But alongside these economic advancements came the abuse of the poor class and worker’s rights. The advancements in the textile industry, such as the invention of the cotton gin and the sewing machine, promoted the instillation of sweatshops during the 1830‘s-1850‘s, workplaces created for garment making where middlemen, or sweaters, were hired by clothing companies to manage workers under horrible conditions. Sweatshops promoted mass production and the progression of manufacturing at the expense of the safety and welfare of its workers.
The poem “The Song of the Shirt” (1843) by Thomas Hood creatively documents the hardships of women sweatshop workers. Although America has drastically implemented laws that prohibit the abuse of worker’s rights, are the working conditions today really that much different from those during the Industrial Revolution? Using “The Song of the Shirt” we can compare working conditions then and now.
“The Song of the Shirt” opens up with the following lines describing the work life of the sweatshop worker (1-4)
“With fingers weary and worn, with eye-lids heavy and red,
A woman sat in un-womanly rags, plying her needle and thread
Stitch, stitch, stitch, in poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, she sung the ‘Song of the Shirt‘ ”
Hood uses diction that evokes emotions of being overstrained and exasperation in order to express the drawn out and “weary” life of a sweatshop worker during the industrial revolution. And despite being overworked, this particular worker, who is symbolic of the majority of sweatshop workers, is still living in “poverty, hunger, and dirt”.
Even in lines 13-16 Hood shows his belief that sweatshops were a hindrance to life and survival itself:
“O, men, with sisters dear, O, men, with mothers and wives,
It is not linen you’re wearing out, but human creatures’ lives.
Stitch, stitch, stitch, in poverty, hunger, and dirt,
Sewing at once, with a double thread, a shroud, as well as a shirt.”
By working through these conditions to make garments, Hood believes the workers are also stitching their own “shroud” or digging their own grave.
Being symbolic of the working conditions of the time, it is clear that, from a workers standpoint, that sweatshops endangered safety, perpetuated poverty, and promoted the neglecting of the welfare of factory workers.
So the question arises: do the inhumane practices that once plagued garment workers still happen today? Are clothing companies still taking advantage of the poor and needy in order to be cost efficient for profit gain?
On one side, the Unites States government has made great advances in regards to instilling crucial labor laws that prevent businesses from abusing worker’s rights. One of the biggest federal protective laws is The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) which protects workers by setting standards for wages, overtime, record keeping, and child labor. The FLSA forces employers to obey the Federal and State laws governing workers rights. Important standards of the FLSA include:
Minimum Wage: $7.50
Overtime: 40 hours a week or more enables “time and a half” or 1.5 times your hourly wage
Child Labor: Minimum age required for work is 14 years old
Record Keeping: Employers must record information about their workers such as hours worked each day, time and day the work week begins and ends, as well as a basic information such as the employee’s full name, social security number, and birth date.
This law is constantly amended in order to keep up with our economy and American society. For instance, in 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed which prohibited lower pay based on sex, which was a huge step towards equality between men and woman. Also, in 1967 the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was passed which prohibited employment discrimination against employers over the age of 40. The FLSA has been constantly amended historically in order to increase or decrease minimum wage.
But even with these great strides made by our Federal government, various garment companies today across the world are still in many ways shown to gain profit from sweatshops located in poverty stricken areas across the globe such as Scandinavia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines.
Companies such as Nike, Walmart, Ikea, and Kohl’s are known to use sweatshops in various poor cities across the globe in order to scrape up cheap labor.
In this video clip, Michael Moore exposes Nike’s use of sweatshops in Indonesia and speaks with the CEO of Nike, Phil Knight in his documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqiGiKpYSE&feature=related
Moore is able to show the lack of empathy larger companies have for workers in poor cities who work for cheap to manufacture.
Just like during the Industrial Revolution, sweaters in these countries are tasked with the duties of keeping sweatshop workers productive under horrible working conditions, using high pressure tactics in order to scare workers from unionizing, and ultimately providing larger companies with manufactured products at the expense of workers rights.
Despite exposure from media and various movements and boycotts against the abuse of worker’s rights, companies are still to this day using sweatshops in order to maximize company profit. While America has drastically changed for the better when it comes to passing laws that prohibit abuse of workers, Working conditions similar to those of the Industrial Revolution are still present and alive in our world today.
