"Secrets, Lies, And Sweatshops"

Businessweek aritcle about american importers have long answered criticism of conditions at their chinese suppliers. New labor rules and inspections have been made to try and end sweatshops. Factories have just gotten better at conceling abuses. Tang Yinghong caught in an impossible squeeze. He has been employing, Ningbo Beifa Group. They are a top supplier of pen, mechanical pencils, and highlighters to Wal-Mart Stores. Auditors form Wal-Mart, Beifa's biggest customer, were about to inspect labor condtions at the factory in the chinese coastal city of Nigbo. Wal-mart had already on three different occasions caught Beifa paying its 3,000 workers less than China's minimum wage and violating overtime rules. "For more than a decade, major American retailers and name brands have answered accusations that they exploit "sweatshop" labor with elaborate codes of conduct and on-site monitoring. But in China many factories have just gotten better at concealing abuses." These companies are just getting away with sweatshops in china. There is not enough effert on stoping sweatshops.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm

Secrets, Lies, And Sweatshops"

NIKE SWEATSHOPS

"THE MOST POPULAR SHOE." "THE BEST SHOE, EVERYONE HAS A PAIR OF NIKES." These are some comments made on Nike, they are a major clothing and shoe company. They are at the top of the manufactoring change. The question is where do they make thier products? "Workers are paid wages insufficient to meet their basic needs, are not allowed to organize independent unions, and often face health and safety hazards." In other words people work in a sweatshop. Nike does say that because they do not own the factories where their shoes are made, they are not responsiblie, however if they are the main buy to the factories and if the factories is only making thier shoes is their a difference. I would think not its the same difference. "Vietnamese and Chinese workers still get poverty wages. In all three countries, $4 a day would be considered a decent wage. Nike, a company with $8.7 billion in revenue in 1998 that sells its shoes for $150, can well afford to pay its workers such a meager sum."

You would think that a company makeing that much profit would help out their employees. But what if nike didnt have the opion to pay low wages. Would they get the job done for a regular, real, min. wage. Or would their shoes be $300 or $400.

-http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/

Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy!

Major companies that we shop at, that we only look at what have and not how they got it. They are the ones that need to open sweatshops. Their demand for goods are high. Major companies such as Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy.
"• In October 2007, Indian authorities raided factories in New Dehli that produce clothing for the Gap and found children as young as 10 working there.
• Another Indian factory that manufactures for the Gap was the site of 3 deaths in 2007 because it refused to allow employees to leave when they became seriously ill at work.
• The Gap was part of a settlement from a lawsuit brought against 22 companies for using sweatshop labor in Saipan, a US territory in the South Pacific. The Gap has also been linked to sweatshops in at least six countries.
• You don’t have to wear clothing that exploits people and the planet. Visit Go Green to find out how you can be stylish and sustainable."
These stores are combine and manufactor in the same sweatshops, they get the job done cheap. And keep the price of the clothes high, to max their profit. Millions of people shop at these stores, all over the world. I wonder if anyone would if they knew how the got their clothes. That a child under 10 years old, was working a long day to make that shirt they have on.

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/company.cfm?id=229

http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Individualcompanies/O/OldNavypartofGap

My Thoughts!

Sweatshops are made by big corportations to get work done cheap. Sweatshops are uasually factories in poor countrys where they could pay the employess extremely low wages. The corportations do not care about the area where they oporate. They dont take care of the people or the factories. The idea of sweatshops is to get more money, and nothing else. Dangerous conditions, usually where the workers have few rights. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little pay, Child labor laws may also be violated. Sweatshop have been around a long time since the 1850 where they where used to make clothes and furniture. People who defend sweatshops say that they offer higher wages and better working condition compared to their previous jobs. They say that a Poor country could turn itself into a rich country with the money income form sweatshops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/