Editing Sweatshop (section)

===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>}}