This documentary talks about the mistreatment of sweatshop workers in Bangladesh. These are facts of what we consumers are not aware of because globalizing companies keep it hidden. Most of the workers that you see in this video are women who are overseen by controlling men. The men that supervise the women pressure them to work faster by abusing them verbally and physically. They are treated unequally and work in inhumane environments. The workers work overtime hours but are still not paid enough even and only receive two days off a month. Most of the workers are earning less than five dollars a week. Women who reach the age of thirty-five are often fired because they are seen as useless and then find younger women to replace them. The factories employ tens of thousands of women in the factories. The long hours that the women have to obtain in the factories keeps them away from their families. The work labor is so intense, just to sew a button workers are given 8 seconds per button. Sewing pockets a worker can only spend one minute or sew 60 pockets in an hour. When you watch the video you see how fast that the workers have to move, it looks like the video is on fast forward. There’s really nothing that the workers can do because they can lose their jobs. They cannot even unionize or else they will face punishment, which can also result in prison. The workers are also beaten if they ask about the wages that they are owed. These conditions are unhealthy and keep the workers in poverty. This information that this video displays is what we consumers need to be aware of. Many big companies use this method for their globalizing companies. These are the facts that they don’t want us to see.
Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bhodyt4fmU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bhodyt4fmU
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2 comments:
It's crazy to think that these sweatshops make a lot of the material things that we so covet in our society today. A lot of people do not know that the majority of the clothes on their backs were made in sweat shops overseas, but on the other side, a lot of people do know this and still shop at these places where they know the items were made by sweatshop workers.
As a country, we are a selfish people and looking good is a huge part of our society. From birth, you were taught to present yourself well, and to dress to impress. A lot of the clothes nowadays that "impress" were made by workers who work 16 or more hours a day making less than 5 dollars a week so that we can look good.
Places like Wal-Mart, one of the biggest businesses if not the biggest business, sells clothes for extremely cheap prices because they make them in sweatshops overseas for next to nothing. This shows how a lot of people in our country are only worried about themselves. Everyone's heard sometime that the reason the clothes and things at Wal-Mart are so cheap is because they cost nothing to produce, but people still can't help but going to their local Wal-Mart and going on shopping sprees.
I think for anything to happen against these sweatshops people are going to have to start taking initiative and shopping elsewhere. But wait, our country is in recession too, so people are trying to get as much as they can with the money they got. It's a vicious cycle that doesn't seem like it is going to end anytime soon, and as long as we can look good for cheap, we are going to take advantage of it, no matter how much people's lives it affects.
It is kind of sick how we as a country have constantly talked about how all people are equal. We were taught it since we were little treat others how you want to be treated. Unfortunately this would be one of those moments when you hear the famous do as i say not as i do. The idea that we as a country continuously support the companies idolize them in truth for what they make us. We have always sought after the latest fashion from our favorite brands of clothing companies. It stated out when we were young watching our favorite athletes seeing what they were wearing and wanting it ourselves and now it has carried over into our adult years were even now that we are aware of what is going on we don't care and continue to support them or we pretend that we don't really know what is going on.
Its disappointing to know that people in our country hold importance of having the latest trend of clothes or the latest edition of shoes so much higher than supporting the people that are working 20 hours a week to put the buttons on our shirt or cutting the threads off of our shirts for less money a than you probably have in your couch. It is sad that we continuously support the industry that is involved with pillaging every unindustrialized nation for all of its natural resources.
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