Sweatshop til you drop part deuce: fast food ain’t got nothing on a sweatshop

Do you remember your first job? For many of us, that memory isn't a glamorous one, full of flashy clientele, business jet setting and martinis. No-the first job reminiscence most likely invokes memories of serving deliciously deep fried items to impatient customers who never know what they want til the get to the front and hold up the whole line (pet peeve #1-what's up with that anyways? How you gonna be tapping your foot aggressively while waiting in line, then get stage fright when it's time to get down to bis and order?!).

My first job brings up slightly fonder memories, as I dodged the bullet of fast food vexation for a tamer route. I was a telemarketer, changing the world one Proactive skin care, Windsor Pilates, and Hooked On Phonics order at a time. Yes, I was the girl who answered your call when you dialed in to your fav infomercial. I learned many a handy thing on that fine call floor-how to type in any combination of 16 numbers under 10 secs flat, how to simultaneously eat a hotpocket and read a call script, and how to make special efforts to avoid that type of work environment later in life.

Don't get me wrong, the work environment wasn't dangerous, but it was structured in such a way that you felt like a teleslave (chea I made that word up), tethered to your phone for hours at a time, with minimal (almost non existent) breaks. All telemarketers sat in stifling cubicles, and were monitored from the big folk upstairs, constantly assessed for how long we stayed on the phones. After almost 2 years of consistently losing my voice, weird prank calls, no pay raises, and long hours, I was dunzo with that place. I even went to the movies on my final day in celebration of being freed from telehell (who knew I could remix so many telemarketing words? lol).

Most of us loathe those first jobs and will never look back (unless you lucked out and your first job was that jet setting martini dream-kudos to privileges lol), but our first jobs pale in comparison to many of the work environments constructed to create our essential household items, wares, and clothing.

Last week, I gave you a rundown on the history of garment making in the U.S...this week let's take a closer look at those work environments we hear so much about but know so little of: Sweat shops

Sweatshop early controversy

new york city garment sweatshop at the turn of the century

The term sweatshop stemmed from the structure of garment making itself. Middle men, known as sweaters, directed workflow of the garment making system. They contracted workers and took the profits from the bulk of the garments made. This contracting and trading structure was known as the "sweating system," thus the workplaces where clothing production occurred were donned sweat shops.

Sweat shop work environments in the U.S. were associated with dangerous health hazards, child labor, long hours, and "starvation wages"-wages that hardly allowed workers enough money for food.

The tension around sweat shop exploitation came to a head with the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took the lives of 146 garment workers due to locked factory doors, and poor fire escape measures. A majority of the victims were young immigrant women, and was one of the most tragic industrial accidents in U.S. production history.

With a little help from investigative journalists (also known as "muckrackers") doing expose pieces on exploitative businesses, and unions bartering for worker's rights, sweat shops are a rarer thing to see in the U.S. today than compared to the turn of the century.

Sweat shops are defined presently as workplaces "considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous." According to the U.S. Department of Labor, over 50% of sewing factories in the U.S. currently are sweat shops by this definition. Since our service economy lends itself to our fav brands and items being outsoruced and created in other countries, where labor practices come into question, the problem with sweat shop work environments is most drastic in developing countries.

Iconic photo with a satirical view of sweat shop labor

Anti Sweatshop Arguments

With so many negative consequences resulting from this labor arrangement, there have been many opponents to sweat shop labor work environments over the decades. Although there are activists of all stripes who lead various movements, their arguments against sweat shop labor are similar:

• many workers don't earn enough money to even buy the basic household items they create. For example in 2003, Honduran garment factory workers were paid US$0.24 for each $50 Sean John sweatshirt.
• low wages in sweat shop factories lowers the standard of living for other industries, as businesses reduce wages to compete with sweat shop labor prices.
• Critics also point to the fact that sweatshops often do not pay taxes for the public services they use for production and distribution, and are not contributing to the country's tax revenue

Pro Sweatshop Arguments

Surprisingly, there are a number of sweat shop supporters who argue the following points to justify such practices:

• Sweat shop jobs provide better employement and pay than other jobs in developing countries. Although conditions seem inferior by industrialized nation's standards, they are better than the majority of work alternatives available to individuals in a developing country (such as subsistence farming and maunal labor)
• when these sweat shop production jobs are removed, standards of living actually decrease as unemployment and more dangerous work alternatives are the only options available...

Both sides make valid arguments, but being the Policy Analysis Major that I am, I can't take any subject without a little more research  (as you shouldn't either). Sweat shop labor in our present economy is a complicated one with no clear cut answers, with many arguments from all sides either justifying or defaming sweat shop practices.

But we at C.Marchuska believe great clothing production shouldn't come at the cost of exploiting someone who is desperate and has no alternatives. We take great care in how each C.Marchuska piece is produced, and want to spread the word that concious consumption is necessary to make any sort of difference in the fashion world.

Join me next week for a personal account of those behind the brand, the faces of those people who put in the labor to create those many clothing items we take for granted.

Thanks for reading, and remember stay fly;)

-Christina Blacken