Imagine that every day you go to work you are exposed to toxic chemicals without having any protective clothing or safety training, and that the workplace has poor ventilation and poor fire safety. Suppose that you are subject to physical and verbal abuse at the hands of your employer and that there is a lack of drinking water in the workplace. Suppose further that you are paid only a couple of dollars per day and forced to work excessive overtime hours. Would these be satisfactory working conditions—for anyone, anywhere in the world? Conditions such as these are found in businesses commonly known as sweatshops. “Migrants are constantly in a state of danger . . . they are in a constant state of stress. But they are needed and are beneficial to those that keep on exploiting them,” said Svetlana Gannushkina of the human rights group Assistance for Citizens (Kovalyova, 2013). And with Covid-19, the sweatshop system in America was no different. One Los Angeles reporter recently noted that the garment industry generally has had workers performing tasks in unsanitary conditions even before Covid-19 for wages as low as $ 4.60 an hour (Dean, 2021). Such conditions resemble sweatshops. 

The Move

Sweatshops exist throughout the world and in a variety of manufacturing industries, including apparel, shoes, toys, and electronics, among others. To the surprise of some, sweatshops also exist in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Los Angeles. Moreover, human trafficking exists in these settings that hire cheap labor and pay slave wages. They have become most notoriously famous within the footwear and apparel (or garment) industries. In these two industries, easy portability of work and technology from one region to another, or one country to another, has facilitated the ongoing presence of and reliance on sweatshop factories. For instance, from a historical perspective, apparel manufacturing has been a very mobile industry. It has migrated from Britain to New England in the United States, to the Southeastern United States, to Mexico and Asia, with companies constantly pursuing less-expensive workers, a practice often referred to as “the race to the bottom.” In this race, clothing wholesalers and retailers have developed a manufacturing supply chain of a large number of contractors and an even larger number of subcontractors, all with the aim of securing the absolutely lowest cost anywhere in the world. Each move in the race to the bottom has been more fleeting than the preceding one, with an excruciating toll being exacted from the workers at the lowest rungs of the “economic food chain” for the predatory benefit of others higher up and at the top.

 Of course, this race to the bottom has not been confined to the footwear and apparel businesses. It is occurring in the production of computers, printers, laptops, and other electronics equipment. It can be found in any type of business that supplies products to large retailers—like Walmart and Target—that operate on the basis of a low-price strategy. 

The Problem

A Georgetown study showed that people were more likely, for example, to endorse the use of questionable labor practices involved in a Caribbean vacation for themselves but tend to oppose that use if the vacation in question is for their friends “This phenomenon, known as moral hypocrisy, is used by consumers in situations to benefit themselves but not others,” study author Neeru Paharia explains. “They also made economic development justifications, such as convincing themselves that sweatshops are the only realistic source of income for workers in poorer countries, without which they wouldn’t develop, that the labor offers products not otherwise affordable to low-income people and it’s OK because ‘companies must remain competitive.’

“A great sale or exclusive offer can increase the desirability and value of a product, which can further justify the labor practices used to create the product,” Paharia says. “The strength of a brand and consumer loyalty may also influence reasoning—causing consumers to view companies such as Nike and Apple as subsidiaries that are not directly involved with the labor conditions” (Paharia 2013)....

Questions for Discussion

1. Why are sweatshops so common around the world?

2. Why are sweatshops viewed with disgust and abhorrence? Does a sweatshop accomplish anything positive?

3. What is a reasonable objective (or set of objectives) for addressing sweatshop conditions throughout the world? Explain your answer.

4. What is your assessment of the potential of the Initiative on Corporate Accountability and Workers’ Rights for making significant progress in alleviating sweatshops around the globe?

5. Do you think “moral hypocrisy” has any effect in the fight to improve working conditions in sweatshops? Explain your reasoning.