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Week 14
The Global Issues
Sweatshops
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Whos wearing NIKES?
Please check your shoes to see if theywere manufactured in Vietnam, China,
or Indonesia
If they were, they were produced in a
sweatshop!
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Sweatshops
Definition: A shop employing workers at low wages, for long
hours, and under poor conditions.
Factory where workers do piecework for poor payand are prevented from forming unions; common in
the clothing industry
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Origins
Began between 1830 and 1850
Caused by industrial revolution
Began in the Garment Industry
London, New York City
Sweating (1840s)
Long Hours
Low Wages
Unsafe Conditions
Began in the U.S. from Civil War need for Uniforms
Between 1850 and 1900, sweatshops attracted the rural poorto rapidly-growing cities
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Benefits of Sweatshops
Comparative Advantage
If sweatshop jobs did not improve their workers' standardof living, those workers would not have taken the jobs
Free Market Advocates
1997 UNICEF study 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese children turned to prostitution
after the US banned that country's carpet exports in the
1990s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_livinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_livinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEFhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEFhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_livinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living7/29/2019 Week 14. Global Issues
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Dilemma.
While supporters of economicglobalization talk of increased
prosperity and development, thereality is economic globalization hasled to a global race to the bottom,
creating a sweatshop epidemic
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Harm/maltreatment of
Sweatshops Neoliberal Globalization
stiffing the working classes and ingeneral feeding as much money asis humanly possible up to the 1%
Race to the bottom
corporations set up shop all around the
world in search of the cheapest laborand fewest regulations, increasing theglobal sweatshop epidemic.
Workers Rights / Conditions
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Sweatshops and Wal-Mart
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Wal-Mart products
Produced in 48 different countries
Products mainly from Asian and CentralAmerican factories
Produced using sweatshop labor
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Wal-Mart as an importer
10% of all Chinese imports are imported by Wal-
Mart Own global procurement division
The Wal-Mart Squeeze
Endless mission to squeeze countries for lowerwages and cheaper goods
Lowering working standards where ever they go
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Textiles and Wal-Mart
Produced by young women 17 to 25
years old Forced to work seven days a week
12 to 28 cents an hour
No benefits Housed in crowded and dirty dormitories
24-hour-a-day surveillance
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Toys of Misery and Wal-Mart
Seventy-one percent of the toys sold in the U.S.come from China
13- to 16-hour days molding, assembling, andspray-painting toys
20-hour shifts in peak season (Christmas)
Seven days a week
Paid as low as 13 cents an hour Live in Shacks or Dorms
No medical care or safety equipment
Poor Conditions
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Not just China
Bangladesh
El Salvador
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Some of the common abuses in the
sweatshops
Forced overtime
Locked bathrooms
Starvation wages
Pregnancy tests
Denial of access to health care Workers fired and blacklisted
Occasional beatings
Pending wages
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Sweatshops and Wal-
Mart Not just over seas
US labor law violations
Violating child labor laws Employees forced to work off the clock
Locking employees into stores overnight
Undocumented workers
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Sweatshops and Nike
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Sweatshops and Nike
Indonesia, China, and Vietnam produce Nikeproducts
Why these 3 countries? Labor laws are poorly enforced
Cheap labor is plentiful
Local laws prohibit workers from forming independenttrade unions
Nikes Excuse Dont own factories
They only market shoes
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Sweatshops and Nike
Vietnam and Nike There are about 35,000 workers Vietnamese
More than 90 percent of them are young women
12-hour days making Nike shoes Produce shoes in an unhealthy environment full of toxic
chemicals
Receivers of beatings and withheld wages
Employees are making 20 cents an hour
Earn $2.40 a day - only slightly more than the $2 or so itcosts to buy three healthy meals a day
Not allowed to use the bathroom more than once in an 8-hour shift
Allowed to drink water only twice per shift
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Sweatshops and Nike
Fun Facts In many cases, employees are actually spending
more just to live and work at the factories than
they actually make. Michael Jordan was given a shoe contract for
$20 million dollars in the mid 1990s. At thesame time Nike and the factories paid the entire
35000 contracted Vietnamese employees only30.5 million dollars for their work for the entireyear.
Total labor costs for the shoes amount to lessthan $2 a pair; the shoes retail for up to $180 in
the United States.
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Companies Supporting SweatshopFactories
GAP
OLD NAVY
Banana Republic
Reebok
Adidas
Bridgestone
Firestone
Uniroyal
Starbucks
Sears
Mattel
Dell
Hewlett Packard
Motorola
G.E.
Walt Disney
Target
Home Depot
J.C. Penny
+ others
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Questions
How does sweatshop affect theorganizations?
Are Global Sweatshops exploitative?
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