Sweatshops

Sweatshops

How would you feel if were forced to work in a sweatshop twelve hours a day, seven days a week earning only 20 cents an hour, carrying heavy goods or handling toxic materials like lead and asbestos without any sort of protection. Sweatshops exist so that companies can make their products more cheaply in order to compete with other companies by producing goods in the most cheaply and effective way possible. There are many bad aspects, and a few good aspects, of sweatshops.

A sweatshop is a workplace where employees must endure harsh conditions and work for long hours for little pay. Employees usually make products like shoes, clothing and toys in mass amounts. Workers are paid less than their daily expenses so they are never able to save any money to improve their lives. Additionally basic worker rights are normally not respected and employees usually face abuse physically and verbally.

 In the middle of the nineteenth century American and European clothes shops were the first workplaces identified as sweatshops. In these sweatshops, the workers were paid a small amount for each piece of clothing they completed instead of being given an hourly to force workers to work with speed and efficiency if they wanted a higher wage. However this form of payment led many people to work long hours of hard labour in order to get a sufficient amount of money for food and other basic needs.

Sweat shops exist all over the world not just in third world countries like Africa and Asia; there are some even here in Canada. Due to the minimum wage law in many countries, we wonder why some people are willing to work in sweat shops. However most of the people working in sweatshops are often illegal immigrants whose only source of money is working in sweatshops since the workers are not legal residents. The workers are so desperate to tolerate such working conditions just so they can stay in the country where they believe they have more opportunity to make a decent living. Sweatshop employees take full advantage of illegal immigrants as a source of labor, paying less than minimum wage and providing working conditions that do not meet national safety guidelines. Since the workers are not residents, many are too fearful to complain about the poor conditions because they will be evicted.

Some of the advantages of sweatshops are India and China both have the problem of overpopulation. Sweat shops help deal with that problem as sweat shops provide employment opportunity for most people. Additionally another way sweatshops may be good is that even with the appalling conditions of sweatshops, workers still choose to work in sweatshops because it’s better than the alternatives like scavenging, begging or prostitution. As on average a scavenger earns 75cents a day but a sweatshop worker earns 2 dollars a day which is almost twice the amount. We want their lives to be better and despite the conditions we don’t want to eliminate sweatshops and throw then into a worse alternative.

Some of the arguments against sweatshops raised by people is that they take jobs away from the people living in the country because instead of keeping the factories in their home countries the companies are shipped overseas, causing millions of job opportunities to be lost. Another way they are bad 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. Also the workers barley get enough money to survive as they make less than is necessary to buy food, clothing, and shelter. Lastly working 12 hour days seven days a week can only lead to over working a person which may lead to death and leaves no time for the family which may cause relationship problems. Children in the factories is another big concern faced in sweatshops. Approximately 250 million people between the ages of five and fourteen hold jobs in developing countries because children are working in the sweatshops to help the family survive the only way they know how. Also if a parent gets sick or old and the children can provide the income the parent is unable to. Children are forced to do the same tough work as adults however they are paid less.

Pros	Cons
Sweatshops bring the business owners products of low cost and thus enhance their competitiveness against others.	Workers in sweatshops are often abused physically, mentally, or sexually in harsh or unsafe conditions.
Sweatshops create jobs for those who may not have any opportunities to work.	Sweatshop workers have few rights or ways to address or complain their situation.
Sweatshops may offer their workers substantially higher wages and better working conditions compared to other jobs.	Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay.
	Create unfair competition with those who obey the common labor standards

 

I think sweatshops harsh working conditions need to be improved but I don’t believe they should be shut down as sweat shops provide jobs, help the economy and help us have low prices on goods like technology and clothing. As if you paid a worker more money our goods prices will increase drastically which will affect the whole population. So in my opinion companies should give workers better working environments so adults may not get sick saving a child from having to work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop
http://www.veganpeace.com/sweatshops/sweatshops_and_child_labor.htm
http://find.galegroup.com/gic/docRetrieve.do?searchPageType=BasicSearchForm&inPS=true&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=albertak12&docId=CP3208520353