Thursday, February 19, 2009

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  1. JennaCzarFebruary 19, 2009 at 6:44 PM

    I thought Pietra Rivoli’s book The Travels of A T-shirt in the Global Economy was very enlightening. She follows her t-shirt from the time it was born in Texas at the cotton crop all the way around the world. She sees both positives and negatives in the economics of making a simple T-shirt.
    The first thing I thought was interesting in which she talked about was going in to see the garment workers in Shanghai. She described them to be at the “bottom of the totem pole.” The people of the United States demand for cheap prices on everything. This leaves the workers overseas with much lower wages, bad working conditions and a low quality of life. She said the average work month an employee of one of these garment companies would make on average 150 dollars.
    Pietra also described a happy aspect of these garment factories. She saw this woman in the garment factory that stood out to her. All the other women were busy at work as she was walking around. The unique woman made eye contact with her so she decided this would be the person she would interview.
    She described her as dresses very well. As if she was going out to a New Years Eve party. The woman seemed so happy to Rivoli’s surprise! She told her that she was able to be independent from her family. She was elated to be able to purchase her own things and explained that this is why she was dressed so nicely.
    Unfortunately, conditions in sweatshops can’t always be this nice. Pietra also described how she heard about students boycotting their school logo brands because they had heard the clothing was made in sweatshops overseas.
    In an article entitled “Students march against sweat shops,” several students at Humboldt State University formed a coalition against university apparel. The article described sweatshops as; “Sweatshop labor violates International labor laws by having child workers, 16-18 hour workdays, no healthcare, no earning of a livable wage, dangerous working conditions and abuse.
    It amazes me that this is still a reality in the world we live in. The article addresses some of the ideas that Pietra mentioned. A student researching sweatshops said how corporations seek out markets that will work for the lowest prices even if conditions are horrible. All these corporations care about is the dollar that they take in.
    In the end, the United Students Against Sweatshops coalition has made huge progress. Factories will be monitored and old sweatshops will be transformed into law-abiding factories.
    Another article that has very interesting points is called, “When clothes often involve exploitation, our style guru asks: can we bag a bargain with a clear mind?” The author interviews a bran director of a popular clothing company in Europe. The woman told her that their workers are at the top of their priority list and are treated very fairly! When asked what the workers salaries were she had no idea! Disgusted, the author of this article decided to check out the garment factories her self. She saw “how the 2.5 million garment workers (75 per cent of who are women) live: in makeshift huts made out of corrugated iron, with no sanitation, no running water, no electricity.” After seeing this she interviews more of the clothing higher ups. They tell her that things are hard with the economy being bad. The tide will turn and slowly become better.
    It’s so interesting to find out where things come from. Pietra’s T-shirt had been made in the US and traveled all over the world just to be sold here in the US. People need to research more about where cheap clothes come from because they could be buying into the exploitation of many young woman and men whom aren’t being paid half as much as they should! This book and article really opened up my eyes to the world around me.

    http://media.www.thejackonline.org/media/storage/paper1142/news/2008/05/07/Campus/Students.March.Against.Sweatshops-3363447-page2.shtml


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1030354/When-clothes-involve-exploitation-style-guru-asks-Can-bag-bargain-clear-mind.html

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