Research Paper Sample: Sweatshops
Sweatshops situation continues to be a major problem in the United States of America and the whole world. Sweatshops resurfaced in the United States in the year 1995 when two companies were openly exposed as sweatshops one of them being located the United States and the other being in Honduras. Labor officials discovered a slave sweatshop in Los Angeles that had 80 Thai immigrants who were forced to sew sweaters earning just $2 an hour.
The Honduras situation involved girls as young as 13 being put into forceful labor and being denied school time. Since the incidences, many companies have been charged for their exploitative labor practices in the United States and around the world. The past two years have been a dark period in the garment industry globally after fires and buildings collapsing resulted in deaths of over 1500 workers in the industry in a year (Sluiter, 2009). The disasters were attributed to poor legislation regarding safety and health of workers in the workplace.
Sweatshops, in general terms, mean workplaces that subject their employees to exploitative conditions. The United States Department of Labor describes a sweatshop as a factory that breaks two or more labor laws. Sweatshops are characterized by poor working conditions, child labor, unfair wages, and no benefits. Sweatshops mainly get associated with the third world countries and are a product of free trade resulting to a global economy.
They are driven by companies’ desire to increase profits by reducing operational costs. The companies follow their desire by looking for places with lowest wages and poor protection of workers (Sluiter, 2009). Often, the working environment is not usually safe due to harassment and workers handling toxic chemicals without protective gloves. In the past, sweatshops had been associated with undeveloped countries due to their low life standards, but recent research has shown that even developed countries such as the United States harbor sweatshops.
Recent studies show that 67% of garment factories in Los Angeles and 63% of those in New York contravene overtime and minimum wage laws. The same research showed that 98% of the factories in Los Angeles violated safety standards and workplace health by operating under conditions with blocked fire exits, and poor ventilations (Sluiter, 2009). Most of the above companies easily fall under the sweatshop category. Many corporations in United States contract other manufacturing firms for production leading to their separation from the production process.
This forms the basis of the corporations claiming unawareness to activities that go on during the production process. In an outward look, the corporations seem to be genuine but the fact is that they dictate labor standards (Rosen, 2002). The reason for the claim is because corporations demand low merchandise leaving the manufacturing firms contracted deduct the wages of their workers.
Since the United States Department of Labor requires internal monitoring only, many corporations in the country get away with the malpractice. The results of the malpractice manifest themselves through rampant demonstrations and resistance from workers across the United States demanding better wages and working conditions.
A good example of a United States multinational company that was considered a sweatshop is Wal-Mart. In the year 2008, Wal-Mart had one of the largest fortunes in $400 billion sales and an employee base of over 2.1 million employees. In the same year, the average associate in the company earned $10.84 an hour translating to an annual income of $19,165 that was $2000 below the federal poverty line for a family comprising of four.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average associate at Wal-Mart earned 16% less wages than the average retail rate (Sluiter, 2009). On December of the same year, there was an announcement by the company that they had settled 63 out 73 wage and hour lawsuits against them representing a massive 86% of the total lawsuits. By reaching a settlement, the company avoided a bigger loss had the cases materialized. Legal documents of the cases showed that managers were rewarded for pressuring workers to work for extra hours, and to skip breaks and meals.
There was evidence of child labor where school going minors were treated to long hours of working without sparing their school time. This was a revelation of the company’s ruthlessness in its desire to keep low costs of production. A similar incident happened on the same company in 2003 when 250 undocumented workers were arrested from one store that belonged to the company. The workers went through harsh conditions by being forced to work seven days a week at minimum wage rates with no benefits such as insurance. This is a case of just one company but many workers can attest that their situations are the same (Sluiter, 2009).
Sweatshops directly contravene business laws that advocate for ethical business practices and respect for human dignity. Harsh treatment of the employees for profit purposes also contravene specific labor laws as published by the United States Department of Labor laws that govern sweatshops practices including Fair Labor standards Act, Child Labor Provisions Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and federal contracts acts ("U.S. Department of Labor").
The Acts offer directives on how employers should treat their employees and the appropriate environment conditions in which workers should be subjected. Since women comprise most of the workers under the sweatshops conditions, their rights get violated in the form of sexual and physical abuse from their supervisors. Violation of international labor laws administered by international bodies such as United Nations through International Labor Organization is also evident. The result of the malpractice is usually expressed through rampant countrywide demonstrations and resistance by workers across the United States.
The above explanations show that the sweatshop problem is caused by actions that can be avoided. The problem directly affects workers, their families and the society. A recent study showed that sweatshop practices have spread across a wide range of sectors including agriculture, hotels, meat and poultry processing, retailing and other sectors meaning it is a common problem that protects all.
Firstly, labor laws need to be strengthened and enforced strictly by the government. Secondly, workers need to be proactive in defending their rights by forming unions with strong leadership that will foresee protection of workers’ rights in the workplace (Manheimer, 2006).
The government should also organize for seminars to educate workers on their rights to ensure that they do not get manipulated by supervisors and employers. Immigration rules also need to be changed to ensure that those moving to a different country are eligible because a portion of workers under the forceful employment through exploitations are usually un-documented.
Lastly, child labor laws need revision and follow up needs to be enhanced to ensure that minors enjoy their rights of freedom without being put into manipulative employment.
In conclusion, the United States of America government and labor unions have a big role to eradicate the menace of sweatshops that have engulfed the whole country. Most affected corporations are usually multinational businesses and meaning that the practice spreads beyond the country.
The only solution to end sweatshop malpractice is to face it as a global problem (Gordon, 2005). Therefore, the cooperation of governments, international non-governmental organizations and international human rights bodies is required to ensure new national and international employment laws are implemented to the letter. The government also needs to have more strict penalties to companies found guilty of sweatshop malpractice.
References
Gordon, J. (2005). Suburban sweatshops: The fight for immigrant rights. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Manheimer, A. (2006). Child labor and sweatshops. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.
Rosen, E. I. (2002). Making sweatshops: The globalization of the U.S. apparel industry. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Sluiter, L. (2009). Clean clothes: A global movement to end sweatshops. London: Pluto Press.
U.S. Department of Labor. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/
