What are Sweatshops?

According to http://www.sweatshops.org/ Sweatshops and child labor are a growing problem, particularly in clothing and textiles. And many popular agricultural products, from coffee to bananas to cut flowers, are grown under terrible conditions. The history of sweatshops was coined in the United States in the late 1800s to describe the harsh discipline and
inhuman treatment employed by factory managers, often in subcontract facilities, to sweat as much from their workers' labor as was humanly possible, this was stated by, “Sweat, Fire and Ethics” an article that populated from the CSUN database. Sweatshops have been around for many years, and they are still sprouting up in third world countries until this very day. Sweatshops are a working location which is difficult and dangerous to work in. Sweatshops are dangerous in a number of ways including but not limited to, high or very low temperature no matter the weather outside, abuse from employers, unfair pay, job insecurity and long hideous hours. They often take place at illegal and temporary locations. Aside from all of those working conditions sweatshops also contain harmful chemicals and hazardous situations. Sweatshop workers and factors are used for many things, and America is its biggest contributor. Children can often be found working in sweatshops instead of going to school. Most people work in sweatshops because it’s the only form of work available for them. Sweatshop operators are notorious for avoiding giving maternity leave by firing pregnant women and forcing women workers to take birth control or to abort their pregnancies.

Where are Sweatshops Located?

Sweatshops can be found in just about any country of the world, even right here in the United States. But third world countries by far have the highest population of sweatshops. Logically, the poorer a country is the more exploitable its people are.

Who works in Sweatshops?

Most often young girls and women make up the vast majority of sweatshop workers. It was said that sweatshops are made up of 90% females according to http://feminist.org/other/sweatshops/sweatfaq.html. Most sweatshop workers in third world countries work to support her family, and are most likely missing out on the opportunity of receiving a great education, because she is working long hours to support her family and herself. In the United State the gender of most sweatshop workers are females as well. They usually consist of illegal immigrants that are unaware of their rights in this country. These females most likely do not know that even if they’re in this country illegally then they still have the same rights as worker.

Sweatshop Job= Dream Job???

Believe it or not, some people that live in these poverty third world countries would love the opportunity to work at a sweatshop. In the article, “Where Sweatshops are a Dream” a journalist by the name of Nicholas D Kristof went to Cambodia, where hundreds of sweatshops are located, and he talked to a few people that he saw looking through dumpsters for anything of value including: food, clothes, shoes, etc. He stated that, “a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children.” A woman by the name of Pim Srey Rath said that she would love to work in a sweatshop because the sweatshop workers work is in the shade, and she will not have to work in the hot heat looking for food through dumpsters. Another woman by the name of Vath Sam Oeun said that she hopes her 10-year-old son would grow up faster, so he could work in a sweatshop. She went on to say that they are always by trash dumpsters, and she sees children dies all the time by getting ran over by garbage trucks and she doesn’t want to stress over her child being killed by a garbage truck driver while trying to get food. She also said that her son has never been to a doctor or dentist and the last time that he bathe was when was 2 years old, so a sweatshop job will be more pleasant and less dangerous for her child. The writer went on to say, “The best way to help people in the poorest countries isn't to campaign against sweatshops but to promote manufacturing there. One of the best things America could do for Africa would be to strengthen our program to encourage African imports, called AGOA, and nudge Europe to match it”
It seems by this article that many people living below poverty line would prefer to work in sweatshop instead of not being employed at all. They feel that it seems safe and the temperatures may not be as hot. But these people that “dream” of working in sweatshops may have never been inside of a sweatshop or see the actual work that is done there. They may have just heard from a friend or relatively how “lucky” it would be to have a sweat shop job. But what they don’t know is that the person that told them this valuable information, that working in a sweatshop is a dream job, is at risk if they really tell them what goes on in sweatshops: the hard labor, long hours, underpay and a host of safety hazards.

Directly From the Source

Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector: In April 2008, there was an interview conducted by a sweatshop inspector. He remembers one really bad factory in China that he was sent out to inspect. He states that he was not able to walk in a straight path because there were so many production items on the ground, causing build-up and a host of other safety hazards. This inspector usually works in the Los Angeles area, and while inspecting sweatshops in LA he and another individual usually team up and work in peers to raid sweatshops to see if they are meeting the states qualified deadlines in order to be active: wages, breaks, lunches, etc. In these small garment shops there are about three inspections a day, just to make sure nothing is left unseen. But outside of the country, factories are much larger most of the time filled with thousands of employee, and here these inspectors usually work alone, but if their lucky they work in pairs, but only get the opportunity to inspect the facility once or twice a day. The inspector stated when he interviews employees about the treatment they receive at the job, pay, breaks, etc. They usually lie and are taught to lie by their managers. He also views false time cards and payroll records, the entire day spent coaching employees how to lie on interviews and a host of other things. The major challenge of inspections was simply staying ahead of the factories they monitored. He said that he overheard a woman, working in a sweatshop in China saying that she works so hard and paid so little. The inspector also stated that when he is having interview with some employees that he does not know what to believe and what not to believe because most of the employees are threatened by their employer to lie about things like wage, hours worked, and breaks that are taken. These employees are threatened that they will not have a place to work if they tell inspectors the truth about their working conditions.

Active Anti-Sweatshop Protests

Humboldt United Students Against Sweatshops (HUSAS) is an active organization designed specially to stop sweatshops. It was founded Spring of 2007, and their motive is to educate themselves and the public about sweatshops, the workers that are employed by them, and what we can do to help stop sweatshops. They wanted the University to endorse the Designated Supplier's Proposal. After several attempts and discussion with the director, HUSAS and the director decided to advise the Designed Supplier’s Proposal in a public letter. There were many attempts to get the letter a success, but they were always sent back for revisions. Aside from the letter, to help stop sweatshops, HUSAS held an anti-sweat rally. Here they spread the word about sweatshops to many hopefully activist. They plan to hold more major events and inform the public about sweatshops. These students’ main intentions are to inform other students about the subject, and to gain the support of their University’s participation in a program that will hopefully end sweatshops. These individuals feel that even after several attempts and efforts, from major apparel corporations, to end sweatshops, sweatshops still continue to be operated and more are springing up all over the world. So they feel that they clearly need a new solution to this problem. Their main purpose to work with the Designated Supplier’s Proposal is because this proposal has been designed to provide a new system of supervising and monitoring factories and provide power in the hands of the university, the students and the workers. This is a blog post by stopsweatshops.blogspot.com
I feel that this group has a great start. As you can see by reading the above post, stopping the usage of sweatshops is not easy and requires a lot of time, focus, and ambitious. Sweatshops are not stopped over night and it is a long process to even stop one. I feel that all the organizations and people against sweatshops should come together and unite as one. We all have the same motive and that is to stop all sweatshops, and so if we are united as one and out all of over solutions together then we will have a higher chance of stopping sweatshops, because we are actively working together. Of course there will be some difference in the outcome of sweatshops. Say for instance some people, in the big united organization, may just want to stop the use of sweatshops and not help the workers that are working for below poverty wages, and others may want to help them .The people that want to help them, including myself, can continue to do so. It doesn’t matter how much or little work an individual puts into the help to stop sweatshops, what matters is that we are all working together as a whole to stop active sweatshops and ones that may be in the process of forming in the near future.

What Can We Do To Stop Sweatshops?

Stopping a sweatshop is not easy, especially a sweatshop overseas. There has been hundreds if not thousands anti-sweatshop protestors all across American all for one motive and that is to stop sweatshops all across the nation and internationally. My realistic solution to this problem is just like the others, but a little different. I will try to form a team and have a lot of supporters and donations before I even proceed with my first step. I will work within the United States to first stop illegal immigrants from working illegally. I know it sounds harsh, because this may be their only form of work since they are here illegally, but I will help them to work on their US citizenship and teach them that even though they are illegal immigrants, they do not have to work under those conditions and that they still have the same worker rights. After I have at least successfully changed at least a few lives I will try to expand my nonprofit organization and spread the word through the blogspot about the sweatshops. Some simple ways that we could contribute to the stop of sweatshops is minimize the purchases we make from the following providers: Nike, GAP, Hollister and some other mall stores. Most of these countries products are manufactured and made at sweatshops overseas. Also, Wal-Mart is a big contributor to sweatshops. There is also a site where you can buy clothing: http://nosweatapparel.com/ This site states that “Bienestar International manufactures union-made footwear & casual clothing under the brand name No Sweat™. Our gear is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, and the developing world. We believe that the only viable response to globalization.” There is hope that this strategy for stopping sweatshops will be successful. According to an article entitled,Students Confront Sweatshops “With the help of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring organization with 145 member colleges and universities, USAS has identified a number of factories around the world—including in Thailand, South Africa, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Indonesia and the United States.” So there is still hope.