The Problem With Sweatshops Economics Essay

Sweat shops can be included by harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. The sweatshop workers often work long hours but just for a little pay, regardless of any laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. A minimum wage means the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage which employers pay to employees or workers legally . It is the lowest wage at which workers sell their labour without consider anything of their rights.

The Sweatshops may not only exist in developing countries but also in developed countries. This kind of factory have existed in several different countries and cultures, including in the United States and European countries. And sweatshops usually ask for low levels of technology, but can produce many different kinds of goods, for example like toys, shoes, clothing, and furniture etc.

Currently, the existence of sweat shops came out lots of arguments, problem like wether there have enough sweat shops for the humans who are in poor situations are more and more put forward to. In my point of view, the sweat shops can not be build up more, enterprise should treat their workers in human nature and government should give the factory a supervisory control.

Discussion of the problem-There are not enough sweat shops of them

There is no right or wrong for people judging to sweat shops. Like one proverbs said that every coin have two sides. Setting more sweat shops absolutly can increase the power of productions and also can reduce the rate of unemployment. But if we take a look at the situation of how workers work in the sweat shops and the way of how the tsarists treat their workers, issues which relate to human naturals and moral arguments will come out and make people deeply thinks.

Sweat shops

What is a sweat shop?

When people think of sweat shop always image women and childern work in that place. They may working long hours in hot, dusty factories, under conditions that are bad for their health, and usually get very low wages paid. The location of this sort of sweatshop is often in a developing country. Actually, the description is not far from the reality, besides there are many kinds of sweatshops and they are found all over the world.

A sweatshop is any factory which does not treat its workers in a fair way. And the condition of the sweat shops is terrible out of people’s imaging. If any one of the above labour standards is not followed, life at a factory can be very umcomfortable and unpleasant. Workers may have more demanded of them than is humanly possible, and may lose their jobs if they do not comply. Sweatshops are notorious for having unsafe conditions. Buildings that have been built quickly and without obeying with building regulations can collapse on workers, and machinery can be faulty to cause other hazards, including dangerous chemicals or electrical products, the serious of accidents can all cause terrible injuries.

Excessive overtime is common in sweatshops. Working 12-hour days, six days a week is not uncommon in garment factories. Short-term contracts that favour the employer are also a very common issue. Origenally, the poor people or the migrants who desperate to find work, will accept a position on the very loosest of contractual agreements and as a result, when the employer fails to pay people or simply fires them without good reason, they have few legal rights to fall back on to gain compensation.

The division of labour in sweatshops is gendered because of the vast majority of workers are young women. The problems faced by many workers are also gendered as a result of gender-based notions of what is acceptable inform working conditions. Thus medical or maternity leave, employer and employee relations and the right to organize can all become gender biased. So the negative aspects of sweatshops have a disproportionate impact on women. And because of this, some people argue that efforts to fight with the poor working conditions in sweatshops should focus more on empowering women. Things like mistreatment of workers can come in various forms too.

It is not useful to compare the actual hourly wage of workers across different countries because the standard of living varies from country to country is different. So a better way of comparing how a person is being well paid is whether or not they can support the basic needs of a family by their wage alone. This benchmark is often used rather than a country’s minimum wage, if the minimum wage is quite low, people cannot realistically survive on it.

In any case, the pressure from Apple company soon will be to the Foxconn, because it can not afford any further damage to its brand, which can improve the working environment of workers. Years, Nike’s sweatshops in Vietnam events, so that severely damaged the Nike brand, after Nike to promote the implementation of a strict foundry policy.

Economic globalization and Labour Protections

Economic globalization, promoting worldwide economic development and wealth growth, but also led some labor issues worldwide. Reflected in the labor problem is not inadequate social-economic underdevelopment or wealth, but wealth and the inequitable distribution of social rights. This situation is due to the nature of economic globalization decision.

The so-called economic globalization refers to a new world economic landscape. In this situation, the world has become a common market, economic and trade activities break the national and regional boundaries, not only commodities, but also capital flows which have also been broken the boundaries of national and regional capital — Without Borders. The rules and practices of a market economy has become the world’s economic and trade activities within the framework of common values. WTO aims to free trade under capitalism and the market can not be non-discriminatory treatment of intervention. In promoting a global scale “market economy, free trade” can be realized with the undeniable positive significance. However, this promotion is based on the expansion of capital for the purpose and means, while capital requirements are for the expansion of the direct repression of labor. With economic globalization and trade liberalization, rapid development, social issues and labor-management conflicts have also become increasingly prominent problems. This is mainly as follows: the wealthy beneficiaries of globalization, the serious polarization of wealth distribution, a significant increase in unemployed workers, inadequate social security, working conditions deteriorate, a considerable number of workers trapped in poverty. The problems are not just widespread in developing countries, but also starting to spread to developed countries.

With the economic globalization, the labor issue has already became a global issue. Thus, in order to make labor as the main body of the anti-globalization movement, and with the process of globalization go hand in hand, especially in December 1999, the WTO meeting was held in Seattle simultaneous large-scale public protests against globalization protesters in order to “Protection of the rights of workers” and “against unfair competition” as the call to dissolve the WTO. Then from the Quebec Summit of the Organization of American States, to the European Union summit in Gothenburg and Genoa Group of Eight summit, accompanied by labor as the main body of the public anti-globalization protests. As intensified anti-globalization movement around the world, showing that labor-management conflicts brought about by globalization has reached a very intense level.

However, economic globalization has become an irreversible trend of development. And the WTO status and role are also can not be replaced and shaked. But if we do not face up and coordination of the growing international labor dispute, the aims and objectives of WTO will be fulfilled. Solving labor problem is not only an important condition for economic development, but also is important content of the economic and social development. Because globalization has brought wealth, but also brings inequality, while the greatest threat we face will be widening inequalities instability. A realistic option is that in the process of economic globalization, labor rights must be protected at the same time as a global goal. To achieve this goal, the basic purpose of the implementation of WTO and trade rules must be accompanied by implementation of the provisions of international labor conventions and of the international labor standards.

Wether an enterprises should contract outside of the social responsibility is based on economic responsibility system and also depends on factors in enterprises. Under different social systems have different performance. The changes in China’s corporate responsibility are decided by the change of government. If in the economic system, China is still a planned economy, then the corporate social responsibility is both infinite and limited. If the Chinese society is still a “big government, small society” model, then the business does not entail the number of “do nothing outside” social responsibility. If the change of government toward “small government, big society”, the direction of change, then the enterprise undertaken by the social responsibility of non-rigid bound must be increased. Therefore, the number of Chinese enterprises to take social responsibility in the future depends largely on the Chinese government in the direction of reform. On the current situation in China, China’s companies rests primarily due to stay in the “envy of” things, some companies even within the responsibility of also failed to meet, such as payment of social insurance fund.

The enterprises come from the society, and also will restore the society. This is a new situation for the relationship between social enterprises. Whatever the corporate life or death, grow or stay, it will finally taken by a community to accept its price of failure. More importantly, the society is the living environment of enterprises. Without a good environment, the enterprises hard to survive. Therefore, enterprises have a common prosperity and social relations, the market economy, enterprises and society even have a closer relationship, rather than become relatively distant relationship.

The famouse strategic master Michael Porter (Michael E. Porter) said that there is no one company will have sufficient capacity and resources to solve all social problems, they must select and cross-cutting business of their own social problems to resolve. In one hand, the sweat shops engage market share to the enterpreneur, in the other hand, the sweat shops deprive the rights of the worker. It is the issue crossed by business and social ethics. We need to find an appropriate way to give the sweat shops and world economy a balance.

Conclusion

Although the argument of the existence of the sweat shops still continued. And what matter the effect it will take. The workers who are working in the sweat shops are still suffering with terribel accidents that anytime can happened. They still just can get lowest paid and still have their poor family on their more and more heavier shoulders. They are unhappy and that is againest the human naturals. We can hang up a slogn said that we want to fairness but we can not see the workers in the sweat shops are treated in equality. The China’s chairman Mao Zedong taught us that: “the people, only the people, is the real motive force of historical development.” A corporation can not stay in a long time without the people, the man power. Doing business in ethical way, considering problem with moral principle and treat human beings in human natural are the keys for corporations to be successful and evergreen.