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Plight of Sweatshop Workers
"Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
employment, to just and favourable conditions of work. . .Everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
housing and medical care and necessary social service." These are
excerpts from the Declaration of Human Rights. Written over 50 years
ago, the Declaration was created to give, "inherent dignity
and. . .equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human
family." The Declaration gave hope to many people across the globe
who were living in tyranny and oppression, hoping for equality and
fair treatment. Unfortunately for some, this document turned out to
be merely one of false hope and lies. The people I speak of are our
fellow human beings working under slave-like conditions in
sweatshops. To them, the aforementioned promises are just a myth,
something they can only dream about. As the aforementioned articles
state, all human beings are guaranteed fair pay and working. Are not
those sweat shop workers human beings? Of course they are human
beings! Sadly, they're not treated like it. They're forced to work
and incredible number of hours, under hazardous conditions and at
ridiculously low wages. Don't they deserve the rights the Declaration
mentions? Of course they do! This is the exact reason that such
treatment can't continue. Something must be done.
Although proponents of sweatshops say that consumer demand
for the lowest prices controls worker wages and conditions, they are
just fooling themselves. If they want to talk about it economically,
cheap labor actually debilitates the economy by driving wages down
and forcing the lack of money which can only lead to a recession. In
addition, workers who are paid less, are in turn less motivated to
work. In addition, as economist Hazel Henderson explains:
Many international manufacturers are subsidized by sweatshop wages.
Once they exploit cheap workers in one area, they find even cheaper
workers someplace else, so fragile societies get disrupted. Human
rights groups need to inspect these factories, so we won't have world
trade built on child labor, sweatshop wages and burning down rain
forests. This short-term exploitation is just not sustainable.
(Henderson 1)
So, taking this into account, one can see the flaws in the
oppositions argument that demand for low prices controls worker
wages. Not only is there a problem in the oppositions excuses, but
there are also problems with worker wages that need to be faced and
dealt with.
As everyone knows, we live in a capitalistic society in which
everyone tries to get ahead and make the most profit they can.
Manufacturers are no different, they too are capitalists trying to
maximize profit as best they can. But there still must a point where
a line must be drawn. At this point, the manufacturer must realize
that workers are human beings and that their well being is worth more
than any profit. In most cases, clothing manufacturers hire
contractors to make their clothes. These contractors can range from
expensive to cheap. Most often, the expensive ones are those
contractors who do the job themselves, legally. The other ones are
the contractors who charge low prices because they, in turn, contract
out low wage sweatshops. Not only does this profit the manufacturer,
but it also makes the contractor more appealing to other
manufacturers. So in most cases, sweatshops come about because of
capitalistic greed. Because of this, sweatshop workers live in
poverty and can barely, if at all, make enough to provide for
themselves and their family. Although the situation is bad in the
United States, it's much worse in other parts around the world. In a
report entitled "How Do You Survive On 31 cen .. n Economist." Knowledge
Management Magazine. January 28, 2000. 25 March 2000.
<@www.kmmag.com>.
4."How Do You Survive On 31 Cents-an-Hour Wages?" National Labor
Council. 24 March 2000
5. "Phillips-Van Heusen: An Industry 'Leader' Unveiled." Clean
Clothes Campaign. 24 March 2000 .
6. "USA: California Senate Passes Anti-Sweatshop Bill, Awaits
Govornor's Signature" Corporate Watch September 9, 1999. March 24,
2000 .
7. "What is UNITE doing?." U.N.I.T.E. 8 May, 2000
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