Labor Abuse in China
“Inside the factory, amid clattering machinery and clouds of sawdust, men without earplugs or protective goggles feed wood into screaming electric saws, making cabinets for stereo speakers” (Goodman and Pan 1). In the article Chinese Workers Pay for Wal-Mart’s Low Prices by Peter Goodman and Philip Pan the mistreatment of the migrant workers in China is evident. These kinds of behaviors are taking place all over in China. The abuse of the Chinese work force has reached terrible proportions and created unlawful conditions because of the demanding economy of China, and other countries’ needs of the goods; however, the companies that are centered in China are working to make sure their workers are treated fairly.
The abuse on Chinese workers has reached outstanding proportions and has caused an awful working condition for the majority of workers in China. Many migrant workers face an increasing amount of problems at work. On an average day at work they might experience a poorly lit and a cramped work place (Goldman 2). The factories that they work in have little room to perform up to par on a daily basis. A large amount of these factories are also poorly ventilated when there are harmful chemicals being used (Goldman 1). Often lacking proper safety equipment like goggles or ear-buds, the workers feel at risk to being seriously injured. Also, they could be exposed to chemicals or substances without proper masks. In the future these workers will find themselves having serious health conditions because of this (Little 1). Constantly working in these conditions is not ideal. Working like this on a daily basis has caused exhaustion and even death in the workplace (Goldman 3). Clearly people working ...
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...se problems, and they are trying to do what is best for the workers.
There are a lot of migrant workers in China in bad conditions where the factories are poorly lit, and very cramped. A lot of these heinous conditions are caused from the little enforcement of labor laws by the government. Although there are many companies that are starting to take the turn for the better by monitoring the work area. There are also other groups of people trying to abolish these actions. If you want to participate in the destruction of these actions toward workers then you should join an activist group that is working to do this. Many people out there are joining groups and they are making conditions better. With the constant action by the workers and the activists, the government will finally realize that these conditions aren’t right and they need to change for good.
Shanghai is one of the most cities with developed economy due to this many people come to the town to find work. During 1983 and 2000 years the number of migrant workers increased from 0.5 million people to 3.87 million people. A large percentage of migrant workers work on manufacturing (25.8%). 19.6% and 13.9% people earn money on construction and trade, respectively. In public organizations often work native citizens than immigrants. In the other spheres such as skill...
Modern America has overcome vast amounts of worker mistreatment, from child labor to unsafe work environments. Each time the corruption thrived for a while before anyone found a need to put a stop to it. Slowly but surely, the flaws in the system crept out of the shadows, disturbing every individual who had been previously ignorant. Mac McClelland reveals that warehouse workers still suffer from such unjust treatment in her article, “I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave.” After working in a real warehouse, she exposed the cruelty of her employers by providing an emotional description of her experience.
The problems with Wal-Mart begin with its supply chain, where many of the workers who make its products pay the price for low-cost items by laboring in sweatshop conditions. Wal-Mart has been in the courtroom many times defending its labor standards in many different countries; they all allege the same thing—that Wal-Mart ignores its own “standards for suppliers” and tolerates abuse of workers in its supply chain. “As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart has the power to set higher [labor] standards within the industry,” says Maquila Solidarity Network president Ian Thompson. “Instead, it continuously pressures its suppliers to produce cheaper and quicker, encouraging sweatshop abuses.”
In order to improve conditions within sweatshops, we must think about what the worker population wants. The conditions within these factories are brutal and abusive, as well as troubling. Not only that, but the entire industry must be open to transparent evaluation to others. It is when workers have a loud and clear voice in how their working conditions are that we can see the entire system as productive and fair.” Admitting there is a problem may be the first step to recovery. Hearing workers' voices, establishing criteria for comparing factories internationally, and verifying problems and corrections through the participation of local nongovernmental organizations and unions are key steps in a long road toward improving global working conditions.”
While cities have grown more prosperous due to the economy, China’s rural areas have seen little growth. Many Chinese have migrated from their rural homes to cities in order to gain better prospect for a job so they can take care of their families. Some even migrate to foreign countries for better economic prospects. It is estimated that the internal Chinese migrant population within China is around 145 million people. Wom...
When people think of a sweatshop, images of people assembling items in a hot and crowded factory somewhere in a “Third World” country tend to come to mind. However, the first few sweatshops were located in both New York and England, becoming established in the late 1800’s. The term “sweatshop” originated from the term “sweating”, which described the contractual agreements between workers and designers to produce clothing. In these workshops, there was a “sweater”, an individual who monitored garment making (“Origins Of Sweatshops”, 2017). The term sweatshop is more so currently used to describe the working conditions rather than the type of workplace itself. Even back then, these workplaces were unsanitary, were sources of safety hazards and extremely crowded. Throughout the years, poor people and immigrants filled up the sweatshops in desperate search for work. This eventually spread beyond the United States and U.K., and became a commonplace practice in developing countries ruled by dictators. With this spread quickly came the employment of child workers, especially in places such as Indonesia, and India. Like the adults, they are subject to treatment that violates their human rights. They are left without protection from any other adults, making them more susceptible to abuse. Despite this, major corporations and brands such as Wal-Mart, Adidas, Aldo, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters and so on use sweatshops for affordable labor. One of the more prominent cases is the incident involving Kathy Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart, in which both Gifford and Wal-Mart “suffered as a result of the negative press surrounding the manufacturing of Gifford’s clothing line distributed by Wal-Mart” (Radin & Calkins). Gifford’s clothing was produced in a factory in Honduras, where female workers constantly suffered “cruel and inhumane treatment” (Radin &
Christopher Hibbert’s The English: A Social History, 1066-1945, harshly reflects child labor. The author uses graphic details to portray the horrible work environment that the children, sometimes as young as four and five, were forced to work in. Hibbert discusses in much detail the conditions the children work in, the way they are mistreated, and what was done to prevent child labor.
Americans do not realize the amount of clothing we wear on a daily basis is actually made in Cambodia, such as Adidas and even the Gap. The women that work for these sweatshops in Cambodia sew for 50 cents an hour, which is what allows stores in America, such as H&M to sell inexpensive clothing (Winn, 2015). The conditions these Cambodian workers face are a noisy, loud, and extremely hot environment where people are known for having huge fainting attacks. When workers were on strike a year ago, authorities actually shot multiple people just because they were trying to raise their pay. There is plenty of evidence of abuse captured through many interviews of workers from different factories, and is not just a rarity these places see often or hear of. Factories hire children, fire pregnant women because they are slow and use the bathroom to much, scream at regular workers if they use the toilet more than two times a day, scam hard working employees with not paying them their money they worked for and more, and workers are sent home and replaced if 2,000 shirts are not stitched in one day. Expectations are unrealistic and not suitable for employees to be working each day for more than ten
Foxconn has factories in Asia, Europe, Mexico and South America why is it that only China’s Foxoconn was in highlight and not any other country? While the Chinese factories happened to be the largest factories in China, these factories are also facilitated with dormitories and other infrastructure to host the workers and provide workers to go back at end of the 12 hour shift to relax and reenergize for the next shift. A quarter of the employees live in these so called dormitories. My Case study will analyze how the various news sources revealed the global sweatshop to the world and the reactions by the companies who were using Foxconn to manufacture electronic goods. The Chinese newspaper displayed Foxconn employees having social and psychological reasons leading to suicides whereas US news showed it as human rights violation. Both of them did not acknowledge the social justice and world economy aspects and steps that were taken by the electronics giants to rectify the problems that were being faced in Wuhan, China.
In the paper “The Disadvantages of China’s Cheap Labor in Its Foreign Trade”, JI Zuwei states, “In three factories, workers were employed for 80-90 hours overtime per month during the peak season. In one factory producing for Apple, up to 120 hours overtime was worked; a gross violation of Chinese labor law that limits overtime to 36 hours per month” (Zuwei, 2). Zuwei`s focus on the hours of the workers shows the uneasy struggle these laborers go through to hopefully earn enough to live and sustain a normal life. What Zuwei also points out is the labor limit for overtime, stating that 120 hours was gross and overall unbelievable, breaking the law`s 36 hour limit. Then again, the choice of overtime is that of the worker, as they clocked in as many hours as the wanted to, but it is not a business practice that should be kept. Even though these workers are working long hours, their dedication dramatically changes the economies of their countries.
The use of racial slurs and racist groups are what plagued the already suffering workers. One example of these encounters is when a neo-nazi supporter brutally attacked an immigrant worker. To these racist believers immigrants are the cause of the lack of labor for native citizens. This of course is untrue as the majority or sweatshop workers take jobs that the american population do not desire. The sweatshop workers are not protected and the further spread of brutality is contributing to the creation of Xenophobia which the disliking of people from other countries. The truth is that these workers who work for long hours are what provide the nations low income to be able to purchase products at an affordable price. One may say that this is beneficial but in reality a shirt can be a lost life. The abuse that both women and immigrants receive unfortunately is common even in the era in which same sex relationships are
For the thousands of stores that Wal-Mart has around the world, there has to be enough people to cover the positions to keep the store in top shape and running on a daily basis. Wal-Mart is said to be “the nation’s largest private employer, with 3,372 stores and more than 1 million hourly workers” (Olsson 608). Admittedly, Wal-Mart has been found guilty for “systematically forcing employees to work overtime without pay” (Olsson 608). Nonetheless, Wal-Mart showers their full-time workers with benefits including “competitive wages, profit-sharing, 401(k) plans, paid vacations, life insurance, a discount card, medical coverage, disability insurance, scholarship bonuses and child-care discounts” (Hoenig 47). It is true that not all workers for Wal-Mart will be working full-time to obtain the benefits, but employers can work their way up from their part-time positions to a full-time position. Wal-Mart may have some faults as to how their employees are treated, but there wouldn’t be that many people working for Wal-Mart if it was truly that awful. Not only does Wal-Mart provide Americans with jobs, but across the world Wal-Mart supplies jobs to the Chinese. Chinese workers spend their time at factories earning more than they were working elsewhere to make Wal-Mart products. Statistics show that Wal-Mart 's “$12 billion in imports from China last year accounted for a
Zhu, Y., Warner, M., & Feng, T. (2011). “Employment relations “with Chinese characteristics”: The role of trade unions in China.” International Labour Review, vol. 150, no. 1-2, pp. 127-143. [03 April 2014]
Managers take advantage of children’s nimble and fast hands. They also exploit little children because of the fact that they do not need to pay them higher wages. Managers feel like children are more vulnerable and can be easily manipulated because of their young age and lack of wisdom. Women, who make up of more than 80% of sweatshops, are also severely maltreated. Some women are illegally trafficked and sold to sweatshop owners where they are forced to work and endure horrible conditions. Some require women workers to take birth control pills so that sweatshops avoid having to pay for their medical bills and also lose workers from maternity
Do you think child labor is a problem? Many people think it is not a problem in the United states. Child labor and sweatshops are still a big problem all around the world because they are still around and some sweatshops abuse the children and don’t pay them enough.