Nike, Adidas, Gap, and many more to take advantage of their employees. In addition, Ravisankar uses many both pathos and logo appeals throughout his argument in order to persuade the audience. For example, in paragraph 3 due to the vigorous amounts of labor each employee may work in a sweatshop, “70-80 hours per week making pennies per hour”, (para. 3) the compensation that’s earned at the end of the day does not equate to the intense amount of hours that have been executed. By deliberately offering an extremely low wage to their

Granted, while sweatshops by all means are not a luxurious work environments, there are components that the economic and politic data is not able to fully capture. Throughout Rivoli’s book, there is the central theme that poorer countries could be relatively improved by the opportunities that they are provided with the jobs in the process of manufacturing a shirt. Rivoli sections her book off into 5 parts due to chronologically following the process of how or where the

Modern sweat shops are problems. After researching the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in Manhattan ,New York and the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Both industrial suburb, I notice very little change in the business practice, morals, and ethics that fuel the sweatshop motif of cheap labor to keep profits high and costs low. Both incidents involved garment factory who’s employed mainly young working 12 to 14 hours days in an unsafe building. In both incident the dangerous working condition and safety violations that led to mass casualties. In the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, workers

Prior to the collapse of the Rana Plaza conditions of the Bangladesh sweatshops can only be described as a prisons for helpless, innocent humans. Conditions that no human should be forced to work within, that wasn't the case though. Many workers say that to meet demand they were locked in their factories past working hours. Not only being overworked and having to use dangerous machinery without breaks but also being abused verbally, physically and emotionally by their corrupt managers. There's no ethical standard upheld by the employers of these workers all they cared about was the products produced.

Sweatshops have always been a problem in the Unites States, especially during the past century. Unfair working conditions and pay prompted the formation of the Garment Worker

Everyday people get dress without ever glancing at the Tag. A tag that tell a shocking story if researched. That this exactly what I did; found my Adidas running shoes and researched the story of how it was made. For years, companies like Adidas have used sweatshop to produce their good at a low cost while selling the merchandise at higher price. The Real World: Introduction to Sociology defines sweatshop as “A workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including below-standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards”. Through research, it is clear that brands like adidas use sweatshops to produce their over price products which leave their employees in horrible condition for just pennies.

Our need for cheap clothing in the US has been the drive for sweatshops overseas. John Quelch wrote of the incident that happened on April 24, 2013. The Rana Plaza factory building was in such a poor state that it collapsed with workers in side. He states in his article Rana Plaza: Bangladesh Garment Tragedy, “Low cost production and large capacity were key incentives for multinational corporations (MNCs) to produce garments in Bangladesh” (Quelch 2). Because labor there was so cheap it was easy to make cheap clothing. He also stated that about “90% of garments produced in Bangladesh were exported to the United States, Europe and Canada” (Quelch p2). This sweatshop was producing clothing that was cheap for the US. The more we crave disposable

The Sweatshop Watch, established in the year 1995 in Los Angeles, is a syndicate dedicated to advocating for the rights of sweatshop workers. In an article released by the Sweatshop Watch entitled, “Supporting Mexican Garment Workers at the Tarrant Ajalpan Factory,” they delineate the repeatedly ignored endeavors of the sweatshop workers to resist the relentless abuse they endure from the Ajalpan factory in Tarrant, Mexico. The Ajalpan factory, began operation in 1999 and distributes products to numerous brand name clothing companies including Polo Ralph Lauren. On June 10, 2003, as an attempt to ensure that the factory would mitigate the abysmal conditions that they experience everyday, 800 workers stood in protest and refused to work (Sweatshop

Most of the clothes that people wear every day in America were more likely made in sweatshops. Sweatshops are factories, and they exist in most countries, especially in third world countries. Sweatshops are usually crowded with many workers into small tenement rooms, poorly ventilated, and prone to fires and rat infestation. Products that commonly come from sweatshops are carpets, cotton, garments, cocoa, coffee, toys, and furniture. The danger of sweatshops are affecting many people around the world including men, women and young children. Sweatshops violates more than two of the labor laws, and they exploit many workers by offering them very low wages that could barely pay for food to survive, and they make