Essay Sample on Sweatshops: Poor Wages, Unhealthy Conditions, and the Closing of Russell Corporation

Introduction

Sweatshops are workplaces that provide insufficient wages to their employees, most of whom work under harsh conditions like oppressive environments, long hours, and unhealthy conditions. Some organizations define sweatshops more broadly to be places of work where the employees are not paid good wages that can sustain them despite working in clean environments with no harassment. Russell Corporation, a manufacturer of apparel, sports equipment, and athletic shoes, closed down its business after a union was formed involving many of its workers in the fight against poor treatment (Luthans and Doh 107-111). Despite many companies being termed as sweatshops and violating the rights of their workers, especially those in developing countries and USAS being successful in making Russell be shut down, sweatshops cannot be eliminated in the future.

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From the case study presented about Russel Athletic, it is evident that the efforts of unions to fight for better working conditions and better salaries for all employees as well as an increase in strict government regulations can only reduce the number of sweatshops in the world but cannot eliminate them (Luthans and Doh 107-111). Small sweatshops are difficult to trace and reach, and they close their activities easily and move to safer places when they are in danger of being realized by union members and inspectors from the government. Another reason is that most unions that fight for the rights of people employed in sweatshops do so with mixed motives.

On the positive side, unions fight for better working conditions of their all employees because they are concerned about their welfare. However, the unions also strive to protect their members' jobs from low levels of competition; hence they do not care whether they end the companies that have employed such low earning employees (Rouge 7-36). This greed has caused many employees to work in sweatshops not to support the unions. Hence it becomes harder for the unions to deal with such companies.

The developed countries like the United States run the activities in several sectors of the world. Despite different organizations facing strict regulations and laws in their home countries, they find better places, especially developing countries, to invest in where the laws are soft (Rouge 7-36). There are barely any sweatshops found in the developed countries because the government laws there are very strict about employment laws making it hard for large companies to mistreat employees and pay them poor wages. However, the developing countries have less strict laws that allow companies from the developed countries to invest in them and pay employees poor wages while subjecting them to harsh working conditions as long as they earn a living (Rouge 7-36). Without sweatshops in developing countries, it is hard for them to compete with developed countries and grow from their exports.

The desire for an increasing need for fashion-oriented clothing, especially those of women and girls, is another reason why sweatshops cannot be eliminated around the world. Most of these clothing is acquired from sweatshops, which makes it easier for buyers to buy them as they are cheaper than the clothes produced in companies that do not pay low wages and harass their employees (Rouge 7-36). Many sweatshops have been reported to play a major role in the development of countries with a large population of poor people. Without these sweatshops, the workers would be unemployed or investing in small scale farming that would increase their poverty levels.

Sweatshops are better than many available alternatives for income in many developing countries. Any union rights against sweatshops should focus on improving the wages of the workers as well as their working conditions rather than closing the sweatshops, which jeopardizes the jobs that the workers use to survive (Rouge 7-36). Most employments provide low wages to employees in the third world due to low worker productivity as well as lousy alternatives that the workers can utilize away from getting employed in sweatshops. Government laws and the unions fighting against sweatshops should raise the productivity of the workers and increase their alternatives before closing down one sweatshop (Whittle 1-22). This policy is unachievable for most governments in developing countries; hence they prefer the sweatshop in their countries as long as their citizens can earn a living despite the harsh conditions they face at work.

Cases have emerged where the workers in sweatshops have condemned their closing and ordered that they are reopened as they face harsh living conditions without their employment (Whittle 1-22). A good example is in Honduras, where 14-year-old girls that worked for over 75 hours each week for a 31 cent wage each hour blamed Lee Gifford for losing their jobs after a union ordered for better working conditions and paid to the girls (Whittle 1-22). The fact that most employees in sweatshops prefer working there to being left jobless and unable to feed their families is proof that sweatshops will never be eliminated soon. Not unless the governments in various countries, especially the developing ones, create many income generation alternatives for all citizens, which is a hard task for them.

Sweatshops are essential in the development of a nation as they are taxed, providing infrastructure and better governance for the countries. Girls that live in villages that are close to sweatshops have more benefits than those who live far from them because they earn a living and are less likely to get married or get children in school years (Whittle 1-22). This move helps improve the living conditions of the girls while eradicating poverty while improving education levels in various countries. Past attempts to ban sweatshops have proved unsuccessful, like in a proposal by US Senator in 1993 (Whittle 1-22). He banned all imports from countries that used children as workers in sweatshops, and as a result, one factory in Bangladesh sacked 50,000 workers, most of whom moved to prostitution to earn a living (Whittle 1-22).

Sweatshops provide cheap imports to developed countries which increase profits in those nations. They improve trade between developed and developing countries, creating more revenue through taxes and leading to countries being connected more through trade (Canepa 1). When the United States ban any involvement with countries where sweatshops are situated in a bid to eliminate them, it not only leads to thousands of people losing their income sources but also slows the process of development of such countries, which is the key to improvements in safety being realized.

Conclusion

Sweatshops have a lot of benefits to both the workers and the countries where they are situated. Despite several governments calling for action to be taken against sweatshops, the people that will suffer the most in such a situation are the millions of workers who rely on them for better lives. Instead of struggling to eliminate the sweatshops, governments and unions should create different ways to ensure that the workers are safe and their health is considered.

Works Cited

Canepa, Garry. "Why The World Needs Sweatshops - NUES." Web.Northeastern.Edu, 2016, https://web.northeastern.edu/econsociety/why-the-world-needs-sweatshops/.

Luthans, Fred, and Jonathan P. Doh. International Management: Culture, strategy, and behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012: 107-111.

Rouge, Jean-Francois. "Sweet Sweatshops-A Reflexion about the Impact of Sweatshops on Countries' Competitiveness." Economics 4.1 (2016): 7-36. https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/eoik.2016.4.issue-1/eoik-2015-0023/eoik-2015-0023.pdf

Whittle, Alicia. "The Government's Influence on Sweatshops in Developing Countries." Siegel Institute Ethics Research Scholars 1.1 (2017): 1-22. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=siers