Essay on The Terrible Impact of Globalization on Dhaka, Bangladesh

In The myth of the ethical shopper, Hobbes (2015) states that although boycotts may have been successful in 1990, they are failing in 2105. He asserts that the way in which our clothes are now made has changed and so advocacy campaigns just don't work. One of the problems is that retailers don't have direct contact with their factories. Production is outsourced to the lowest bidders. Chains of sub contractors are set up and production is being split between thousands of factories. Labels from JC Penny, Wal-Mart and Joe Fresh were all found in the rubble of Rana plaza (O'Connor 2014), but none of them directly contracted those factories. With multitudes of middlemen accountability is difficult.

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.

Time and time again, there have been opposing views on just about every single possible topic one could fathom. From the most politically controversial topics of gun control and stem cell research to the more mundane transparent ones of brown or white rice and hat or no hat—it continues. Sweatshops and the controversy surrounding them is one that is unable to be put into simplistic terms, for sweatshops themselves are complex. The grand debate of opposing views in regards to sweatshops continues between two writers who both make convincing arguments as to why and how sweatshops should or should not be dealt with. In Sweat, Fire and Ethics, by Bob Jeffcott, he argues that more people ought to worry less about the outer layers of sweatshops and delve deeper into the real reason they exist and the unnecessariness of them. In contrast, Jeffrey D. Sachs writes of the urgent requirement of sweatshops needed during the industrialization time in a developing country, in his article of Bangladesh: On the Ladder of Development. The question is then asked: How do sweatshops positively and negatively affect people here in the United States of America and in other countries around the world?

On April 24, 2013, NewYorkTimes journalist Jim Yardley reported on the collapse of Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory complex in the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of 1,100 people. A 400-page report of the incident places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the building's owner, Sohel Rana, along with the owners of the building's five garment factories, who now face possible charges of murder, along with accusations of “ignoring safety warnings and locking exit doors,” while the Bangladeshi government continues to receive harsh criticism for its lax enforcement of labor safety standards in the country's billion-dollar clothing manufacturing industry (“Sweatshop Labor”). The garment industry in Bangladesh is one of the world's leading exporters of clothing, second only to China, with more than 5,000 garment factories employing an excess of 3 million workers, producing merchandise for top brand retailers in the United States and Europe (Yardley; “Sweatshop Labor”). Workers in these factories endure long hours and unsafe working conditions for wages so low parents must send their children to work instead of school so that they have enough to eat. The tragedy of Rana Plaza brings to the forefront the true cost of things; is it worth 1,100 lives to save a few dollars on a shirt or a pair of jeans?

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it is known as the “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 workers, most of which were women. This tragedy pointed out the negatives of sweatshop conditions of the industrialization era. It emphasized the worst part of its times the low wages, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions were what symbolized what sweatshops were all about. These conditions were appalling, and no person should ever be made to work in these conditions.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a perfect example of the average sweatshop in the early twentieth century. It had long hours, low pay, hired young immigrant women, and most importantly, had a dangerous work environment. On March 25, 1911, a fire started in the 8th floor on a rag tub and it spread throughout the factory. The fire department did come, but it’s ladder and hoses were too short and couldn’t reach the 8th floor so not many people were saved. The workers were neglected of safety measures and too overcrowded that not everyone survived. The Fire brought high casualties. There were over 500 workers at the factory, and it was a little space while much too overcrowded. There weren’t that many safety exits in the factory that actually worked, so they were crowded and it led girls to jumping out the window, though some survived because of life nets. Unfortunately, the life net ripped because 3 girls jumped at the same time. 146 people were killed

Karen Coates really exploits the relationship between corporations and garment manufactures in her article. It really opens people’s eyes, it shows people who may not know, they could be wearing clothes that was made with the hands of a struggling worker. In her essay she shows us the values of the four social actors. One of them being the workers. The workers are the most abused. They have little to no say in what they do, they are controlled and tormented every single day for a little days pay. The workers struggle to stay up long hours, they work in hard conditions and when they finally get to go home they are not living in the best of situations. Most workers pay can’t support a large family who has kids and medical expenses. The workers

Question 5- Jeffcott proposes that rather than simply making more conscious consumption choices, consumers should advocate for the exploited sweatshop workers by demanding school boards, governments, and universities to constitute policies for clothing companies to provide information regarding their factories and to demonstrate whether or not they are attempting to mitigate the work conditions of these factories.

Sweatshop is defined as a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions. Sweatshops also referred to as the “sweat factory”, creates a hazardous and unhealthy working environment for employees such as the exposure to harmful materials, dangerous situations, extreme temperatures and abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers work for long hours, sometimes without taking any breaks, and these workers are not paid for any overtime hours or the minimum wage, although it is mandatory by law. These conditions are considered risky for any person, but the worst part is that in many countries, children are being forced to work in these sweatshops.

I went to order a sweater online today, but with all the rage about clothing companies and sweatshops I re-examined the situation. The sweater I wanted was made in Indonesia, I already have 6 sweaters so do I need another? I doubt I’d use that sweater frequently because I already have plenty. Nobody I know has this sweater so I couldn’t borrow it. That sweater wouldn’t have any useful impact on my life anyways. If I did order it somebody who is being mistreated would have more work and would only increase production. If I chose to buy this I’m only part of the problem and not the solution only worsening what clothing companies do.

"Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group in Amsterdam. Experts say many of the fires could have easily been avoided if the factories had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods and have too few fire escapes, and they widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.

This article addresses how working conditions of garment workers in global South have merely changed after Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 and struggles on implementing corrective action plans in factories due to companies’ apathetic actions towards this approach. This collapse is widely known as killing thousands of people at Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory located in Bangladesh’s capital city that consisted several factories manufacturing clothing for multinational brands such as Walmart and Joe Fresh. In the wake of this disaster, companies, trade unions, and worker’s rights group decided to make the buildings safer and improve working conditions for employees in factories across Bangladesh, which meant adding sprinkler systems and

The clothing industry has become synonymous with sweatshops and overseas labour. The True Cost pushes for commercial change. Bringing an awareness to what “sweatshop” really

In a third world country, jobs are not easy to come by; especially jobs that pay enough to sustain a living. However, various individuals living in these desolate places have found a solution that seems repulsive to people fortunate enough to live in a first world country; sweatshops. On April 24th, 2013, in Dhaka, a district in central Bangladesh, a sweatshop collapsed on the workers inside, killing a thousand and injuring over two thousand. People were aghast at the working conditions in sweatshops exposed in this event. Raveena Aulakh, Toronto Star journalist, went undercover at a sweatshop to see the factory conditions and wrote about her experience in the article, “I Got Hired at a Bangladesh Sweatshop. Meet my 9-year-old Boss”. The article

There are a large amount of social and environmental problems within the global apparel industry.