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A sweatshop in Chicago, Illinois in 1903

A sweatshop is a working environment with very difficult or dangerous conditions, usually where the workers have few rights or ways to address their situation. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay, regardless of any laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labor laws may also be violated. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File linksMetadata 1903sweatshopchicago. ... Image File history File linksMetadata 1903sweatshopchicago. ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ...

Though often associated with third-world countries, sweatshops can exist in any country. Sweatshops have existed in several cultures, including Early American culture beginning in the 1850's. Sweatshops can produce many different goods, from clothing to furniture.

Meanwhile, defenders of sweatshops, such as Paul Krugman^[1] and Johan Norberg^[2], claim that people choose to work in sweatshops because the sweatshops offer them substantially higher wages and better working conditions compared to their previous jobs of manual farm labor, and that sweatshops are an early step in the process of technological and economic development whereby a poor country turns itself into a rich country. In addition, sometimes when anti-sweatshop activists were successful in getting sweatshops to close, some of the employees who had been working in the sweatshops ended up starving to death, while others ended up turning to prostitution. ^[3] Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman (born February 28, 1953) is an American economist. ... Johan Norberg Johan Norberg (born August 27, 1973) is a Swedish writer devoted to promoting economic globalisation and individual liberty. ...

History

Prior to 1830, fine clothing had been custom-made, primarily by male members of the organized tailor's guild [2]. Between 1830 and 1850, as the Industrial Revolution gave way to the Second Industrial Revolution, sweatshop production of inexpensive clothing displaced members of the tailors' guild, and replaced them with lower-skilled workers performing piece work at lower wages and in inferior conditions. The trend away from tailors was accelerated by the advent of a practical, foot-powered sewing machine in 1846. Sweatshops were the end of the artisan system that had existed. A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ... The Second Industrial Revolution (1865–1900) is a phrase used by some historians to describe an assumed second phase of the Industrial Revolution. ... Piece work or piecework describes types of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed. ... Elias Howes lockstitch machine, invented 1845 A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric or other material together with thread. ...

The terms sweater for the middleman and sweating system for the process of subcontracting piecework were used in early critiques like Charles Kingsley's Cheap Clothes and Nasty, written in 1850. The workplaces created for the sweating system were called sweatshops, and variously comprised workplaces of only a few workers, or as many as 100 or more. Sweating system was a term used to describe an iniquitous system of subcontracting in the tailoring trade which came into prominence around 1848. ... Charles Kingsley A statue of Charles Kingsley at Bideford, Devon (UK) Charles Kingsley (June 12, 1819 – January 23, 1875) was an English novelist, particularly associated with the West Country. ...

In the sweatshop of 1850, the role of the sweater as middleman and subcontractor (or sub-subcontractor) was considered key, because he served to keep workers isolated in small workshops. This isolation made workers unsure of their supply of work, and unable to organize against their true employer through collective bargaining. Instead, tailors or other clothing retailers would subcontract tasks to the sweater, who in turn might subcontract to another sweater, who would ultimately engage workers at a piece rate for each article of clothing or seam produced. Many critics asserted that the middleman made his profit by finding the most desperate workers, often women and children, who could be paid an absolute minimum. While workers who produced many pieces could earn more, less productive workers earned so little that critics termed their pay starvation wages. Employment was risky: injured or sick workers would be quickly replaced by others. Piece work or piecework describes types of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed. ...

Between 1850 and 1900, sweatshops attracted the rural poor to rapidly-growing cities, and attracted immigrants to places like East London, England and New York City's garment district, located near the tenements of New York's Lower East Side. Wherever they were located, sweatshops also attracted critics and labor leaders who cited them as crowded, poorly ventilated, and prone to fires and rat infestations, since much of the work was done by many people crowded into small tenement rooms. East London area East London is the name commonly given to the north eastern part of London, England on the north side of the River Thames. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Categories: Stub | House types ... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ...

In 1900, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was founded in an effort to improve the condition of these workers. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s. ...

Criticism of garment sweatshops became a major force behind workplace safety regulation and labor laws. As some journalists strove to change working conditions, the term sweatshop came to describe a broader set of workplaces whose conditions were considered inferior. In the United States, investigative journalists, known as Muckrakers, wrote exposés of business practices, and progressive politicians campaigned for new laws. Notable exposés of sweatshop conditions include Jacob Riis' photo documentary How the Other Half Lives and Upton Sinclair's book,The Jungle about the meat packing industry. Labor law or labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the relationship between and among employers, employees, and labor organizations, often dealing with issues of public law. ... Investigative journalism is a kind of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal. ... Bold text McClures Magazine (cover, Jan, 1901) published many early muckraker articles. ... In the United States the term progressivism refers to two political movements: first, the original political progressive movement towards social and economic reform of the late 1800s and early 1900s; and second, the continuation of this movement/ideology in the form of modern progressivism which sees itself as a reform... Jacob Riis in 1906 Jacob August Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914), a Danish-American muckraker journalist, photographer, and social reformer, was born in Ribe, Denmark. ... Sports photojournalists at Indianapolis Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (i. ... How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was a pioneering work of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant reporter, published in 1890, in which he documented the squalid living conditions in the slums of New York City. ... Upton Sinclair Jr. ... For the episode of The Twilight Zone, see The Jungle (The Twilight Zone). ... The meat packing industry is an industry that handles the slaughtering, processing and distribution of animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. ...

In 1911, negative public perceptions of sweatshops were galvanized by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City. The pivotal role of this time and place is chronicled at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, part of the Lower East Side Tenement National Historic Site. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the largest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, causing the death of 148 garment workers who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. ... The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is located in a preserved tenement building on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side, Manhattan (New York City, USA). ... Lower East Side Tenement National Historic Site preserves a six-story brick tenement building that was home to an estimated 7,000 people, from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 1935. ...

While trade unions, minimum wage laws, fire safety codes, and labor laws have made sweatshops (in the original sense) rarer in the developed world, they did not eliminate them, and the term came to be increasingly associated with factories in the developing world. The minimum wage is the minimum rate a worker can legally be paid (usually per hour) as opposed to wages that are determined by the forces of supply and demand in a free market. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A developed country is a country that has achieved (currently or historically) a high degree of industrialization, and which enjoys the higher standards of living which wealth and technology make possible. ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ...

In a report issued in 1994, the United States Government Accountability Office found that there were still thousands of sweatshops in the United States, using a definition of a sweatshop as any "employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law governing minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, or industry registration" [3]. This recent definition eliminates any historical distinction about the role of a middleman or the items produced, and focuses on the legal standards of developed country workplaces. An area of controversy between supporters of outsourcing production to the Third World and the anti-sweatshop movement is whether such standards can or should be applied to the workplaces of the developing world. General Accounting Office headquarters, Washington, D.C. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the non-partisan audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress, and an agency in the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. ... Homeworkers or home workers are defined by the International Labour Organization as people working from their homes or from other premises of their chosing other than the workplace, for remuneration, which results of a product or service specified by the employer. ... Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. ... For the Jamaican reggae band, see Third World (band). ...

Sweatshops are also sometimes implicated in human trafficking when workers have been tricked into starting work without informed consent, or when workers are kept at work through debt bondage or mental duress, all of which are more likely in cases where the workforce is drawn from children or the uneducated rural poor. Because they often exist in places without effective workplace safety or environmental laws, sweatshops sometimes injure their workers or the environment at greater rates than would be acceptable in developed countries. Sometimes penal labor facilities (employing prisoners) are grouped under the sweatshop label. Trafficking in human beings (or human trafficking) involves the movement of people (mostly women and children) against their will by means of force for the purpose of sexual or labor exploitation. ... Informed consent is a legal condition whereby a person can be said to have given consent based upon an appreciation and understanding of the facts and implications of an action. ... Debt bondage or bonded labor is a means of paying off a familys loans via the labor of family members or heirs. ... Penal labour is a form of the unfree labour. ...

Sweatshops have proved a difficult issue to resolve because their roots lie in the conceptual foundations of the world economy. Developing countries like India, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Honduras encourage the outsourcing of work from the developed world to factories within their borders in order to provide employment for their people and profits to their employers. The shift of production to developing countries is part of the process known as globalization, but may also be described as neoliberal globalization to emphasize the role that free market economics plays in outsourcing. Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. ... Puxi side of Shanghai, China. ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism in international relations. ... Puxi side of Shanghai, China. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ...

Positions on Sweatshops

Pro-sweatshop

In 1997, Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs said, "My concern is not that there are too many sweatshops, but that there are too few."^[4] Sachs and other proponents of sweatshops cite the economic theory of comparative advantage, which states that international trade will, in the long run, make most parties better off. The theory holds that developing countries improve their condition by doing something that they do "better" than industrialized nations (in this case, they charge less but do the same work). Developed countries will also be better off because their workers can shift to jobs that they do better. These are jobs that some economists say usually entail a level of education and training that is exceptionally difficult to obtain in the developing world. Thus, economists like Sachs say, developing countries get factories and jobs that they would not otherwise . Harvard redirects here. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs (born November 5, 1954 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American economist known for his work as an economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa. ... In economics, David Ricardo is credited for the principle of comparative advantage to explain how it can be beneficial for two parties (countries, regions, individuals and so on) to trade if one has a lower relative cost of producing some good. ... International trade is the exchange of goods and services across international boundaries or territories. ...

When asked about the working condition in sweatshops, proponents say that although wages and working conditions may appear inferior by the standards of developed nations, they are actually improvements over what the people in developing countries had before. It is said that if jobs in such factories did not improve their workers' standard of living, those workers would not have taken the jobs when they appeared. It is also often pointed out that, unlike in the industrialized world, the sweatshops are not replacing high-paying jobs. Rather, sweatshops offer an improvement over subsistence farming and other back-breaking tasks, or even prostitution, trash picking, or starvation by unemployment.^[4][5] This is the case since most under-developed countries have weak labor markets and little (if any) economic growth The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. ... Like most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Cameroonian man cultivates at the subsistence level. ... Whore redirects here. ... This article is about extreme malnutrition. ... CIA figures for world unemployment rates, 2006 Unemployment is the state in which a person is without work, available to work, and is currently seeking work. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ...

The absence of the work opportunities provided by sweatshops can quickly lead to malnourishment or starvation. After the Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Asia, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution." UNICEF's 1997 State of the World's Children study found these alternative jobs "more hazardous and exploitative than garment production."^[6] The Child Labor Deterrence Act was created by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and ratified by Congress in April of 1995. ... UNICEF Logo The United Nations Childrens Fund or UNICEF (Arabic: ; French: ; Spanish: ) was established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946. ...

Critics point out that sweatshop workers don't earn enough money to buy the products that they make, even though such items are often commonplace goods such as t-shirts, shoes, and toys. However, defenders of such practices respond that critics of sweatshops are comparing wages paid in one country to prices set in another. In 2003, Honduran garment factory workers were paid US$0.24 for each $50 Sean John sweatshirt, $0.15 for each long-sleeved t-shirt, and only five cents for each short-sleeved shirt – less than one-half of one percent of the retail price.^[7] Although the wages paid to workers in Honduras would hardly be enough to live in the United States, it could very well be enough to live in Honduras, where prices are much lower. The $0.15 that a Honduran worker earned for the long-sleeved t-shirt was equal in purchasing power to $3.00 in the United States. The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... Sean John is a clothing line founded by hip-hop mogul Sean Combs in 1998. ... Purchasing Power- the amount of value of a good/services compared to the amount paid. ...

Writer Johan Norberg, a proponent of market economics, points out an irony:^[8] Johan Norberg Johan Norberg (born August 27, 1973) is a Swedish writer devoted to promoting economic globalisation and individual liberty. ... It has been suggested that Free market be merged into this article or section. ...

Penn & Teller in their Wal-Mart episode interview Benajmin Powell, a Professor of Economics from San Jose State University, who argues out that sweatshop-type jobs in a developing country are often a significant improvement over other employment options (e.g. subsistence farming) and points out that the United States went through its own period of sweatshop labor during its development.^[9] Penn & Teller at the 1988 Emmy Awards Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. ... Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ... San Jose State University San José State University, commonly shortened to San Jose State and SJSU, is the oldest university in what became the California State University system. ...  Newly industrialized countries  Other emerging markets  Other developing economies  High income  Upper-middle income  Lower-middle income  Low income A developing country is that country which has a relatively low standard of living, an undeveloped industrial base, and a moderate to low Human Development Index (HDI) score and per capita... Like most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Cameroonian man cultivates at the subsistence level. ...

In an article about a Nike sweatshop in Vietnam, Johan Norberg wrote, "But when I talk to a young Vietnamese woman, Tsi-Chi, at the factory, it is not the wages she is most happy about. Sure, she makes five times more than she did, she earns more than her husband, and she can now afford to build an extension to her house. But the most important thing, she says, is that she doesn't have to work outdoors on a farm any more... Farming means 10 to 14 hours a day in the burning sun or the intensive rain... The most persistent demand Nike hears from the workers is for an expansion of the factories so that their relatives can be offered a job as well."^[10]

According to a November 2001 BBC article, in the previous two months, 100,000 sweatshop workers in Bangladesh had lost their sweatshop jobs. The sweatshop workers wanted their jobs back, and the Bangladeshi government was planning to lobby the U.S. government to repeal its trade barriers so the sweatshop workers could have their jobs back.^[11] For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ...

A 2005 article in the Christian Science Monitor states, "For example, in Honduras, the site of the infamous Kathy Lee Gifford sweatshop scandal, the average apparel worker earns $13.10 per day, yet 44 percent of the country's population lives on less than $2 per day."^[12] The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is an international newspaper published daily, Monday through Friday. ...

On three documented occasions, anti-sweatshop activists have unintentionally caused increases in childhood prostitution. In the early 1990s, anti-sweatshop activists in the U.S. managed to cause the closure of several sweatshops in Vietnam, and as a result, several thousand Vietnamese children who had been working in those sweatshops ended up working as prostitutes, turning to crime, or starving to death. In the mid-1990s, an international anti-sweatshop movement caused several Nepalese carpet manufacturing sweatshops to close, which resulted in thousands of Nepalese girls turning to prostitution. A similar anti-sweatshop protest in the 1990s also resulted in the closure of several Pakistani sweatshops, which caused those Pakistani children to turn to prostitution.^[13]

Defenders of sweatshops argue that every country starts out poor, and that the emergence of sweatshops in a country is a sign that the country has started to climb up the ladder of economic growth and upward mobility, and that this path eventually leads to the country become a rich first world country. These defenders of sweatshops cite Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan as recent examples of countries that benefited from having sweatshops.^[14][15][16]

Anti-sweatshop movement

Some of the earliest sweatshop critics were found in the 19th century abolitionist movement that had originally coalesced in opposition to chattel slavery, and many abolitionists saw similarities between slavery and sweatshop work. As slavery was successively outlawed in industrial countries between 1794 (in France) and 1865 (in the United States), some abolitionists sought to broaden the anti-slavery consensus to include other forms of harsh labor, including sweatshops. As it happened, the first significant law to address sweatshops (the Factory Act of 1833) was passed in the United Kingdom at about the same time that slavery was outlawed there (1807), and the anti-sweatshop movement drew from much the same reservoir of supporters and social thinkers. Similarly, once the United States had ended slavery during the American Civil War, the reconstruction period saw social reformers turn their attention to the plight of the urban workforce. This article is about the abolition of slavery. ... Slave redirects here. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... For other uses, see Reconstruction (disambiguation). ...

Ultimately, the abolitionist movement split apart. Some advocates focused on working conditions and found common cause with trade unions and Marxists and socialist political groups, or progressive movement and the muckrakers. Others focused on the continued slave trade and involuntary servitude in the colonial world. For those groups that remained focused on slavery per se, sweatshops became one of the primary objects of controversy. Workplaces across multiple sectors of the economy were categorized as "sweatshops." However, there were fundamental philosophical disagreements about what constituted slavery. Unable to agree on the status of sweatshops, the abolitionists working with the League of Nations and the United Nations ultimately backed away from efforts to define slavery, and focused instead on a common precursor of slavery — human trafficking.^[17] Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Progressive Movement is the term used to refer collectively to several various movements around the world that adhere to progressivism. ... Bold text McClures Magazine (cover, Jan, 1901) published many early muckraker articles. ... Involuntary servitude is the condition of a person laboring to benefit another against his will due to coercive influence directed toward him. ... In general, the word colonial means of or relating to a colony. In United States history, the term Colonial is used to refer to the period before US independence. ... 1939–1941 semi-official emblem Anachronous world map in 1920–1945, showing the League of Nations and the world Capital Not applicable¹ Language(s) English, French and Spanish Political structure International organisation Secretary-general  - 1920–1933 Sir James Eric Drummond  - 1933–1940 Joseph Avenol  - 1940–1946 Seán Lester Historical... UN and U.N. redirect here. ... Trafficking in human beings (or human trafficking) involves the movement of people (mostly women and children) against their will by means of force for the purpose of sexual or labor exploitation. ...

Those focused on working conditions included Friedrich Engels, whose book The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 would inspire the Marxist movement named for his collaborator, Karl Marx. In the United Kingdom the Factory Act was revised six further times between 1844 and 1878 to help improve the condition of workers by limiting work hours and the use of child labor. The formation of the International Labour Organization in 1919 under the League of Nations and then the United Nations sought to address the plight of workers the world over. Concern over working conditions as described by muckraker journalists during the Progressive Era in the United States saw the passage of new workers rights laws and ultimately resulted in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, passed during the New Deal.^[18] Engels redirects here. ... The Condition of the Working Class is the best-known work of Friedrich Engels, and in many ways still the best study of the working class in Victorian England. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues. ... 1939–1941 semi-official emblem Anachronous world map in 1920–1945, showing the League of Nations and the world Capital Not applicable¹ Language(s) English, French and Spanish Political structure International organisation Secretary-general  - 1920–1933 Sir James Eric Drummond  - 1933–1940 Joseph Avenol  - 1940–1946 Seán Lester Historical... UN and U.N. redirect here. ... In the United States, the Progressive Era was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s. ... The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA, ch. ... This article is about the policy program of US President Franklin D Roosevelt. ...

More recently, the anti-globalization movement has arisen in opposition to corporate globalization, a process by which multinational corporations move their operations overseas in order to lower their costs and increase profits. The anti-sweatshop movement has much in common with the anti-globalization movement. Both consider sweatshops harmful, and both have accused many companies (such as the Walt Disney Company, The Gap, and Nike) of using sweatshops. The movement charges that neoliberal globalization is similar to the sweating system. Furthermore, they argue that there tends to be a "race to the bottom," as multinationals leap from one low-wage country to another searching for lower production costs, in the same way that sweaters would have steered production to the lowest cost sub-contractor. Anti-WEF grafiti in Lausanne. ... Puxi side of Shanghai, China. ... multinational corporation (or transnational corporation) (MNC/TNC) is a corporation or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in at least two countries. ... Anti-WEF grafiti in Lausanne. ... Alternate meanings: Disney (disambiguation) The Walt Disney Company (also known as Disney Enterprises, Inc. ... Gap Inc. ... Nike, Inc. ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism in international relations. ... Puxi side of Shanghai, China. ... Sweating system was a term used to describe an iniquitous system of subcontracting in the tailoring trade which came into prominence around 1848. ... In government regulation, a race to the bottom is a theoretical phenomenon which occurs when competition between nations or states (over investment capital, for example) leads to the progressive dismantling of regulatory standards. ...

Anti-globalization activists and environmentalists also deplore transfer of heavy industrial manufacturing (such as chemical production) to the developing world. Although chemical factories have little in common with sweatshops in the original sense, detractors describe them as such and claim that there are negative environmental and health impacts (such as pollution and birth defects, respectively) on workers and the local community. Environmentalism is activism aimed at improving the environment, particularly nature. ... This article is about the natural environment. ...

Various groups support or embody the anti-sweatshop movement today. The National Labor Committee brought sweatshops into the mainstream media in the 1990s when it exposed the use of sweatshop and child labor to sew Kathie Lee Gifford's Wal-Mart label. United Students Against Sweatshops is active on college campuses. The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit^[19] on behalf of workers in China, Nicaragua, Swaziland, Indonesia, and Bangladesh against Wal-Mart charging the company with knowingly developing purchasing policies particularly relating to price and delivery time that are impossible to meet while following the Wal-Mart code of conduct. Labor unions, such as the AFL-CIO, have helped support the anti-sweatshop movement out of concern both for the welfare of people in the developing world and that companies will move jobs from the United States elsewhere in order to capitalize on lower costs. For example, the American labor union UNITE HERE, which represents garment workers, has only approximately 3,000 garment workers remaining in its base, because larger garment making operations have already been transferred overseas. The only garment production facilities that remain in the US are small, disconnected workplaces. The National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights, commonly known as the National Labor Committee or the NLC, is a non-profit NGO founded in 1981 by David Dyson to combat sweatshop labor and United States government policy in El Salvador. ... United Students Against Sweatshops. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL-CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 54 national and international unions (including Canadian), together representing more than 10 million workers. ... UNITE HERE is a result of a 2004 merger of two North American labor unions: the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE). ...

Gender and sweatshops

Arguments that sweatshops provide skills and a boost to the economy are sometimes criticized for not taking into account the gendered nature of sweatshop employees. Because of the relatively higher value placed on male education, young women are often encouraged by their families to leave school and migrate to urban areas or Export Processing Zones (EPZ) to work in the garment industry. As outsiders in a new community, these young women lack the legal or family support they might receive in their own community and therefore, have to spend a larger amount of income on supporting themselves. Consequently, these young women who are no longer receiving an education often find it hard to earn enough money to send back to their family.^[20]

The division of labour in sweatshops is gendered because the vast majority of workers are young women. The problems faced by many workers are also gendered because gender-based notions of what is acceptable inform working conditions. Thus medical or maternity leave, employer / employee relations and the right to organise can all become gender biased. Consequently, the negative aspects of sweatshops have a disproportionate impact on women. Because of this, some argue that efforts to combat the poor working conditions in sweatshops should focus more on empowering women^{[citation needed]}. Although company-led attempts to improve the working conditions in sweatshops such as the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) have had some successes, others criticize the ETI as ‘gender-blind’^{[citation needed]}. The modern anti-sweatshop movement combines notions of a living wage, trade unions, and feminism, which some argue makes these grassroots approaches more sustainable.^[21]

Current status of sweatshops

Some companies have acceded to public pressure to reduce or end their use of sweatshops. Such firms often publicize the fact that their products are not made with sweatshop labour; a number of organizations publish lists of companies that pay their workers a living wage. A 1998 report by the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development says a third of all clothes on sale in the UK's high street stores have been made in sweatshops in Asia.^[22] Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ...

In the United States, shoemaker New Balance is notable for changing its policies after intense pressure from campus anti-sweatshop groups. Clothing retailer Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Forth & Towne brands, has significantly changed its policies. Gap Inc. has developed a Code of Vendor Conduct [4] which applies across all of its brands based on internationally accepted labor standards. Walmart and Nike are two of the largest corporate sponsors of sweatshop labor, but claim that they have safeguards in place to avoid using the worst sweatshops. Disney has also employed sweatshops to produce much of their clothing and toys, but their use has not been as well publicized as the cases of Nike, Walmart, or Kathie Lee Gifford. In the book "Disney; the Mouse Betrayed"; a chapter shows dealings with China, Vietnam, Haiti, but especially targets Disney's relationship with the military junta of Burma, of which it works hard to keep quiet given Burma's huge unpopularity in the international community. "Dozens of American clothes makers, such as Old Navy, Gap, Guess, Donna Karan, Victoria's Secret, have all signed pledges with the U.S. Department of Labor stating their conditions are closely monitored and that no child labor is being used. Disney has not." ^[23] New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. ... Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ... The Nike swoosh logo Nike, Inc. ...

The World Bank estimates that today, 1/5th of human beings live under the international poverty line.^[24] World poverty has become better due in a large part to the economic success of China and India, the two countries with the largest number of workers in sweatshops. Against this progress in the developing world, one should also note that economic inequality between the richest and poorest has never been so large. The World Bank logo The World Bank (the Bank) is a part of the World Bank Group (WBG), is a bank that makes loans to developing countries for development programs with the stated goal of reducing poverty. ... Map of countries showing percentage of population who have an income below the national poverty line The poverty line is the level of income below which one cannot afford to purchase all the resources one requires to live. ...

"The income gap between the fifth of the world's people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960. Earlier the income gap between the top and bottom countries increased from 3 to 1 in 1820 to 7 to 1 in 1870 to 11 to 1 in 1913."^[24]

Some recent political action has been taken against sweatshops. On January 24, 2007, Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.), Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.) and Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) introduced the "Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act" with the objective of cracking down on products made in factories overseas where "workers are abused in violation of that country's labor laws." The bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to conduct an investigation, based on complaints, to determine whether a foreign factory was abusing employees producing apparel and other products in violation of core International Labor Organization standards. If such a ruling were made, the FTC would issue an order prohibiting products from the factory from being imported into the U.S. Each violation of that order would carry a civil penalty of $10,000 in addition to other duties, fines and penalties imposed by the FTC. Customs & Border Protection, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, would be required to enforce the penalties. He added the bill would give American companies the right to sue their competitors in U.S. courts if those competitors were selling merchandise produced in sweatshops.^[25] Byron Leslie Dorgan (born May 14, 1942) is the junior United States Senator from North Dakota. ... Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American politician from South Carolina. ... Sherrod Campbell Brown (born November 9, 1952) is the Democratic Junior United States Senator from the state of Ohio. ...

Related terms

• Assembly line
• Body Shops
• Child labor
• Contingent work
• Corporate abuse
• Exploitation
• Export processing zone
• Game sweatshop
• Globalisation
• Maquiladora
• Precarity
• Race to the bottom
• SA8000 — Social Accountability Certification Scheme for Manufacturing Industry
• Slavery
• Sweating system
• Trafficking in human beings
• Union Organizer

Modern car assembly line. ... A Typical Body-shop Body Shops refers to IT Outsourcing companies, particularly of Indian origin, that undercut domestic companies by abusing visa loopholes to import migrant workers to work for lower pay than domestic workers. ... A twelve year old American uneducated child laborer, Furman Owens, who stated Yes I want to learn but cant when I work all the time. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... Corporate abuse refers to incidents that involve unethical behavior on behalf of a corporation; a case of corporate abuse may be a scandal, fraud, or negligence toward the corporations employees and/or the local community. ... Exploitation means many different things. ... An Export processing zone or EPZ eases tax and labor restrictions and their primary purpose is to generate export revenues in poor developing countries. ... A game sweatshop is a business concerned with making and selling accounts and in-game currency on MMORPGs[1]. The term can also refer to a building containing computers installed with MMORPGs (e. ... Globalization is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that are the result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange. ... A maquiladora or maquila is a factory that imports materials and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-exports the assembled product, usually back to the originating country. ... // Precarity refers to labor performed in absence of either predictability or security, thus affecting social and psychological welfare. ... In government regulation, a race to the bottom is a theoretical phenomenon which occurs when competition between nations or states (over investment capital, for example) leads to the progressive dismantling of regulatory standards. ... SA8000 is a global social accountability standard for decent working conditions, developed and overseen by Social Accountability International (SAI). ... Slave redirects here. ... Sweating system was a term used to describe an iniquitous system of subcontracting in the tailoring trade which came into prominence around 1848. ... For other uses, see Human trafficking (disambiguation). ... A union organizer (sometimes spelled organiser) is one type of employee or elected official of a trade union. ...

Organizations working on the issue

• International Labor Rights Fund
• United Students Against Sweatshops
• National Labor Committee
• Co-op America
• Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... United Students Against Sweatshops. ... The National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights, commonly known as the National Labor Committee or the NLC, is a non-profit NGO founded in 1981 by David Dyson to combat sweatshop labor and United States government policy in El Salvador. ... Co-op America is a nonprofit membership organization that promotes ethical consumerism, dedicated to harnessing the economic power of consumers, investors and businesses to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through helping responsible consumers and green businesses find each other in the marketplace. ...

Related topics

For other uses, see Fair trade (disambiguation). ... The fair trade movement as we know today has undergone several important changes since its early days following World War II. Fair trade, first seen as a form of charity advocated by religious organizations, has radically changed in structure, philosophy and approach: the past fifty years have witnessed massive changes... International Fairtrade Certification Mark Fairtrade certification (usually simply Fairtrade or Fair Trade Certifiedâ„¢ in the United States) is a product certification system designed to allow consumers to identify products which meet agreed environmental, labour and developmental standards. ... Fair trades increasing popularity has drawn criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. ... An alternative trading organization (ATO) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) explicitly committed to realigning exploitative global trading structures, particularly those involving partners in developing countries. ... Trade justice is a campaign by non-governmental organisations, such as consumer groups, trade unions, faith groups, aid agencies and environmental groups. ... The Trade Justice Movement is a British coalition, founded in 2000, of more than 80 organisations campaigning for Trade Justice - fundamental change of the unjust rules and institutions governing international trade so that it is made to work for all, particularly poor people, and the environment. ... Worldshops, world shops or Fair Trade Shops are retail outlets that practice the principles of fair trade. ... For other uses of fair trade, see fair trade. ... The International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) consists of a global network of Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs). ... The Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!) was established in 1994 and coordinates the cooperation between Worldshops in Europe. ... The European Fair Trade Association is a Dutch association established in 1990. ... FINE was created in 1998 and is an informal association of the four main Fair Trade networks: F Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) I International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) N Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!) and E European Fair Trade Association (EFTA) // The aim of FINE is to enable these... The Fair Trade Federation is an association of Canadian and American fair trade wholesalers, importers and retailers. ... FLO International is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder association involving 20 member organizations (or Labelling Initiatives), producer groups, traders and external experts. ... FLO-CERT GmbH is the largest inspection and certification body for labelled Fairtrade. ... The International Fairtrade Certification Mark is an independent certification mark used in over 16 countries. ... US Fair Trade Certified Mark Canadian Fair Trade Certified Mark The Fair Trade Certified Mark is a certification mark used in Canada and in the United States. ... Fairtrade Town is a status awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation in the United Kingdom and Channel Islands, describing an area which is committed to the promotion of Fairtrade-labelled goods. ... International Fairtrade Certification Mark Fairtrade Town is a status awarded by a FLO member Fairtrade labelling initiative (i. ... Fairtrade fortnight is an annual event in the U.K. in which fair and ethical trading values are celebrated. ... Make Trade Fair is a campaign organized by Oxfam International to promote fair trade among governments, institutions, and multinational corporations. ... Each year, on the second Saturday of May, World Fair Trade Day is celebrated. ... Black Gold is a 2006 documentary film about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee. ... One Cup (Short Documentary) 28 Mins, 2006. ...

References

Notes

The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Nicholas D. Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times whose specialty is East Asian affairs, especially those of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Carol Bellamy, (born January 14, 1942), is the President and CEO of World Learning, and President of its School for International Training. ... UNICEF Flag The United Nations Childrens Fund (or UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946 to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights, commonly known as the National Labor Committee or the NLC, is a non-profit NGO founded in 1981 by David Dyson to combat sweatshop labor and United States government policy in El Salvador. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Nick Gillespie has been the Editor-in-Chief of Reason magazine since 2000. ... The libertarian Reason Magazine dedicated an issue to Ayn Rands influence one hundred years after her birth. ... The Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank founded in 1986 that also publishes Reason magazine. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 334th day of the year (335th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Activism

• SweatFree Communities– Local Action Against Sweatshops
• United Students Against Sweatshops
• National Labor Committee
• Clean Clothes Campaign
• Labour Behind the Label
• Play Fair at the Olympics
• National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)
• Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM)

Shopping

• Responsible Shopper Company Profiles
• "Shop with a Conscience" Consumer Guide

Papers and publications

• Fair Labor Standards Act
• National Bureau for Economic Research paper: The Effects of Multinational Production on Wages and Working Conditions in Developing Countries