Editing Sweatshop (section)

==Debate over the effects of globalization and sweatshops==

===Criticisms===
{{main|Anti-globalization movement}}

More recently, the [[anti-globalization movement]] has arisen in opposition to corporate [[globalization]], the process by which [[multinational corporation]]s move their operations overseas to lower costs and increase profits. The anti-sweatshop movement has much in common with the [[anti-globalization movement]]. Both consider sweatshops harmful, and both have accused many companies (such as the [[Walt Disney Company]], [[The Gap (clothing retailer)|The Gap]], and [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]]) of using sweatshops. Some in these movements charge that [[neoliberalism|neoliberal]] globalization is similar to the [[sweating system]], arguing that there tends to be a "[[race to the bottom]]" as multinationals leap from one low-wage country to another searching for lower production costs, in the same way that ''sweaters'' would have steered production to the lowest cost sub-contractor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fairworkplace.org/articles/the-problem/the-race-to-the-bottom-insights-on-how-it-affects-corporate-executives.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071114045739/http://www.fairworkplace.org/articles/the-problem/the-race-to-the-bottom-insights-on-how-it-affects-corporate-executives.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 14, 2007 |title=Fair Workplace Council Sweatshop Free Electronics – The Race to the Bottom |publisher=Fairworkplace.org |date=April 25, 2007 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>[[File:StudentsMarchOnRussellHQ.jpg|frame|Members of United Students Against Sweatshops marching in protest]]Various groups support or embody the anti-sweatshop movement today. The [[National Labor Committee]] brought sweatshops into the mainstream media in the 1990s when it exposed the use of sweatshop and child labor to sew clothing for Kathie Lee Gifford's Wal-Mart label. United Students Against Sweatshops is active on college campuses. The [[International Labor Rights Fund]] filed a lawsuit<ref>''[http://laborrights.org/projects/corporate/walmart/WalMartComplaint091305.pdf Jane Doe et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214024856/http://www.laborrights.org/projects/corporate/walmart/WalMartComplaint091305.pdf |date=December 14, 2006}}'', International Labor Rights Fund. Retrieved December 30, 2006.</ref> on behalf of workers in China, Nicaragua, Swaziland, Indonesia, and Bangladesh against Wal-Mart charging the company with knowingly developing purchasing policies particularly relating to price and delivery time that are impossible to meet while following the Wal-Mart code of conduct. Labor unions, such as the [[AFL–CIO]], have helped support the anti-sweatshop movement out of concern both for the welfare of workers in the developing world and those in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/stop/ |title=&#124; Stop Sweatshops |publisher=Aflcio.org |date=June 25, 2007 |access-date=November 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016215708/http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/stop/ |archive-date=October 16, 2011}}</ref>

Social critics complain that sweatshop workers often do not earn enough money to buy the products that they make, even though such items are often commonplace goods such as T-shirts, shoes, and toys. In 2003, Honduran garment factory workers were paid US$0.24 for each $50 [[Sean John]] sweatshirt, $0.15 for each long-sleeved T-shirt, and only five cents for each short-sleeved shirt – less than one-half of one percent of the retail price.<ref name="seanjohn">{{cite web |title=Sean John Setisa Report |publisher=[[National Labor Committee]]|date=October 2003| url =http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=103 |access-date=May 31, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070522173501/http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=103 |archive-date=May 22, 2007}}</ref> Even comparing international costs of living, the $0.15 that a Honduran worker earned for the long-sleeved T-shirt was equal in [[purchasing power]] to $0.50 in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2004&ey=2008&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=268&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=39&pr.y=9 |title=Honduras|publisher=International Monetary Fund|access-date=October 9, 2008}}</ref> In countries where labor costs are low, bras that cost US$5–7 apiece retail for US$50 or more in American stores. {{asof|2006}}, female garment workers in India earned about US$2.20 per day.<ref name=watson>{{cite web|last1=Watson|first1=Noshua|title=MAS Holdings: Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility in the Apparel Industry|url=http://www.unprme.org/reports/masholdingsfinalinseadcasefeb28th2006.pdf|publisher=INSEAD|access-date=July 1, 2015|archive-date=January 8, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108235002/http://www.unprme.org/reports/masholdingsfinalinseadcasefeb28th2006.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Anti-globalization proponents cite high savings, increased capital investment in developing nations, diversification of their exports and their status as trade ports as the reason for their economic success rather than sweatshops<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.galbithink.org/topics/ea/save.htm |title=Economic Growth in East Asia High Savings and Investment |publisher=Galbithink.org |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/1396/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=02_East_Asia_investment.htm |title=Investment in East Asia since the Asian financial crisis. by Elisha Houston, Julia Minty and Nathan Dal Bon |publisher=Treasury.gov.au |date=April 9, 2007 |access-date=November 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927160240/http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/1396/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=02_East_Asia_investment.htm |archive-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=East Asian economy growing |newspaper=BBC News   |date=June 2, 2000 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/774876.stm |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref> and cite the numerous cases in the East Asian "Tiger Economies" where sweatshops have reduced living standards and wages.<ref name="Businessweek">{{cite news |title=Secrets, Lies, And Sweatshops |first1=Dexter |last1=Roberts |first2=Pete |last2=Engardio |newspaper=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |date=November 6, 2006 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206024729/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 6, 2006 |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref> They believe that better-paying jobs, increased capital investment and domestic ownership of resources will improve the economies of sub-Saharan Africa rather than sweatshops. They point to good labor standards developing strong manufacturing export sectors in wealthier sub-Saharan countries such as Mauritius.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5923802/Nike-to-the-rescue-Africa.html |title=Nike to the rescue? Africa needs better jobs, not sweatshops. – Dollars and Sense |publisher=Goliath.ecnext.com |date=September 1, 2006 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>

Anti-globalization organizations argue that the minor gains made by employees of some of these institutions are outweighed by the negative costs such as lowered wages to increase profit margins and that the institutions pay less than the daily expenses of their workers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Green America's Ending Sweatshops Program |url=http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/whattoknow.cfm |access-date=November 13, 2011 |publisher=Coopamerica.org |archive-date=April 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415183715/http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/whattoknow.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sweatshops FAQ |publisher=Globalexchange.org |url=http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/sweatshopsfaq.html |access-date=November 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830114938/http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/sweatshopsfaq.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Trying to Live on 25 Cents an Hour |publisher=Nlcnet.org |url=http://www.nlcnet.org/campaigns/archive/chinareport/costoflivingdoc.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904100237/http://www.nlcnet.org/campaigns/archive/chinareport/costoflivingdoc.shtml |archive-date=September 4, 2012 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref> They also point to the fact that sometimes local jobs offered higher wages before trade liberalization provided tax incentives to allow sweatshops to replace former local unionized jobs.<ref>Kwong, Peter and Joann Lum. "How the Other Half Lives Now." The Nation. June 18, 1988, Vol. 246: 858–60.</ref> They further contend that sweatshop jobs are not necessarily inevitable.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dreier |first=Peter |title=NPR Debate Moderators All Wet on Sweatshop Labor by Peter Dreier |publisher=Commondreams.org |date=December 7, 2007 |url=http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/07/5693 |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=August 2001 |title=A Consensus Statement on Sweatshop Abuse and MIT's Prospective Actions in Pursuit of International Labor Justice |url=http://web.mit.edu/utr/www/consensus.doc |via=web.mit.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521091602/http://web.mit.edu/utr/www/consensus.doc |archive-date=May 21, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Éric Toussaint]] claims that quality of life in developing countries was actually higher between 1945 and 1980 before the international debt crisis of 1982 harmed economies in developing countries causing them to turn to IMF and World Bank-organized "structural adjustments"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Toussaint|first1=Eric|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=or5NcgF3Ac0C&q=Eric+Toussaint,+your+money+your+life|title=Your Money Or Your Life|publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=9781931859189}}</ref> and that unionized jobs pay more than sweatshop ones overall – "several studies of workers producing for US firms in Mexico are instructive: workers at the Aluminum Company of America's Ciudad Acuna plant earn between $21.44 and $24.60 per week, but a weekly basket of basic food items costs $26.87. Mexican GM workers earn enough to buy a pound of apples in 30 minutes of work, while GM workers in the US earn as much in 5 minutes."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unc.edu/~andrewsr/ints092/sweat.html |title=Historical Development of the Sweatshop – Todd Pugatch; INTS 92: The Nike Seminar. April 30, 1998 |publisher=Unc.edu |access-date=November 13, 2011 |archive-date=March 28, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328054736/http://www.unc.edu/~andrewsr/ints092/sweat.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> People critical of sweatshops believe that "free trade agreements" do not truly promote free trade at all but instead seek to protect multinational corporations from competition by local industries (which are sometimes unionized).<ref>{{cite web |title=Protection and International Trade by Mike Curtis. Arden, Delaware, July 13, 1999 |publisher=Henrygeorge.org |date=July 13, 1999 |url=http://www.henrygeorge.org/miktrade.htm |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref> They believe free trade should only involve reducing tariffs and barriers to entry and that multinational businesses should operate within the laws in the countries they want to do business in rather than seeking immunity from obeying local environmental and labor laws. They believe these conditions are what give rise to sweatshops rather than natural industrialization or economic progression.

In some countries, such as China, it is not uncommon for these institutions to withhold workers' pay.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/46878 |title=Child workers' wages withheld for up to a year |publisher=China-labour.org.hk |date=July 9, 2007 |access-date=November 13, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722173911/http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/46878 |archive-date=July 22, 2012}}</ref>
{{quote|According to labor organizations in Hong Kong, up to $365&nbsp;million is withheld by managers who restrict pay in exchange for some service, or don't pay at all.<ref>{{cite news |title=China's peasants opt for urban grindstone |first=Robert |last=Marquand |newspaper=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |date=23 January 2004 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0123/p08s01-woap.html |access-date=6 December 2010}}</ref>}}

Furthermore, anti-globalization proponents argue that those in the West who defend sweatshops show double standards by complaining about sweatshop labor conditions in countries considered enemies or hostile by Western governments, while still gladly consuming their exports but complaining about the quality.<ref name="Businessweek" /> They contend that multinational jobs should be expected to operate according to international labor and environmental laws and minimum wage standards like businesses in the West do.<ref>{{cite news |title=Overseas Sweatshops Are a U.S. Responsibility |first=Daniel |last=Viederman |newspaper=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |date=June 2007 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/06/overseas_sweats.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612044243/http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2007/06/overseas_sweats.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 12, 2007 |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref>

Labor historian Erik Loomis claims that the conditions faced by workers in the United States in the [[Gilded Age]] have been replicated in developing countries where Western corporations utilize sweatshop labor. In particular, he compares the [[Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire]] in 1911 New York to the [[2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse|collapse of Rana Plaza]] in 2013 Bangladesh. He argues that the former galvanized the population to political activism that eventually pushed through reforms not only pertaining to workplace safety, but also the [[minimum wage]], the [[eight-hour day]], [[workers' compensation]], [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] the [[Clean Air Act (United States)|Clean Air Act]], and the [[Clean Water Act]]. American corporations responded by shifting production to developing nations where such protections did not exist. Loomis elaborates:

{{quote|So in 2013, when over 1100 workers die at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, it is the same industry as the Triangle Fire, with the same subcontracted system of production that allows apparel companies to avoid responsibility for work as the Triangle Fire, and with the same workforce of young and poor women, the same type of cruel bosses, and the same terrible workplace safety standards as the Triangle Fire. The difference is that most of us can't even find Bangladesh on a map, not to mention know enough about it to express the type of outrage our ancestors did after Triangle. This separation of production from consumption is an intentional move by corporations precisely to avoid being held responsible by consumers for their actions. And it is very effective.<ref>Scott Eric Kaufmann (July 6, 2015). [http://www.salon.com/2015/07/06/no_one_is_making_them_stop_why_corporations_outsource_catastrophe_and_workers_pay_the_price/ “No one is making them stop”: Why corporations outsource catastrophe — and workers pay the price]. ''Salon.'' Retrieved July 6, 2015.</ref>}}

===Support===
In 1997, economist [[Jeffrey Sachs]] said, "My concern is not that there are too many sweatshops, but that there are too few."<ref name="meyerson">{{cite news| last =Meyerson| first =Allen| title =In Principle, A Case for More 'Sweatshops'|work=The New York Times| date =June 22, 1997| url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E6D8103EF931A15755C0A961958260| access-date =April 4, 2008}}</ref> Sachs and other proponents of [[free trade]] and the global movement of capital cite the economic theory of [[comparative advantage]], which states that [[international trade]] will, in the long run, make all parties better off. The theory holds that developing countries improve their condition by doing something that they do "better" than industrialized nations (in this case, they charge less but do the same work). Developed countries will also be better off because their workers can shift to jobs that they do better. These are jobs that some economists say usually entail a level of education and training that is exceptionally difficult to obtain in the developing world. Thus, economists like Sachs say, developing countries get factories and jobs that they would not otherwise. Some{{Who|date=September 2011}} would say with this situation occurs when developing countries try to increase wages because sweatshops tend to just get moved on to a new state that is more welcoming. This leads to a situation where states often don't try to increase wages for sweatshop workers for fear of losing investment and boosted GDP. However, this only means average wages around the world will increase at a steady rate. A nation only gets left behind if it demands wages higher than the current market price for that labor.

When asked about the working condition in sweatshops, proponents say that although wages and working conditions may appear inferior by the standards of developed nations, they are actually improvements over what the people in developing countries had before. It is said that if jobs in such factories did not improve their workers' [[standard of living]], those workers would not have taken the jobs when they appeared. It is also often pointed out that, unlike in the industrialized world, the sweatshops are not replacing high-paying jobs. Rather, sweatshops offer an improvement over [[subsistence farming]] and other back-breaking tasks, or even prostitution, trash picking, or [[starvation]] by unemployment.<ref name="meyerson" /><ref>{{cite news| last =Kristof| first =Nicholas| author-link =Nicholas Kristof| title =Inviting All Democrats| work =The New York Times| date =January 14, 2004| url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DD1330F937A25752C0A9629C8B63| archive-url =https://archive.today/20120526094048/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DD1330F937A25752C0A9629C8B63| url-status =dead| archive-date =May 26, 2012| access-date =April 4, 2008}}</ref>

Sweatshops can mentally and physically affect the workers who work there due to unacceptable conditions which include working long hours. Despite the hardships, sweatshops were a source of income for their workers. The absence of the work opportunities provided by sweatshops can quickly lead to malnourishment or starvation. After the [[Child Labor Deterrence Act]] was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution". [[UNICEF]]'s 1997 ''State of the World's Children'' study found these alternative jobs "more hazardous and exploitative than garment production".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youthpolicy.org/uploads/documents/1997_UNICEF_State_of_the_worlds_Children_Report_Eng.pdf|title=State of the World's children 1997|page=60}}</ref><ref name="unicef">{{cite conference| first =Carol| last =Bellamy| author-link =Carol Bellamy| title =An Agreement in Bangladesh| book-title =The State of the World's Children 1997| pages =[https://archive.org/details/stateofworldschi00bell/page/66 66]| publisher =[[United Nations Children's Fund]]| year =1997| url =https://archive.org/details/stateofworldschi00bell/page/66| access-date =May 31, 2007| isbn =0-19-262871-2| url-access =registration}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2022}} As Nobel prize-winning economist [[Paul Krugman]] states in a 1997 article for Slate, "as manufacturing grows in poor countries, it creates a ripple effect that benefits ordinary people: 'The pressure on the land becomes less intense, so rural wages rise; the pool of unemployed urban dwellers always anxious for work shrinks, so factories start to compete with each other for workers, and urban wages also begin to rise.' In time average wages creep up to a level comparable to minimum-wage jobs in the United States."<ref>{{cite web|last=Manjoo |first=Farhad |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/1997/03/in_praise_of_cheap_labor.html |title=In Praise of Cheap Labor – Slate Magazine |date=21 March 1997 |publisher=Slate.com |access-date=November 13, 2011}}</ref>

Writer [[Johan Norberg]], a proponent of [[market economics]], points out an irony:<ref>{{cite web| last =Gillespie| first =Nick| author-link =Nick Gillespie| title =Poor Man's Hero| work =[[Reason magazine]]| publisher =[[Reason Foundation]]|date=December 2003| url =http://reason.com/archives/2003/12/01/poor-mans-hero/1| access-date =April 20, 2014}}</ref>
{{quote|[Sweatshop critics] say that we shouldn't buy from countries like Vietnam because of its labor standards, they've got it all wrong. They're saying: "Look, you are too poor to trade with us. And that means that we won't trade with you. We won't buy your goods until you're as rich as we are." That's totally backwards. These countries won't get rich without being able to export goods.}}

Heavy-handed responses to reports of child labor and worker rights abuses such as widespread boycotts can be counterproductive if the net effect is simply to eliminate contracts with suppliers rather than to reform their employment practices. A 2005 article in the ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' states, "For example, in Honduras, the site of the infamous [[Kathy Lee Gifford]] sweatshop scandal, the average apparel worker earns $13.10 per day, yet 44 percent of the country's population lives on less than $2 per day... In Cambodia, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the average wage paid by a firm accused of being a sweatshop is more than double the average income in that country's economy."<ref>{{cite news |title=Don't get into a lather over sweatshops |first1=Benjamin |last1=Powell |first2=David |last2=Skarbek |newspaper=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |date=August 2, 2005 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0802/p09s02-coop.html |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref> Journalist [[Radley Balko]] reported in 2004 that on three documented occasions during the 1990s, anti-sweatshop activists apparently caused increases in [[child prostitution]] in poor countries: in Bangladesh, the closure of several sweatshops run by a German company put Bangladeshi children out of work, and some ended up working as prostitutes, turning to crime, or starving to death; in Pakistan, several sweatshops closed, run by [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]] and [[Reebok]], which caused some of those Pakistani children to turn to prostitution; and in Nepal, a boycott of Nepal's carpet industry forced thousands of child laborers out of work, resulting in "a large percentage" of them turning to prostitution.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119125,00.html |title=Third World Workers Need Western Jobs |publisher=Foxnews.com |date=May 6, 2004 |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816030549/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119125,00.html |archive-date=August 16, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A 1996 study of corporate codes of conduct in the apparel industry by the U.S. Department of Labor has concluded that corporate codes of conduct that monitor labor norms in the apparel industry, rather than boycott or eliminate contracts upon the discovery of violations of internationally recognized labor norms, are a more effective way to eliminate child labor and the exploitation of children, provided they provide for effective monitoring that includes the participation of workers and their knowledge of the standards to which their employers are subject.<ref>{{citation |title=The Apparel Industry and Codes of Conduct: A Solution to the International Child Labor Problem? |author=U.S. Department of Labor |url=http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/apparel/overview.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202211838/http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/apparel/overview.htm |archive-date=February 2, 2014 }}</ref>

Arguably, the United States underwent a similar process during its own industrialization where child labor and the suppression of worker organizations were prevalent. According to an article in Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context, sweatshops became prevalent in the United States during the Industrial Revolution. Although the working conditions and wages in these factories were very poor, as new jobs in factories began to appear, people left the hard life of farming to work in these factories, and the agricultural nature of the economy shifted into a manufacturing one because of this industrialization. However, during this new industrialized economy, the labor movement drove the rise in the average level of income as factory workers began to demand better wages and working conditions. Through much struggle, sufficient wealth was created and a large middle class began to emerge. Workers and advocates were able to achieve basic rights for workers, which included the right to form unions, and negotiate terms such as wages, overtime pay, health insurance, and retirement pensions; and eventually they were also able to attain legal protections such as minimum wage standards, and discrimination and sexual abuse protections. Furthermore, Congress set forth to ensure a minimum set of safety standards were followed in workplaces by passing the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. These developments were able to improve working environments for Americans but it was through sweatshops that the economy grew and people were able to accumulate wealth and move out of poverty.

In contrast, similar efforts in developing nations have not produced the same results, because of corruption and lack of democracy in communist nations such as China and Vietnam{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}, worker intimidation and murder in Latin America—and corruption throughout the developing world. These barriers prevent creation of similar legal protections for workers in these countries, as numerous studies by the International Labour Organization show.<ref name="Corporations and Worker's Rights">{{cite web| first =Anup| last =Shah| title=Corporations and Workers Rights | date =28 May 2006|publisher =Global Issues| url =http://www.globalissues.org/article/57/corporations-and-workers-rights| access-date =May 9, 2013}}</ref> Nonetheless, a boycott approach to protesting these conditions is likely to hurt workers willing to accept employment even under poor working conditions, as a loss of employment would result in a comparatively worse level of poverty. According to a November 2001 [[BBC]] article, in the previous two months, 100,000 sweatshop workers in Bangladesh had been put off work. The workers petitioned their government to lobby the U.S. government to repeal its trade barriers on their behalf to retain their jobs.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bangladesh wants textiles curbs lifted |newspaper=BBC News   |date=November 12, 2001 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1650952.stm |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref>

Defenders of sweatshops cite Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan as recent examples of countries that benefited from having sweatshops.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tqe.quaker.org/2003/TQE087-EN-ProductCycle.html |title=The Quaker Economist No. 87 – The Product Cycle and Globalization |publisher=Tqe.quaker.org |date=November 1, 2003 |access-date=March 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414171102/http://tqe.quaker.org/2003/TQE087-EN-ProductCycle.html|archive-date=April 14, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Case for Sweatshops|date=February 7, 2000|url=http://www.hoover.org/pubaffairs/dailyreport/archive/2864991.html|website=Hoover Institution|publisher=Stanford University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125151321/http://www.hoover.org/pubaffairs/dailyreport/archive/2864991.html|archive-date=January 25, 2010}}</ref>

In these countries, legislative and regulatory frameworks to protect and promote labor rights and the rights of workers against unsafe and exploitative working conditions exist, and studies have shown no systematic relationship between labor rights, such as collective bargaining and the freedom of association, and national economic growth.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Drusilla K. |last1=Brown |first2=Alan V. |last2=Deardorff |first3=Robert M. |last3=Stern |url=http://ipc.umich.edu/working-papers/pdfs/ipc-119-brown-deardorff-stern-labor-standards-human-rights-international-trade-investment.pdf|title= Labor Standards and Human Rights: Implications for International Trade and Investment|publisher= International Policy Center, University of Michigan|date=August 19, 2011|access-date=March 31, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528014516/http://ipc.umich.edu/working-papers/pdfs/ipc-119-brown-deardorff-stern-labor-standards-human-rights-international-trade-investment.pdf|archive-date=May 28, 2013}}</ref>

A major issue for the anti-sweatshop movement is the fate of workers displaced by the closing of sweatshops. Even after escaping the sweatshop industry the workers need a job to sustain themselves and their families. For example, in Bangladesh, a country with one of the lowest minimum wages in the world, of $68 per month,<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite web |date=July 18, 2016 |title=Rana Plaza collapse: 38 charged with murder over garment factory disaster |access-date=September 20, 2018 |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/18/rana-plaza-collapse-murder-charges-garment-factory}}</ref> the Rana Plaza a known sweatshop that hosted garment factories for retailers such as Primark, JC Penney, Joe Fresh and Benetton,<ref>{{cite web |last=O'Connor |first=C. |date=April 26, 2014 |title=These Retailers Involved In Bangladesh Factory Disaster Have Yet To Compensate Victims |access-date=September 20, 2018 |work=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/26/these-retailers-involved-in-bangladesh-factory-disaster-have-yet-to-compensate-victims/?sh=34a13d63211b}}</ref> collapsed as it was visibly not structurally sound.<ref>{{cite web |author=William Gomes |date=May 9, 2013 |title=Reason and responsibility: the Rana Plaza collapse |access-date=September 20, 2018 |work=OpenDemocracy |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opensecurity/reason-and-responsibility-rana-plaza-collapse/}}</ref> After the incident many of the workers were displaced as not only did the Rana Plaza close down but the government also called for safety checks of many factories that were then shut down as a result of not being up to code. Although this may seem like a positive consequence many of those workers were then unable to get jobs and support their families. The garment industry in Bangladesh is worth $28&nbsp;billion.<ref name="The Guardian"/>