Chinese Sweat Shops

1. Chinese Sweat Shops By Anthony, Tom, Jamal, and Joe

2. What is their purpose? • Cheap manufacturing of goods. • Easy mass production of products. • Large Labor forceand profit gain • To save the company money • Employee the poor and give them an option

3. Are they Unethical? • Yes, of course they are unethical because of the abuse towards the workers. They are forced to work roughly fourteen hours a day with little to no pay, barely enough money to feed themselves and/or their families. • They are treated like garbage and if anything happens to them they just get replaced in an instant. If they get hurt it’s their problem, not the sweatshops.

4. Are they the problem or are we? • In the eyes of China we are in fact the problem. • Sweatshops have instead of damaging China, helped it grow and prosper. • Most sweatshop workers enjoy working inside of sweatshops since they have an opportunity to feed themselves and their families. • Without sweatshops, a lot of American companies wouldn’t release as many products

5. Is there a better solution? • There are many better solutions: • Changing the working conditions to be more favorable, and less unethical. • An agreement to improve pay rate if working conditions do not improve. • Reducing the work hours from the average fourteen hours to seven hours a day • Giving the workers healthcare just in case something might happen to them

6. Which popular Americans companies have sweatshops • Wal-Mart, Nike, Adidas, Disney, Starbucks, Calvin klien, sears, American eagle, toys r us, new balance, gap, reebok, and many more • Mainly companies that sell clothes, electronics, and toys have sweatshops

7. Facts about sweatshops • Our government workers union defines a sweatshop as “any factory that does not respect workers' right to organize an independent union” • More than 85% of sweatshop workers are young children and adults ranging from 15 to 25 years old • All sweatshop employee’s use roughly 70% of their income on food • Sweatshops are located anywhere there are poor countries. The more the country is struggling the more likely they will have a sweatshop • A lot of items we Americans buy are from sweatshops like: clothes, toys, electronics, etc.

8. Facts about sweatshops (cont) • Workers in sweatshops can be punished for virtually anything like: coming to work late, not finishing a product within a time limit, making little mistakes, etc. The punishment is not paying the workers for even a couple of months • Women in sweatshops try to avoid getting pregnant because they can be fired , if woman get pregnant, the employer’s will worry that being pregnant will effect their work progress and cause them to lose money • There are different types of sweatshops like sweatshops that make only shoes or clothes or electronics or etc • In sweatshops that makes clothing most of the workers are women • Workers can easily get sick in sweatshops via things like dust since the shops are small and there aren’t any breaks to get fresh air

9. Facts about sweatshops (end) • Workers can easily get sick in sweatshops via things like dust since the shops are small and there aren’t any breaks to get fresh air • Workers make a fraction of what the actually retail product costs. • Products in sweatshops are being sold for three times the price or more. For example, shoes are sold for roughly $70 and up in stores, while to make a pair of shoes cost less than $10 to make • Average workers work more than 12 hours a day, several days a week for little to no pay • Women in sweatshops try to avoid getting pregnant because they can be fired , if woman get pregnant, the employer’s will worry that being pregnant will effect their work progress and cause them to lose money • There are different types of sweatshops like sweatshops that make only shoes or clothes or electronics or etc

10. Why is it important to you/your families/your community? • It’s important because we’re lucky that we don’t have work in sweatshops. We, unlike the sweatshop workers, have opportunities since we are lucky to live in a country like ours. • It’s also important because we as Americans need to know where our products come from and by buying them we are supporting these types of operations to continue.

11. Connections • Sweatshops are connected to the short stories we have read in class liketaxi driver • In taxi driver the protagonist has to find another job to support his son with an injured neck. So he decides to give drunken citizens rides and when they pass out he would rob them or even sell them. The entire time this happens the protagonist hates doing it but he doesn’t have a choice just like the workers in sweatshops.

12. What have we learned? • We learned that even though sweatshops treat their employee’s like tools, they are still good for people. • They supply jobs to needy people in poor countries when they don’t have any other choice • Without sweatshops, the US would be affected by less production of common goods. Without it then less people will spend money causing the companies that have sweatshops to eventually close. • Since as a country doing nothing to stop sweatshops, we support it in every way. This is the negative side of capitalism. The companies that spend less money on producing, the more money they get from consumers like us. • Even though sweatshops are wrong they help our country financially and since sweatshops aren’t a problem in the US, no one cares what happens to the workers in them.

13. The End Thank your for taking the time to listen to our Presentation!

14. Citations • ?. "Sweatshop." Sweatshop. Littlefound 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. <http://www.playsweatshop.com/sweatshop.html>.