A woman in Wales bought a dress and was looking at the dress label for washing instructions when she noticed a note. The note was written on the back of the dress label, it read, “Forced to work exhausting hours. ” The dress the woman thought was pretty, soon became disturbingly ugly. This was the first tangible cry for help through labels on clothing. This cry goes to show that American consumers buy clothes with little to no knowledge of how it is made or who it is made by.
If American shoppers only knew that over 168 million children are making their clothes and other products in factories and clothing sweatshops, would they still buy the clothes? According to the U. S. Department of Labor, sweatshops are defined as factories that violate two or more labor laws. Labor laws include: adequate working hours, safe working conditions, prohibition of child labor and sufficient wages. Moreover, large businesses in the U. S. such as Hanes, Walmart, Nike, Old Navy and Gap are contributing to child labor in clothing sweatshops by having children make their products for lowpay.
Children are forced into unsafe working conditions, working long hours with little to no pay, and clothing companies are oblivious to the dehumanization of child labor. For these reasons, child labor in clothing sweatshops is a major, global economical problem. A simple, feasible solution is to boycott products made in sweatshops and instead, purchase products that are labeled as Fairtrade. Fairtrade products prohibit child labor and protect the rights of children. American consumers can reduce child labor in clothing sweatshops by purchasing Fairtrade products.
To begin, child laborers in clothing sweatshops work in hazardous conditions. In unregulated clothing factories, children are stored in small, overcrowded rooms without emergency exits, fire safety plans, or extinguishers. Moreover, because of inadequate electrical wiring and improper building structure, most factories are at risk of fire accidents and building collapses. In 2013, a Bangladesh factory called, Rana Plaza, collapsed and killed more than 1,100 workers, many of these workers were children.
This catastrophe should not be considered an accident because it was bound to happen and easily could have been avoided with formal building techniques. Nonetheless, this is one out of many examples that proves children do not have protection in sweatshops and risk their lives working in these environment. Also, child laborers are physically and verbally punished by their bosses for not meeting their exigent quotas, making mistakes, spending too much time in the bathroom and falling over from exhaustion.
In fact, the National Labor Committee interviewed a 13 year-old child labor named Summon, who works in a clothing sweatshop in Bangladesh. He explains “there are many pressures on us to produce” because if the workers do not meet their production targets, they are slapped across the face and kicked behind the neck by the bosses on their floor. This interview shows that children are trapped in an endless cycle of atrocious punishment and slavery. Furthermore, the working environments the children work in are dirty and filthy. For example, the bathrooms are unsanitary and more often than not, do not have soap or even toilet paper.
Children can only go to the bathroom at certain times in the day and if they spend too much time in the bathroom, they are illegally threatened with firing. To support, Green America has a campaign against sweatshops. Green America Anti-Sweatshop Campaign proclaims that the unsanitary conditions in sweatshops attracts rodents and bugs carry diseases which can affect the health of the child workers. In summary, the grubby working environments in sweatshops can promote spreadable illnesses among children which potentially lead to the firing of young laborers.
All in all, sweatshops remain a problem because of their menacing conditions that refuse to change. Moreover, low wages and long working hours prey upon child slaves. To start, children are given wages that make it impossible for them to sustain a life on their own. The National Labor Committee interviewed three children laborers at Harvest Rich plant named Halima, Summon and Mahmoud and asked them about their wages. Halima, who is eleven years old and cuts loose threads off of Hanes underwear, revealed she earns 6 ? cents an hour, 53 cents a day, and $3. 20 a week, and $11. 86 a month.
Likewise, The Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School states, “… if they could earn just 36 cents an hour, they could climb out of misery and into poverty. ” This quote by the Harvard Law School proclaims children like Halima, are in a lower economic status than poverty. Child laborers in sweatshops are induced into a life of dehumanization and slavery because of their wages. Often, children work seven days a week and compelled to work 12-14 hours a day. Likewise, some children work all night and have exhausting shifts of 19-20 hours. During their shifts, they are forced to do the same, repetitive jobs.
The jobs the children are assigned to vary: machine cleaning, embroidery, sticking on sequins to fabrics, trimming loose threads, cutting of extra stitches, stitching labels, etc. For example, when the director of the National Labor Committee, Charles Kernaghan, asked Halima what she thinks about her job of trimming loose threads and hours she states, “It is not fair. ” She elaborates by explaining that she trims over a 150 pairs of underwear an hour. Children are ensnared in injustice hours and overtime which prevents them from a decent childhood and education.
Children come to these factories to seek a better life for them and their families but only get taken advantage of. Child workers end up living at the sweatshops where they eat, sleep and shower because of their long hours and rock-bottom wages. In the sweatshops, children do not have access to or have enough money to buy toothbrushes, thus, many brush their teeth using their finger with fire ashes. To support, a report from the Labor and Worklife Program, explains that because young slaves work long hours, “children sleep on the factory floor for two or three hours. After, those few hours they are woken up to start a whole new shift.
Children’s sleeping time is extremely limited because of their long hours. So instead of going home, they spend their childhood memories cooped up in sweatshops which become their new home. To conclude, low wages and long hours is one of the reasons why child labor in sweatshops is a global crisis. In addition, U. S. companies claim they know nothing about the evidence that reveals their products are made by child laborers in sweatshops. Factory bosses threaten children who are ages 14 and younger to lie about their ages and say they are malnourished adults.
When buyers from the companies go to inspect the plants and how their clothes are made, they are lied to by the plant managers. For instance, at Harvest Rich plant in Bangladesh, managers told Tesco buyers that many of their workers come from rural areas in which poverty and malnutrition is very common, therefore “age cannot be specified by eye examination. ” The labor laws pertaining to the certain ages children are allowed to work, 15 years old or older, are greatly violated, overlooked and unregulated.
Contractors from the U. S. ompanies do nothing to prove the ages of the factory workers and continue to allow sweatshops to exist and follow their own practices. Factories supply for international clothing brands through subcontracts, a contract for a company to do work for another company. These contracts make it difficult for clothing brand companies to know how and where their clothes are made. In fact, according to Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights, Gap uses 2,700 contractors worldwide. In 2007, however, Gap tried to save money by having their contractors subcontract work to sweatshops in developing countries like India.
Because of subcontracts, Gap lost control and could no longer monitor where their clothes were being made and who was making them. The National Labor Committee found Gap’s kid clothing line being made in a sweatshop in Jordan. The clothing was being made by children, 10 and 13 years old, who were sexually assaulted, beaten with rubber hoses and paid six cents an hour. Gap and other international clothing companies have done nothing to repay the child laborers for their choice to save money through subcontracting. They have selfishly destroyed the lives of children by forcing them into slavery for they own wealth.
By cutting production costs, they are motivating child labor to exist. All in all, U. S. businesses are responsible for the child labor that occurs in clothing sweatshops. As a counter argument against unfair wages, critics say something is better than nothing and the wages can help alleviate poverty. While this rationalization may seem true to some, it is evidently incorrect. According to Todd Larsen, the director of Green America’s Social Responsibility Program, developing countries minimum wage already makes it extremely difficult for people to grow economically.
Because sweatshops illegally pay their workers below the minimum wage, it is impossible for child laborers to climb out of their social class of poverty. Another counter argument is, low production costs help keep clothing companies competitive by having their products at low prices. Nevertheless, a survey done by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that American consumers would rather pay more for the same product if they knew the product was not made in a sweatshop.
Therefore, clothing not made in sweatshops is more competitive than cheaper clothing made in sweatshops conditions. The solution for American consumers to reduce child labor in sweatshops is simple. The solution is Fairtrade. In order to reduce the amount of child laborers in clothing sweatshops, American consumers should purchase Fairtrade clothes and other imported products such as coffee, chocolate and bananas. Producers who are Fairtrade Certified must follow set standards that apply to child labor and human rights made by Fairtrade International.
These set standards include prohibition of children under age of 15 can by working for the producer’s business and children who are fifteen and older cannot take part in work that interferes with school or their health. According to Fairtrade International, there are over 1,210 Fairtrade certified producer organizations in 74 different countries. This growing number is significant because among these producers, child labor, hazardous working conditions and unfair wages and hours cease to exist. Also, when American consumers buy Fairtrade products, farmers and producers receive set premiums which are then used to help their local communities.
Premiums are used to build schools and other programs for the children. Likewise, Fairtrade staff members come to the communities of their certified producers to form relationships with the children. They learn about the children’s future aspirations in order to create programs that increase their quality of life. By improving the quality of life and wellbeing of the children, children can help combat poverty in their community. In 2013, Fairtrade workers have received over 31 million dollars through premiums from sales which were used to create schools, health facilities and clean water.
If all Americans purchased Fairtrade products, the amount of premiums would dramatically increase and be used to help children in developing countries. Overall, American’s dollar can end child labor in sweatshops by purchasing Fairtrade products. To conclude, American shoppers have the power to reduce the amount of child labor in clothing sweatshops by purchasing products that are Fairtrade Certified. Businesses offer products that are demanded by consumers. If consumers demand what is produced, why cannot consumers demand how it is produced?
American consumers have the ultimate power to defeat child labor in sweatshops through demand. According to Uncle Ben from the movie, Spider-man, “With great power, comes great responsibility. ” American consumers have the power, thus must take responsibility and leadership to free children from slavery in clothing sweatshops. To have that responsibility, America consumers must be willing to hear the cries for help from the youth. Children slaves and laborers are crying for help as they are held captive in clothing sweatshops. It is up to American shoppers to listen and respond to their cries by changing the way they use their dollar.
