Horrible Horrible Sweatshops

As I searched for articles for my Senior Research Paper, I came across a highly descriptive article about sweatshops. It was written in May of 2006 about sweatshops in Jordan, but the informaton is stll valid for U.S. ran sweatshops in different countries. Workers in Jordan would start work at 8 a.m. and leave work around 1 or 2 a.m. which is an inhumane amount of hours to work. To add to those painful hours, one of the many workers was promised $120 a month but only received less than half of one month's salary ($50) over her 5-month work period. REDICULOUS right?! Well, the National Labor Committee(NLC) based in New Yorkwas sent to make a report on more than 25 of 100 garment factories in Jordan and of course found low-working conditions. The NLC arranged interviews for the workers so they could speak on their own behalves about the conditions in which they were working. As if these horrid sweatshop conditions weren't bad enough, they had workers that were trafficked into working! Factory monitors would take away passports and ID's, and change hour and wage records in addition to making the workers lie to inspectors and government. Garment factories like these supply clothing for stores like Wal-mart and Target, and the U.S. management "usually" has no clue about the conditions in which the workers are working.

The economic standpoint on this situation is a matter of profit. This is a high profit-low pay type of system that leaves the workers unable to sufficiently supply for their needs. Systems like these corrupt a nation or country's economy cycle, though corruption may not be blatant, it does exist. In a healthy economic cycle consumers/workers are given enough money (usually enough) to pay for their needs and a few extra things, but if they don't have enough to buy necessities, there is no money cycling through the nation's economy. The companies in the U.S. who utilize these sweatshops suffer no consequences however because their consumers are in America.

On a different note, I often wonder how successful our stores and companies would be if they did not have the sweatshops abroad. My guess is that their profit from the mercahndise would not be as high. What alternative to sweatshops is there? Have our companies like Nike, Target, and Wal-mart become too dependent on their sweatshops located in Jordan, China, and Bangladesh? What is the solution for the poor workers?

Article: http://nytimes.com/2006/05/03/business/worldbusiness/03clothing.html?pagewanted1&sq=u.s.sweatshops&cst=cse&scp=8

Definitions:
*sweatshop-factory employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions
*National Labor Committee- non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1981 by David Dyson to combat sweatshop labor

Definitions provided by: dictionary.reference.com and wikipedia.com