Rising Against Sweatshops

Words: 1583
Pages: 7

In the early morning, the young sweatshop employee walks between disgruntledly thrown scraps of fabric and unrecognizable pieces of paper and plastic, slowly approaching the menacing, tarnished cement building. The heavy scent of curry and human sweat penetrated her nostrils. A bouquet of women and young girls in brightly colored saris hurriedly file into the factory. Turning around to catch the last glimpse of freedom, she saw droplets of the early morning sun begin to soak the weary bodies of women and children, casting disfigured, ebony creatures which mixed with the umbered, dusty, ground. The boisterous ringing of the supervisors shouting at their employees to walk faster stabs out any potential of joy for the day. Entering the room filled with …show more content…
Currently, Bangladeshi sweatshop employees are habitually required to work from dawn until dusk six and a half days a week, and inhabit menial housing next to and owned by the factory (McCrum). Unfortunately, this creates a cycle of indirect slavery that is often difficult to escape to freedom. In the book Rising above Sweatshops: Innovative Approaches to Global Labor Challenges, the authors discuss five basic rights that they believe that all employees are entitled to regardless of their geographic location. Simply, the five rights are as follows:
Just and favorable working conditions, including a healthy working environment and a limit to the number of hours a human should have to work each day, minimum age and working conditions for child labor, nondiscrimination requirements regarding the relative amount that a worker should be paid and the right to equal pay for equal work, freedom from forced labor, free association, and including the right to organize and to bargain collectively in contract negotiations (Hartman, Arnold, Wokutch