 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Sweatshop
Information, Reflection and Action Packet
What
is a Sweatshop?
The word “sweatshop” was originally used in the 19th century to describe a subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned their profits from the margin between the amount they received for a contract and the amount they paid workers with whom they subcontracted. The margin was said to be “sweated” from the workers because they received minimal wages for excessive hours worked under unsanitary conditions.
Today’s subcontracting system functions on a global basis. Large clothing companies produce apparel in 160 countries, often with shockingly low wages and horrible working conditions. Apparel workers in Bangladesh earn 20 cents an hour, and in the free trade zones in El Salvador they earn 56 cents an hour, just to give two examples. The clothing companies then export that apparel to 30 developed countries, like the United States and Canada. Meanwhile, apparel workers in the developed world are forced to compete against those conditions.
A sweatshop is characterized by the systematic violation of one or more fundamental workers’ rights that have been codified in international and U.S. law. These rights include the prohibition of child labor, forced or compulsory labor and discrimination in employment based on any personal characteristic other than the ability to do the job; the right to a safe and healthy work environment that does not expose r dangerous working conditions: freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively. A sweatshop is also characterized by wages that do not permit workers to feed, clothe and shelter themselves and their families, and hours of work so long that education and a decent family life are out of reach.
Sweatshops in the U.S. are often lawless operations in other ways, evading not only wage and hour laws, but also paying no taxes, violating fire and building codes, seeking out and exploiting undocumented immigrants and operating in the underground economy, hidden from public view.
Sweatshops are most prevalent in apparel manufacturing, but sweatshop conditions exist in an increasing number of manufacturing and service industries. Subcontracting is being used for auto parts, building maintenance and many kinds of public sector work with the explicit goal of lowering wages and benefits. Even among professionals, there is a trend towards replacing corporate staff with freelance consultants without job security or benefits. Apparel sweatshops are just the extreme version of the general lowering of living standards and corporate attempts to evade responsibility for workers and working conditions.
1216 NE 65th Street 
Seattle, WA 98115
Phone: 206.223.1138 Fax: 206.621-7046 E-mail: ipjc@ipjc.org