Multinational Corporations or MNC’s have been a subject most talked about amongst students, teachers, activists, politicians and virtually everyone. Multinational Corporations have been a topic of taboo because of their negative affects on society. Multinational Corporations generally do not follow ethical standards for their companies and factories and many workers are not given basic human rights. The main issue that MNC’s produce are: Sweatshops.
Definition
``A place of employment that violates two or more federal or state labour laws governing minimum wage and overtime, child labour, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers compensation or industry registration``
The year 2000 Department of Labour
``is a
negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous — especially by those from developed countries with high standards of living``
Wikipedia
``The term "sweating," or "sweating system," originally denoted a system of subcontract, wherein the work is let out to contractors to be done in small shops or homes... The system to be contrasted with the sweating system is the "factory system," wherein the manufacturer employs his own workmen, under the management of his own foreman or superintendent, in his own building... In the factory system the workmen are congregated where they can be seen by the factory inspectors and where they can organize or develop a common understanding. In the sweating system they are isolated and unknown``
Economist John R. Commons definition of a Sweatshop in 1901
There have been many attempts at defining the term, sweatshop however there isn’t a set definition. The word `sweatshop` immediately conjures up an image of thousands of workers crammed in a small and hot space working away monotonously. This is generally the image of sweatshops and sweat factories.
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History
The origins of sweatshops can be traced back to the textile industry of England, New England and New York in the 1840s. Workers were known as home workers instead of factory workers. These home workers would work in buildings where the materials would be manufactured and people would essentially live there and work at `home`. The workers would earn wages of up to eighteen cents per day or they would be paid by the piece. Some workers would receive less pay if they complained about their wages. Many home workers would be as young as 5 and they would work up to eighteen hours per day. Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, factories started to
emerge so people weren’t working as home workers anymore. As factories started to grow, the traditional sewing by hand got replaced by automatic sewing machines. Even then, conditions in the factory did not improve. As factories grew, more and more people started to work in these factories and even though people were forced to work in what’s quoted as `a hellhole`, people were desperate. As the depression hit, people were willing to work under any condition. The workers would complain of companies prohibiting child labour and establishing 40 hour workweek but there was no other choice. Even today, the people working in sweatshops have no choice.
Conditions
Everyday, thousands upon millions of people go to work in sweatshops. When working at these sweatshops race, gender, ethnicity or age is not a factor. For the sake of describing a typical day at a sweatshop, the example used is a clothing factory in
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South America. The workers of this factory live in cramped houses or makeshift homes with dirty floors, little water and electricity. A typical workers day starts before sunrise. They get ready as quickly as possible so they do not miss getting on the overcrowded school bus that takes them to work. Punctuality is key because if a worker is even a minute late, they lose a days pay. The factories are all generally the same. The factories resemble large warehouses with steel gates, security cameras and barbed wire. An armed guard welcomes the workers by inspecting their ID cards. Once they enter the factory, they are overwhelmed by the noise and heat. Because no safety equipment is provided (I.e. masks or earplugs) dust and lint are filled in the lungs of thousands of workers. Breaks are virtually impossible and some factories do not even allow bathroom breaks. There is much discipline and formality in the factories. The work schedule is tight. Workers have to sew hundreds even thousand of zippers per hour and their shifts can range between 10-12 hours a day. Sometimes, workers are forced to work overtime without pay. The workers face constant verbal and even physical abuse from their employees throughout the day and they are vulnerable to anything that happens to them because they lack basic human rights. Even though this is an example of a sweatshop in Central America, other sweatshops around the world are the same.
“When it’s busy, we work up to sixty to sixty-three hours. The conditions in the factory are not very good. There’s no air circulation. The bathrooms are outside on our floor... Almost no one goes to the bathroom, they feel embarrassed. The bathroom is outside. You have to leave the factory, go to the hallway. It’s a bit dangerous because anyone can enter the bathrooms. Also, there is a part in the building that is unprotected. You can easily fall into that empty space”
Jaclyn Smith apparel worker
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“This is the workroom. Faugh, how it smells! There is no attempt at ventilation. The room is crowded with girls and women, most of whom are pale and attenuated, and are being robbed of life slowly and surely. The rose which should bloom in their cheeks has vanished long ago. The sparkle has gone out of their eyes. They bend over their work with aching backs and throbbing brows; sharp pains dart through their eyeballs; they breathe an atmosphere of death. Madame pays her girls four dollars a week. She herself lives in as fine a style as the richest lady she serves”
Description of a New York Shop
“Conditions in glass factories in Ferozabad [India] have been compared to Dante’s Inferno. The intense heat from furnace temperatures reach 1,400 to 1,600 degrees Celsius; there is a lack of ventilation, pieces of broken glass everywhere, and dangling electric wires. Adults and children work without protective gear such as shoes, gloves, or goggles. Both adult and child workers stand outside furnaces dipping iron rods into molten glass, bringing it out, and throwing it to glass molders or blowers. Boys as young as 11 and 12 sit on the floor for long hours in front of the pot furnaces, melting and fastening glass bangles and beads. Often glass splinters injure the workers and pieces of glass cut into the children’s bare feet. Children have to run very fast with the molten glass before it cools. They often bump into one another, sometimes scorching each other’s bodies”
Description of Working Condition
Location
Sweatshops are generally prominent in Asia, Central and South America and some regions of Europe. China is concentrated with low wage production thus a lot of focus (such as activism) is on China. China is generally known for its advances in technology and its tourism however, that is one face of China. With a population of 1.3 billion, more than 300 000 000 people live on less than a dollar a day. Because of their extreme poverty, 120 million youths turn to low-paying jobs, dangerous mining jobs or construction jobs. While the men are working in places like those mentioned above, the women turn to factories. Tens of millions of women find work in toy factories, shoe factories and microelectronic assembly plants. They work for as low as seventy dollars a
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month and work six days a week. Since these women are uneducated, they are vulnerable
to abuse, deceit and exploitation.
Sweatshops are not only found in poor countries. There are many sweatshops found in developed countries such as the U.S. The U.S. houses factories for large apparel companies. A terrible case was found in a factory in downtown Los Angeles. The factory consisted of 130 Latino immigrants and they slaved away to produce clothes for GUESS. Five of the 130 workers were children less than sixteen and one of the children has been working forty hours a week for more than a year. Only seventy workers were actually listed on the payroll and the workers were paid roughly three dollars an hour. The workers arrived at around seven o clock in the morning and worked for about 12 hours a day. This had been the fifth GUESS contractor to be found violating the labour laws. The U.S. Department of Labour estimated the owner would owe more than 750 000$ to its employees. In the end, he closed down the factory and filed for bankruptcy. Who would have known that behind the famous GUESS lifestyle and image lay sweatshops? Especially in the U.S.?
Profit
One can only assume the astronomical profit MNC’s receive when they pay their workers less and price their merchandise with great value. Sweatshops are of great value to MNC’s. Sweatshops are sometimes made into make-shift buildings so they can easily get taken down and built somewhere else. Not a lot of money is spent on the
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actual factories, material or the employees so MNC’s make a terrible amount of profit on everything but especially on sales.
Average Hourly Wage in Garment Industry, Selected Countries (US$)
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Country
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Wage
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Germany
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$18.43
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United States
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9.65
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Mexico
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1.08
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Haiti
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0.49
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China
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0.28
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Pakistan
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0.26
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A great example would be adidas. Adidas profits from 1993-1997 rose from 25 000 000$ to a great 250 000 000$ all in the span of four years. Adidas has fallen prey to sweatshops and have harnessed its full potential for profit. Adidas manufactures its clothing in China at the Tung tat Garment Factory. The workers are paid 22 cents an hour and work seventy-five hours a week. It is obvious that sweatshops are an asset to MNC’s however does one believe these Multination, Multimillion dollar Corporations make ethical profits?
After reading a report with striking facts and quotes, some may not feel different about the clothes they are wearing or the MNC’s they are supporting by buying their products. Unfortunately many turn a blind eye to the negative effects of MNC’s and their use of sweatshops. These sweatshops may have benefited us by providing cheap merchandise however, there are many ethical values that seem to have been forgotten.
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