Have you ever wondered where the shirt you are wearing right now was made?. It was probably made in a foreign country where workers are paid much less than your shirt is worth. Multinational companies place sweatshops in foreign countries and pay workers less than what they would in other countries, in order to save and make more money. Foreign countries don't have minimum wage and many people need work. That helps Multinational companies in taking advantages of this and give these people work. However, companies also use workers in an unfair way in the job by giving them poor working conditions. Sweatshops do exist because of the high demand for inexpensive products, and as a result of sweatshops many companies are facing a dramatic increase in profits.
The term “sweatshop” was first used in the 19th century to reveal the feature of the tailoring trade, but sweatshop conditions happen to exist in other fields as well. A sweatshop is defined as a “workshop or a factory, in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions”. Some sweatshops are known to be abusive, workers in those sweatshops are prone to physical and sexual abuse. The abusiveness includes child labor, and forced labor as well. These are just few examples of the abusiveness of sweatshops in various companies. Other examples include very few or no rest days at all. According to International Labour Organization, reports found that in developing countries, almost 246 million children from foreign countries ages 5 to 14 years old are forced to work. That is child labor, which is defined as “the employment of a child in a business or industry especially in violation of state or federal statutes prohibition the employment of children under a specified child”. According to War On Want, a sweatshop worker tells her story, as a prove of some sweatshop abusiveness. “Arifa who was 10 years old, and had to find a job when her father could no longer work. She started working in Bangladesh's garment factories, and worked in the field for 20 years. When she first started working, Arifa was a helper and earned only 100 taka a month, that is 1.178 US dollar. She has gradually worked her way up to sewing machine operator, and now earns 2200 taka a month, that equals 25.92 US dollar, working an average of 13-14 hours per day. After 20 years as a garment worker she earns more than Bangladesh's minimum wage, but still less than a living wage. Arifa would like to leave her job. She said that, the work is exhausting and hard on her body, causing frequent pain, especially in the back. She does work while sitting down. However, the chair provided is very unsupportive. Arifa also claims that, she does not feel safe in the factory because of the poor working conditions.”
Records of sweatshops date back to the 1800’s. Sweatshops have been associated with many various countries. In countries where workers work very hard for low-coast wages, and where workers have hardly any protections. One of the first sweatshops was in Ecuador. As sweatshops began to extend around the world, children became workers in these places. These children worked the same long hours as adults, operating in simple duties such as, threading needles and cutting loose threads. Most factories wanted to increase their profits as much as possible, and that could not happen if they had to buy expensive machines. After many years of being maltreated in sweatshops, many workers started to ask for their rights. This did help and brought them to a change, thats is by the 1850’s almost all factories improved the safety in the workplace. A union “ Just Treatment” was formed in 1886 by some factory workers. The reason behind that union is the bad working conditions in the factories. Moreover, in 1900’s many children in the age of 12 and under had the chance to attend school, and their education was free. After the second world war, sweatshops started to vanish because many governments made rules for the factories. However, in the late 1980’s and the 1990’s sweatshops had returned. The main issue with the sweatshop in present days, is that many people are ignorance that sweatshops currently exist.
Sweatshops exist until this day around the world. The thought that they have improved is wrong for some, most are still as cruel as they were in the past, such as those in China and Bangladesh. However, The number of children working in sweatshops dropped by 16% between 2000 and 2004. Now a days, a positive brand image is created by sweatshops to attract buyers, they also try to make the clothes coasts as cheaply as possible. Large chain stores, participants in sweatshops. Some of the workers who make their clothes work long hours and are paid poverty wages. Smaller retailers, usually don't own their own sweatshops, because buying clothing from factories in different nations will be cheaper. The evolved sweatshops of today are the perfect example on the famous idiom “appearances can be deceiving”. American Apparel (AA), for example, do pay good wage for their workers, and provide them health insurance as well, which many of people will think that it is an advantage. However, American Apparel (AA) had an indecent claims about sexual abuse in work.
Despite the expeditious development of the Chinese economy in the last period of years. According to War On Want, “more than 482 million people in China live on less than $2 a day”. There are almost 150 Chinese workers who end up not receiving any benefits or protection from their government. Workers try to break free from extreme poverty, but instead they find them selves trapped in a worst condition, where they have to bear with very poor working conditions. Sometimes workers are forced to work overnight or for several shifts, a worker alone could work ten or more hours per shift, all of this so the factory can be open for 24 hours. At the end workers have no one to blame but their status. The majority of these workers are women, who earn very low wages. According to War On Want, workers monthly salary is CNY 1,690 including overtime, which is 255 US dollar. What is worst, some sweatshops owners care about succeeding their company instead of caring about their workers health, which cause the workers a high level of diseases and injuries. In 2009, almost one million workers are injured in their fields, and 20,000 suffered from diseases because go their job. Sandblasting is causing a big risk and danger to the workers health as well, and its defined as “a stream of sand projected by compressed air (as for engraving, cutting, or cleaning glass or stone)”. Although sandblasting was no longer legal to be used in 1966, but China continued to use it. Moreover, many unions had failed to take action on behalf of workers, who end up injured during their work. The Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior Organization (SACOM), choose to take action and help fund the improvement of workers safety in China.