SWEATSHOPS AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: where does the consumer fit in?
20-minute popular education workshop
This is set up for 2 or 3 presenters. Make sure you check to see where your clothing is made so you can use that for examples.
Remember the purpose of this workshop is to show how each and every one of us is linked to the global economy. Consumers have a responsibility to workers around the world to use their buying power since it has been said time and time again that money talks.
- Each presenter recites 3 different facts about corporate power and sweatshops. Alternate speakers when possible. Refer to the sweatshop fact sheet and the corporate power fact sheet.
- Each presenter introduces himself or herself. Be sure to let them know what year you are and what groups you are affiliated with. Also give a little reason as to why you are in front of them.
- Ask each person to check the tag of a person’s shirt around them. Then point to people in the audience to find out where they are from. We represent a number of countries because each of us is part of the global economy. The clothing you are wearing has probably been touched by over 20 different sets of hands before it even reached the store where you purchased it. Every time you drive your car or put on some pants, you become an intricate part of the global economy.
- What is the global economy? Presenters will give the audience time to brainstorm and it might be helpful to throw out questions like how does the global economy help us and how does it hurt us. Examples include sharing cultures and increasing other’s awareness to things that they don’t see in front of them. Negatives would include abuse of children and other oppressed groups of people. Also write some of the ideas thrown out on the boards. Some other suggestions to get the audience started are to throw out the idea that our clothing is made all around the world or talk about how cars are no longer assembled in one factory but rather each piece is assembled at a different location and country. How does all this related to the global economy?
- Recite the global economy definition. The actual definition of the global economy states that trade can move freely across national borders, with little regulation and restriction.
- Sweatshops are a good example of the global economy in action. Write the word "sweatshop" on the board or the flipchart. Let’s do a quick imaging exercise. What are the pictures, feelings, smells, sounds, and words that come to mind when you read the word "sweatshop"? Write people’s images/words on the board. After doing this for a little while, put up our definition of sweatshops and show briefly how it ties into some of their images. A sweatshop is a workplace in the apparel industry where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including the absence of a living wage or benefits, poor working conditions, and arbitrary discipline.
Sweatshops impact the lives of many people.
Sweatshops are a women’s rights issue.
Sweatshop workers here and abroad are primarily female. 90% of the workforce is female, between the ages of 16-25. Most of the women in this room would be sweatshop workers, for example. (If speaking to student audience!
Women workers are subject to special forms of corporate abuse on the job. For example, workers in some Mexican and Central American plants are given Depro-Provera shots as a precondition for employment to prevent pregnancy and to prevent menstruation.
This helps the company increase productivity by cutting down on bathroom break time. In many places, if a woman becomes pregnant or if she refuses to submit to the shot, she is immediately fired.
Sweatshops are an environmental issue.
The global economy has resulted in severe environmental destruction as companies move their facilities across borders to avoid stringent environmental regulations. The increase in air pollution, ozone layer depletion, acid rain, the contamination of the ocean, and disrupted ecosystems are all results of the global economy.
Worker housing, sanitation, and water adds up to an unhealthy living environment. In the sweatshops there is poor ventilation causing allergies and chest infections.
Sweatshops are a domestic issue.
Well-paying jobs in the apparel industry have dried up in the US in the last decade while the number of sweatshops, here and abroad, has increased.
The Department of Labor estimates that at least half of the country’s 22,000 apparel shops can be classified as sweatshops.
New Era Cap Corporation is an American based corporation with factories in New York, Alabama, Bangladesh and China. New Era makes the hats for some of the baseball teams right here at WMU as well as Major and Minor League Baseball. The workers from the factories in Derby, New York are currently on a strike that has been happening for the last 7 months. The strike began the week that inflated production quotas would be imposed on the workforce, resulting in the average worker losing $4/hour. Weeks before this move, the union overwhelming rejected this provision as part of a contract offer, and management walked away from the bargaining table. This example of New Era is something we as part of the WMU community are directly tied to.
It is clear from these examples that sweatshop exploitation affects many people, in diverse ways, by violating their rights as individuals. Sweatshop exploitation is a labor rights issue, a women’s rights issue, an environmental issue and a domestic issues -- but ultimately, it is a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE and must be recognized as such by those who manufacture and buy apparel.
6. Our dollars give approval to the business practices used around the world. So now the question is what can you do as a consumer? Open the floor to the audience. Some ideas include: talking to the store managers where you buy their clothes to see if they know anything about the working conditions in which the clothing was made under, contact your legislators to inform that you are considered about the issues and would like to see them support only corporations that use quality business practices, send an email to president Floyd to remind him that sweatshops are being used to make the clothing with the WMU logo on it, ask questions, and shop second-hand—the sales are much better at the thrift stores. Get involved in the local United Students Against Sweatshops chapter and educate and make others aware around you.
- We will now pass out a brochure that gives info on how and where to get involved on campus. The Peace Center is located in the basement of the Wesley Foundation and is a great resource center for a number of different issues including the World Trade Organization, fair trade coffee, and the anti-war movement. Come check us out whenever you get a chance.
7. In summary, a small number of bankers, billionaires, and politicians made the global economy and created the situation that allows sweatshops to thrive; a large number of people working together can dismantle it!