Third World Sweatshops

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.

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.

PURPOSE: (relate topic to this audience and establish credibility): The purpose of this topic is to inform the audience about the history of the sweatshops, companies impacted because of allegations, and what improvements and changes have been made to end sweatshops in the U.S. and especially in

What’s important to examine is that before the Triangle Factory Fire is that that casualties from unsafe conditions were reported and expressed as a concern before. Where was the outrage that pushed for safer working conditions? The answer to that is that there were many times that people were upset with such conditions.

They often use child labor, lack workers’ benefits, and use intimidation as means of controlling workers (Boal, Mark). Typically, sweatshops are found in developing countries, however, they are also a prevalent problem in many first world countries including the United States. Many manufacturers claim that sweatshops exist in order to keep prices down for consumers, while allowing profit. On the contrary, there is also substantial evidence that goes against these beliefs. For instance, a study showed that while doubling the wage of sweatshop workers would increase consumer price by 1.8%, consumers are willing to pay 15% more with the assurance that the product was made with fair labor (11 Facts About). This, however, is a hard argument seeing as the circumstance was hypothetical and if prices were actually raised, there is no way to assure that consumers would react the same way. Either way, both sides of the argument can agree that the conditions are not good, it is just a matter of analysing the cost vs. the benefit to determine their necessity. This leads to several questions: Are sweatshops a necessary evil, how could they be abolished, and what realistic goals regarding the bettering of worker conditions can be met? Through the answering of these questions, it is easy to see that despite claims of sweatshops bringing opportunities to

Firstly, if sweatshops were not as low paid and the working conditions were not as pleasant compared to first world countries, then companies might as well employ citizens of first world countries, who would probably be healthier. This would not benefit the people in the third world countries, who would slip into poverty and starvation.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, factories were very unsafe places to work, yet they were where most people found jobs. Factories had accidents all of the time, but the most notable of the tragedies is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The results of this event and many other factory accidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to better overall conditions for workers, especially immigrant workers. In the case of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, employees were forced to work under horrible conditions. Many times, the employers abused their workers by setting clocks in the factory backwards which forced their workers to unknowingly work longer shifts for the same amount of pay. Also, most factory buildings in this time were highly unsafe, especially the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911.

In the third world countries such as Vietnam, China, South Korea and Taiwan, we are provided with an example of cheap labour. These corporations could now achieve the benefit of the United States consumer market8, while keeping their costs extremely low in offshore production. The working conditions in the United States were poor for centuries, often little to nothing was done unless a tragedy occurred to influence worker rights by the public. This was the issue during the Industrial Revolution and in the late 20th century. In the United states, improvements have been made and these conditions have disappeared, with the privilege in some agricultural areas. Companies from the United States have moved a considerable amount of their factories

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

Sweatshop workers make the ultimate sacrifice for profit. Merchandise in the garment industry are outsourced and produced by slave labourers forced in working conditions that are cruel and exploitative, often in fear of punishment. "A "sweatshop" is defined by the US Department of Labor as a factory that violates two or more labor laws" (Do Something, 2016). Human trafficking in the garment industry is prevalent globally, but astronomical numbers are concentrated in developing countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam. Multimillion-dollar, globalized companies have no accountability and turn a blind eye to the exploitation towards trafficked victims occurring behind the scenes in fear of jeopardizing company reputations. This research

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

Many studies indicate that most firms in a country pay less than multinational firms subcontracting in that country, as in the case of our firm in XYZ. Just like a normal sweatshop case, the company provides above average living standards through its subcontractors in XYZ. However, sweatshops have recently been viewed negatively, especially in America. This paper aims to analyze the situation in XYZ concerning this deal determining whether it will affect the commitment that has been pre-established

In these sweatshops, workers are generally offered low wages with little nonwage benefits. In certain factories, workers have been denied of a “living wage” as their take-home pay have been insufficient to satisfy basic standards of living. Typically, in these countries, the minimum wage laws were violated and workers were weakly unionised to bargain for higher wages. For example, a typical Chinese worker earns a wage of Rmb$250-$350 while the minimum wage was supposed to be Rmb$350.

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

A murky, dark room is filled with machines and workers. The employees have a worried look on their face, as they are well aware that one small mistake could cost them a limb or even their life. Some of the workers are not even ten years old, but they are still missing a few fingers. It is the Industrial Revolution, and the use of sweatshops has begun. One would think that over time, the use of sweatshops would decrease and the basic rights of workers would be protected, but they are still being used with little to no change in working conditions. They are not only in developing countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam, but in the United States as well. Sweatshops are unethical and should be shut down, but greedy companies keep them going so they can get more money. Governments aren’t doing enough to stop them, even though they have the most authority to do so.