I must admit that before doing a little bit of research about sweatshops, I did not know there are several in the U.S. Being narrow-minded that I am, I thought that China is among one of the countries with sweatshops. Many people are against sweatshops in general, but there are others that is for it. To me, it depends on the circumstances; such as the working condition, or the wages. This image on the left depicts a graph showing what the workers get paid in different countries and the number of days worked/earn.
A sweatshop is a shop or factory in which employees work long hours at low wages under poor conditions. This definition is more or less correct. I believe that sweatshops in most areas have changed from working in poor condition to a much better working environment. For instance, The Department of Labor defines a work place as a sweatshop if it violates two or more of the most basic labor laws including child labor, minimum wage, overtime and fire safety laws. For many, the word sweatshop conjures up images of dirty, cramped, turn of the century New York tenements where immigrant women worked as seamstresses. High-rise tenement sweatshops still do exist, but, today, even large, brightly-lit factories can be the sites of rampant labor abuses.
Sweatshop workers report horrible working conditions including sub-minimum wages, no benefits, non-payment of wages, forced overtime, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, corporal punishment, and illegal firings. Children can often be found working in sweatshops instead of going to school. Sweatshop operators are notorious for avoiding giving maternity leave by firing pregnant women and forcing women workers to take birth control or to abort their pregnancies. For these different reasons I am against sweatshops, period. However; I think that situations can be fixed, and I believe there are shops out there that takes good care of its employees.
Sweatshops are a good idea because it gives people jobs. It is also a job that does not require much education, it can be taught in a day. Therefore, people who do no have the money for education or time, can consider working in the sweatshop industry.
The notorious sweatshops of the age of Big Business (the late 19th and early 20th centuries) virtually disappeared after World War II because of increased government regulation of monopolies and the rise of trade unions. Sweatshops began to reappear again, however, during the 1980's and 1990's because of economic globalization. Today1s economy is described as global because advancements in technology have made it possible for large corporations that were once confined to a specific geographic location to become large "multi-nationals."
If you're wondering if there are any sweatshops in the United States, the answer is yes. According to the Department of Labor, over 50% of U.S. garment factories are sweatshops. Many sweatshops are run in this country's apparel centers: California, New York, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta.
In conclusion, there are many different points to consider when deciding if sweatshops are good or bad. In an ideal situation, there would be a balance between production overseas and production in the United States. Companies would pay employees the current minimum wage and meet the standardized regulations relating to the work environment. Some American companies have already taken the first step in improving work conditions across the globe. With the help of the public, we can make sweatshops a thing of the past.
Sources:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/sweatshopsfaq.html
http://www.neoperspectives.com/sweatshopsandwelfare.htm
