Sweatshop Analysis
Sweatshop: Sweat Not!
“It’s [cheap labor] the fastest-growing criminal market in the world,” (Edmondson 149) Gail Edmondson writes in an article discussing cheap labor. Economic growth has always been a large interest for most countries. Due to many high unemployment rates, corporations take advantage of the lower classes by enforcing cheap labor. Cheap labor is the employment of people with very low wages, under poor or unsafe conditions. Since people in the lower class do not have much money, they are unable to get an education that allows them to gain a safe and well-paying career. Therefore, they turn to the cheap labor organizations that will hire thousands of untrained people at minimal costs. This practice is extremely harmful, often …show more content…
Bartletti wanted to find out if the products being sent to the United States were from Mexican farms that paid reasonable wages, used no children for labor, and treated the workers well. Instead, they found the exact opposite for all of these. Bartletti and Marosi discovered that these farms producing goods for the United States were run under illegal conditions. His biggest challenge was trying to get his camera through the farm gates, so he and Marosi began speaking with the workers outside of the workplace. Bartletti mentioned that workers open up to those who try to understand how their lives really are. Early in his studies, Bartletti met a group of around fifty different workers, twenty-five of which were children. This large number of children working in the fields immediately upset the plan of proving part of their goal that exports sent to America were made/grown in farms not using child labor. These workers had been picking chili peppers like slaves in a Mexican state. One particular twelve-year-old girl, Alejandrina Castillo, told her story to Bartletti. Alejandrina was forced to work in the fields so that her two brothers and single mom could survive. Bartletti noted that she was the swiftest pepper picker in the crew of children. Alejandrina shared with Bartletti that she was the cook, laundry girl, babysitter, and housekeeper at home (Bartletti 13). Young girls like Alejandrina are common examples of the children involved in cheap labor. Young children from poor families often have to work extra hard to help take care of their families instead of getting a proper
“It’s [cheap labor] the fastest-growing criminal market in the world,” (Edmondson 149) Gail Edmondson writes in an article discussing cheap labor. Economic growth has always been a large interest for most countries. Due to many high unemployment rates, corporations take advantage of the lower classes by enforcing cheap labor. Cheap labor is the employment of people with very low wages, under poor or unsafe conditions. Since people in the lower class do not have much money, they are unable to get an education that allows them to gain a safe and well-paying career. Therefore, they turn to the cheap labor organizations that will hire thousands of untrained people at minimal costs. This practice is extremely harmful, often …show more content…
Bartletti wanted to find out if the products being sent to the United States were from Mexican farms that paid reasonable wages, used no children for labor, and treated the workers well. Instead, they found the exact opposite for all of these. Bartletti and Marosi discovered that these farms producing goods for the United States were run under illegal conditions. His biggest challenge was trying to get his camera through the farm gates, so he and Marosi began speaking with the workers outside of the workplace. Bartletti mentioned that workers open up to those who try to understand how their lives really are. Early in his studies, Bartletti met a group of around fifty different workers, twenty-five of which were children. This large number of children working in the fields immediately upset the plan of proving part of their goal that exports sent to America were made/grown in farms not using child labor. These workers had been picking chili peppers like slaves in a Mexican state. One particular twelve-year-old girl, Alejandrina Castillo, told her story to Bartletti. Alejandrina was forced to work in the fields so that her two brothers and single mom could survive. Bartletti noted that she was the swiftest pepper picker in the crew of children. Alejandrina shared with Bartletti that she was the cook, laundry girl, babysitter, and housekeeper at home (Bartletti 13). Young girls like Alejandrina are common examples of the children involved in cheap labor. Young children from poor families often have to work extra hard to help take care of their families instead of getting a proper