Understanding Sweatshops: Conditions, Causes, and Solutions

1. Sweatshops

2. Overview of Topics • General Questions about Sweatshops • Case Study • Companies involved with Sweatshops • Fighting Back: Anti Sweatshop Organizations • Relating to Labour Studies

3. What is a Sweatshop? • Employer that violates more than one labour law • Factory where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including low wages, no benefits, filthy and/or dangerous working conditions, denial of their worker and human rights.

5. Where Do They Exist? • All over the world • Most found in severely undeveloped countries • Some found in Underground operations right here in the US.

6. Why Do They Exist? • Corporate greed. • Global competition to produce goods at lowest price. • It’s cost effective for corporations to subcontract their manufacturing to suppliers.

7. Who Works There? • Mostly young women ages 14 – 30 • Women make up more than 90% of factory job in poor countries • Children are often hired as well (as young as 8 years old).

9. A sweatshop in Bangladesh

10. Conditions Workers Face • Routinely abused • 14 hour days, 7 days a week • Mandatory 19 hour all night shifts at least once a week • Payment usually 2 weeks late • Legal maternity benefits denied • Forced to work 35 to 42 hours of overtime in a week. • No place to eat, drinking water is filthy • Up to 100 hours in a week

11. Abusive Conditions • Workers pay is docked 2 days if supervisors authority is challenged • Women denied maternity benefits • No health insurance, sick days, minimal aid • No speaking during work • Attempt to exercise legal right= mass beatings and firings

12. Living Conditions for a Disney Worker • Can only afford to rent a tiny one room hut with 4 other workers • One outhouse and water pump is shared between 60 other people • Live off of rice, 3 times a day • Only 4 to 5 hours of sleep before work begins again

13. Niagra Textiles Ltd. • A seven floor factory • A Company Disney subcontracts to make their merchandise. • Why? To avoid direct connection to the sweatshop • Approximately 60% women workers • Approximately 85% of workers are aged 16-25

14. Worker Wages • Sewers earn 11 to 20 cents / hour • Helpers earn 7-8 cents / hour • Workers usually are cheated of their pay • Routinely paid late

15. Typical Shift for a Worker • 8:00am to 1:00pm (work for 5 hours) • 1:00 pm to 2:00pm (lunch break) • 2:00pm to 5:00pm (work for 3 hours) • 5:00pm to 10:00pm (work 5 hours overtime)

16. Other Companies • Nike, Adidas, Puma • Reebok, Fila • Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, • Wal-Mart, JC Penny • Levi Strauss • Dell, Apple, Hewlett - Packard

22. Fighting Back • International Labour Organization (ILO) • UN agency • seeks social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. • Sweatshop Watch • coalition committed to eliminating the exploitation that occurs and the illegal and inhumane conditions that characterize sweatshops.

23. Tying in With Labour Studies • Classes and Divisions of the Workforce • The severe challenges of Unionizing • Post Fordism • Labour Equality • Globalization