Scholarly intrigue and a hunger for knowledge led Kelsey Timmerman to write the book "Where Am I Wearing". "Where Am I Wearing" is a compilation of both Timmerman's thought-provoking questions: questions about wear the clothes we wear come from, about who makes our clothes, about the working conditions of the people who make our clothes, and the stories that he gathered during the many journeys that he went on while writing the book. Through his tales of travel Timmerman introduces his readers to the harsh realities of globalization, poverty, child labor, and sweatshops. With the continued rise of consumer "needs" in "industrial" countries such as the United States, and the consistently high price that corporations must pay to produce goods in these countries, companies are looking to "increase (their) profits by driving down costs any way possible... To minimize costs, companies look for places with the lowest wages and human rights protections" (Dosomething). Countries with lax or unenforced labor laws grant multinational corporations the leeway to use cheap foreign labor to mass-produce their commodities so that they can be sold in countries like America. These inexpensive, sometimes borderline illegal, establishments are known as sweatshops. In his book Timmerman discusses the topic of sweatshops in great detail. Originally in search of "where (his) T-shirt was made(;) (Timmerman) (went) to visit the factory where it was made and (met) the people who made (it)" (Timmerman5). The mere idea of sweatshops, let alone their existence, seems cruel and unusual to people like us, especially in today's day and age. After all, in sweatshops "workers are subject to extreme exploitation. This includes... (not) enabling workers to cover ... ... middle of paper ... ...also bring job loss in (third-world countries)” (Timmerman70). Works Cited "Background on Sweatshops." Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. Lorette, Kristie, and O. Wallace. WiseGeek. Conjecture, 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. "Sweatshops." Green America's Ending Program: What You Can Do. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. Timmerman, Kelsey. "A Consumer Goes Global." Where Am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. 5. Print. Timmerman, Kelsey. "A Consumer Goes Global." Where Am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. 9. Print. Timmerman, Kelsey. "A Consumer Goes Global." Where Am I Wearing?: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. 70. Print.
The controversial issue of sweatshops is one often over looked by The United States. In the Social Issues Encyclopedia, entry # 167, Matt Zwolinski tackles the issues of sweatshops. In this article Matt raises a question I have not been able to get out of my head since I have begun researching this topic, “ are companies who contract with sweatshops doing anything wrong?” this article goes on to argue that the people who work in the sweatshops willingly choose to work there, despite the poor environment. Many people in third world countries depend on the sweatshops to earn what they can to have any hopes of surviving. If the sweatshops were to shut down many people would lose their jobs, and therefore have no source of income. This may lead people to steal and prostitution as well. this article is suggesting that sweatshops will better the economy by giving people a better job than what they may have had. Due to this the companies contracting with sweatshops are not acting wrong in any way. This was a deductive article it had a lot of good examples to show how sweatshops are beneficial to third world countries. Radly Balko seemed to have the same view point as Matt Zwolinski. Many people believe the richer countries should not support the sweatshops Balko believes if people stopped buying products made in sweatshops the companies will have to shut down and relocate, firing all of the present workers. Rasing the fact that again the worker will have no source of income, the workers need the sweatshop to survive. Balko also uses the argument that the workers willingly work in the current environments.
In China, Kelsey Timmerman spent time with a couple who worked at the Teva factory, traveled to the countryside to meet the couple’s son, insert name, who hasn’t seen his parents in three years due to his parents working long hours and it being expensive to take a train ride. In the US, the author visited one of a few clothing factories in the US to talk to the workers about his shorts, and the decrease of American garment factories. Timmerman wants the consumer to be more engaged and more thoughtful when mindlessly buying clothes. By researching how well the brands you want to buy from monitor their factories and what their code of ethics details, you can make a sound decision on if this is where you would want to buy your clothes. The author writes about brands that improve employers lives like SoleRebels, a shoe company who employs workers and gives them health insurance, school funds for their children, and six months of maternity leave. Brands like soleRebels that give workers benefits most factory workers have never even heard of help improve the lives of garment workers and future generations. From reading this book, Timmerman wants us to be more educated about the lives of garment workers, bridge the gap between consumers and manufacturers, and be a more engaged and mindful consumer when purchasing our
Most objections to anti-sweatshop action stem from the idea that sweatshop jobs are the best opportunities available to people living in poor conditions. “They keep coming back day after day, so they must want these jobs.” Trying to make the jobs better will simply me...
The General Accountability Office defines a sweatshop as a “multiple labor law violator.” A sweatshop violates laws pertaining to benefits, working hours, and wages (“Toxic Uniforms”). To make more money, companies move their sweatshop factories to different locations and try to find the cheapest locations with the least regulations (“Sweatshops”). There are not as many sweatshop factories in the United States because the industries have been transferred overseas where the labor is cheaper and there are weaker regulations. In the United States, sweatshops are hidden from the public, with poor immigrant workers who are unable to speak out against the injustices (“Subsidizing Sweatshops”). Workers in sweatshops are forced to work overtime, earn below a living wage, do not earn benefits, and encounter verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Macy’s, JCPenney, Kohl’s, The
I. Introduction A sweatshop is a workplace where individuals work with no benefits, inadequate living wages, and poor working conditions (Dictionary.com). Sweatshops can be found all around the world, especially in developing nations where local laws are easily corrupted: Central America, South America, Asia, and in certain places in Europe (Background on Sweatshops). China, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Bangladesh are the main places where most sweatshop products are made (McAllister). Often, sweatshop workers are individuals who have immigrated and are working in other countries.
Sweatshops, when left to operate without government intervention, are the most efficient way out of poverty especially in developing countries. This argument may feel far fetched, but when examined in the context of those working at sweatshops and the locations sweatshops are most often constructed in, the reason why this is true is apparent. The benefits of sweatshops can be found by examining how they increase living conditions, examining the locations where sweatshops are constructed, and looking at how government regulations on factories don’t help anyone.
Nike, Gap, Walmart, Sears and Disney are all places where Americans go shopping during the holidays and enjoy themselves, but it turns out that these companies have been involved with sweatshops. A sweatshop is a factory that pays its workers less and employs them in poor working conditions.
In The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, business professor Pietra Rivoli takes the reader on a fascinating around-the-world adventure to reveal the life story of her six-dollar T-shirt. Traveling from a West Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory, and from trade negotiations in Washington to a used clothing market in Africa, Rivoli examines international trade through the life story of this simple product. Her compelling story shows that both globalization's critics and its supporters have oversimplified the world of international trade.
The first decade of the 21st century has seen globalization and identity emerge as the most critical challenge to society. Globalization has seduced consumer appetites. This has led for those consumer identities to be exposed to global advertising focused on the designer car, the latest clothing or the newest piece of architecture.
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn are Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalists who spent fourteen years in Asia doing research on the country as well as the sweatshops of that country. In their article "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" they sum up clearly the misunderstanding of sweatshops by most of the modern world. "Yet sweatshops that seem brutal from the vantage point of an American sitting in his living room can appear tantalizing to a Thai laborer getting by on beetles." The fact of the matter is that sweatshops in the eyes of the actual workers are not as bad as they are made out to be, by many activists. Though many organizations that oppose sweatshops and their labor practices try to make the point that sweatshops do not have to exist. But one must consider the fact that, the companies that use sweatshops are creating at least some type of jobs for people that gladly accept them.
Eickman, M. and Bhardwaj, V. (2011) A case study on the internationalization process of a “born-global” fashion retailer. The international review of retail, distribution and consumer research, 21(3), pp. 293-307.
Sweatshops produce more the seventy-five percent of clothing, footwear, and accessories used in the United States. Unfortunately, sweatshop employees, the individuals that assemble large numbers of garments, are forced to work in harsh environments, are paid unfair wages, work long hours, and abuse child labor laws. More than 500 pieces of fashion goods are produced in sweatshops a day. Because of the harsh work environment, some workers are subjected to sexual abuse while others suffer from illness due to inadequate ventilation available in their work rooms. Since outsiders began noticing
Throughout the world millions of laborers and children in Third World Countries work in sweatshops. In these facilities workers are abused, underpaid, and cramped into unsanitary working conditions full of disease and death. Nonetheless, workers cannot abandon the sweatshops they work in, because they fear their families would starve. If fired they could easily be replaced by another readily worker; that is why workers don't oppose their employers injustices, because they fear becoming unemployed. In large corporations from third world countries, laborers only earn an insignificant percentage of the large revenue that the corporation makes daily. They work for long hours, more than what the U.S Department of Labor considers legal for one shift, and don't get paid extra for working overtime. All over the world there are a minimum of twenty-five million workers and kids being exploited. After reading the article “Harnessing Our Power as Consumers: Cost of Boycotting Sweatshop Goods Offset by the Benefits” by Ed Finn, one learns that it is possible to put an end to all the injustices co...
use of factories that have come to be known as sweatshops, especially in relation to
...enture into overseas market comes with expectations as well as uncertainties due to unfamiliarity. Charles and Keith, the fashion retailer, has to understand clearly that what appeals in one market might not be accepted in the others and this is almost the same for all industries. Thus, a thorough research on cultural background has to be done before entering an unfamiliar ground.