3. The existence of sweatshops is our reality. No matter how much we try to avoid wearing something that was made by underpaid workers or children we cannot tell for sure who made it. There are a lot of products on the market that originate from China, Thailand and Bangladesh and are made there. After reading this chapter, I took a look at my sneakers and realized that they are made in Thailand. The reason for this can be found in the fact that what dominates in the economy is the price, therefore some company even though it is American looks on the other side when transferring their manufacture into Third World countries and in return gains lower prices and more profit. With the current recession in the world and a decreased payment ability there is a difficulty avoid sweatshop product. In order to avoid buying a sweatshop product a person would have to be fully aware of the list of brands that abuse the rights of their workers in country and abroad. It is time consuming and very demanding. Another way to avoid buying a sweatshop product is to buy expensive products which are handmade or avoid shopping molls and buy from local shops where products are made by workers who are working in acceptable conditions. The dilemma that America consumer faces in this matter is the price of a product. As we are society where it is encouraged to buy and save with certain benefits, we tend to buy as cheapest things as we can and these products are usually made in sweatshop condition. An average American consumer would have to change its consumer habits in order to restrain from buying this type of products.
5. In the past, unions had a strong influence in determining the position of workers in a company. This means that with the certain union activities (strikes, work slowdowns, etc.) workers had the power to increase their salaries, to ask for benefits and better health insurance. However, the strength of unions has decrease over the past fifty years. There are many reasons for this and one of the most important reasons is that there was not enough political willingness to sustain the unions due to prevailing chase for profit over the rights of workers. Other reasons that influenced the union decline are intimidations of union workers, strong presidential anti campaign of unions and lobbying against unions. The public opinion also turned against unions because some of them used undemocratic methods and were engaged in activities other than fighting for the rights of workers. Now, many people look on unions as something that once existed and do not even consider joining union. According to Brown, "a major reason for decline in union strength is the transformation of economy" (p. 413). People who were union members were usually engaged in manufacturing jobs and now these jobs are on the decline and service job workers are usually nonunion oriented. It is my opinion that I would be more willing to work in the unionized company where workers can organize and if felt suppressed or explored in any way they could stand up and raise their voice. Regardless of the job position it is always better when one is protected by its fellow colleagues and when everyone can stand up and try to correct injustice. The idea of union is good and it would be good if it could regain its former strength and try to correct all the mistakes from the past and act better in the interest of workers.
References:
Brown, E. George. (2010). The Political Economy of Social Problems. Chapter 14.
