Travels of a Tshirt Special Passage

After reading Travels of a Tshirt, I have come across passages that I have feel are important and deserve to have a second look at.

“So as the divide between labor and capital yawned wider, the Communists gradually and secretly infiltrated the cotton mills, where thousands of workers were locked in a steamy hell, ripening for revolution.”(Rivoli, Page 64, Line 8). The Chinese government not only did nothing to help the workers of the cotton factories, but only added to the treacherous conditions. Young women, especially, were forced to work every day of the week for 12 hours each day earning as little as 12 cents an hour. The country started to thrive off the business of cotton factories and did not care what the cost was to its people. Traditional family structures and even some cultures were being muffled and disappeared because the emphasis of life became to work. At this point in China’s history, there was just the wealthy that ran the factories, and the poor who worked them. I feel that the “middle class” vanished all together and would not appear in the least until after more advancement from the West would transpire. The United States was responsible for affecting the lives of Chinese migrant laborers just as much as China. Seeing as how the cotton came from Lubbock, Texas and Eli Whitney was the creator of the cotton gin, the U.S. held some reigns over production.

“The spinning jennies gave rise to the factory system and to an entirely new economic order. Factory employment meant not only that workers gave up their domestic textile activities, but also that they gave up their agricultural activities and moved from farms to the new urban areas.”(Rivoli, Page 75, Line 22) Because of technology, laborers had to migrate from the farms to the city and learn how to use machines to support their livelihood. The culture of the Chinese working class was forced to change for the greater good of the country.

The issue that I am addressing has to do with Chinese working conditions. Conditions remain unsafe for workers and unfortunately little pay still accompanies those conditions. In reading an article from The New York Times online, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html?_r=1, the horrible conditions are made evident. Workers are forced to drag around barrels of highly toxic chemicals that are extremely harmful to consumers, so why should an employee be exposed to them? Another thing that is a common trend in the chinese labor force is losing fingers. 40,000 fingers are lost or broken in a YEAR in chinese labor forces. That's 8000 hands! [yes, I did the math].

American companies like Disney, Dell and McDonalds are affected by the chinese labor force as they have often been entangled in problems like child labor, 16 hour work days and less than minimum wage salaries. It is interesting to see how as soon as unfair working conditions are seen in the media the companies must make a fast decision how to handle it and either severe relations with that manufacturer or force them to change.

The unfair and unsafe conditions of labor forces in China truly are skewing generation upon generations of Chinese families and creating very low-income, poverty stricken areas. I feel that if working conditions were fair and safe, perhaps both the businesses and the workers would flourish and produce better quality products.