No Sweat!
Brock Bonvillain
October 7, 2010
Jean Baptist Meunier
English 1001
No Sweat!
Sweatshops date back to as far as the 16th century, but were first exposed in Britain in 1889. Around the 1830s-1840s, immigrants started coming to the United States and organized sweatshops in tenement buildings. Despite poor health problems and disease from the harsh conditions, immigrants needed the work and were appreciative. Today sweatshops are often found in slow, developing countries, but many are found around the world. Majority of the workers are commonly women and children, who are usually uneducated. By classifying what a sweatshop is, it is a workplace that violates more than one federal and state labor law and their employees work for long hours, under poor conditions, while paid in low wages. Poor conditions may include hazardous situations and/or abuse from employers, exposure to harmful substances, and the extreme weather conditions; child labor laws are also violated. First, not only are sweatshops are a morally wrong but is also a good business decision to avoid them. Besides from the typical poor-quality goods from sweatshops, if companies are not careful about their sweatshops, their business could face the consequence of damage control. For an example, “watchdog” groups researches and links their brands to workplace abuses (Esbenshade, 250). Furthermore, desirable employees want to work for companies whose share the same morals and values, just as consumers want to buy from companies that put good values into practice.
Second, respect for human rights lead to social and economic development. Some business sponsors believe that labor costs more money, which results in the small number of jobs and in hand, are not available to poor people. Unfortunately, fair work is a critical source for social stability. Businesses that understand and respect labor rights put more of an investment in the hands of workers. They do this by educating their children, live
October 7, 2010
Jean Baptist Meunier
English 1001
No Sweat!
Sweatshops date back to as far as the 16th century, but were first exposed in Britain in 1889. Around the 1830s-1840s, immigrants started coming to the United States and organized sweatshops in tenement buildings. Despite poor health problems and disease from the harsh conditions, immigrants needed the work and were appreciative. Today sweatshops are often found in slow, developing countries, but many are found around the world. Majority of the workers are commonly women and children, who are usually uneducated. By classifying what a sweatshop is, it is a workplace that violates more than one federal and state labor law and their employees work for long hours, under poor conditions, while paid in low wages. Poor conditions may include hazardous situations and/or abuse from employers, exposure to harmful substances, and the extreme weather conditions; child labor laws are also violated. First, not only are sweatshops are a morally wrong but is also a good business decision to avoid them. Besides from the typical poor-quality goods from sweatshops, if companies are not careful about their sweatshops, their business could face the consequence of damage control. For an example, “watchdog” groups researches and links their brands to workplace abuses (Esbenshade, 250). Furthermore, desirable employees want to work for companies whose share the same morals and values, just as consumers want to buy from companies that put good values into practice.
Second, respect for human rights lead to social and economic development. Some business sponsors believe that labor costs more money, which results in the small number of jobs and in hand, are not available to poor people. Unfortunately, fair work is a critical source for social stability. Businesses that understand and respect labor rights put more of an investment in the hands of workers. They do this by educating their children, live