Monday, November 23, 2015
The Price of a Dollar
Today, I learned something new. Unfortunately, this was not some fun, exciting discovery that I am proud to share. According to Nathan and Mort's essay Remembering Norma Rae, the textile industry is the only industry that to this day still is not unionized. That makes me really sad. The people that work so hard to manufacture the clothes that we wear on our backs everyday, still do not have an organization that protects them from wage inequality, overworking, poor work conditions etc. Knowing this, a certain question comes to my mind. Is it worth it? Is working tirelessly in a factory for a wage that cannot even support you worth it? I do not think people realize--myself included until this day--how some of the clothes we wear got in our hands. Here in the United States and all over the country people are slaving away in sweat shops to make those cute jeans you bought on sale or the sweater you copped from Goodwill. Now that I think about it, I have read the labels in some of my clothes, and I lot are made outside of the country. The brand Hollister, for example, has their jeans made in Guatemala. I'm sure this is because the labor is cheap and desperate families are willing to work excruciatingly long hours to provide whatever they can. Another thought comes to mind. American Apparel is an advocate for the rights of textile workers, as they advertise that all of their clothes are sweatshop free. So, all of this leaves me somewhat overwhelmed. There is so much to be changed yet little has been changed. Norma Rae fought for textile worker equality, but still nothing. then again, i can't say i'm surprised, as other continue to fight for their rights and we fail to progress.
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I love that you recognized this because it truly is so sad. We get so carried away with sales and the clothes we wear that we never really think about what it takes to make the clothes on our back. It's hard to resist stores that use sweatshops because they are so cheap and easily accessible. Now that I work in a store that carries many products made in the USA I try to buy things that are made here rather than over seas. The price difference makes me feel better about whoever made my jeans. Even though they might not be unionized at least I know it wasn't a 6 year old who made my clothes. I hope ore light is shed on this topic because we never think about where our clothes really come from.
ReplyDeleteI would like to offer a polarizing view to what has been written here. I agree that work conditions are terrible and yes we do exploit poverty to a certain degree in other nations and those who send work to be done in sweatshops may not have moralistic incentive. With this said, sweatshops are not often the hell we think they are. Let's imagine that we live in a 3rd world country where pay for a sweatshop job is $30 a week. This sounds like a small amount to us, but imagine that the average job in that area on pays $15 a week. This is incredibly common in many countries in which sweatshops are established. In this, we actually do SOMETHING to end poverty in these areas. What would happen to these areas if all manufacturing was moved back to the USA? There is little working capital in the area that can be used to create jobs and it is very likely that the workers in American-owned sweatshops would become poorer than they were before. Just an idea to mull around for a while.
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