Interpretation (45)
People working in the clothes industry face serious mistreatment that violet their human rights. In most nations with these industries, laborers face oppression under a poor working environment. Just as slaves, they work for long hours with little payment that cannot meet their basic needs.
Analysis (406)
According to an article from the Guardian by Chamberlain, Indian clothing workers expose the condition under which they work. The clothing industries in the region include international firms such as Walmart, H&M, and Gap among others. The workers reveal that they receive monthly wages that are not enough to purchase even one of the garments they produce. Surely, their wages are too little, a situation that compels them to survive through debts. Worse still, employers at times fail to pay wages making the workers suffer because exploitation occurs. As if withholding wages is not enough, any attempts to complain about the mistreatment results to being fired (Chamberlain paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7, &8).
Managers and supervisors abuse workers in the nation and across the world both verbally and physically. The supervisors, for example, call the workers abusive and disrespectful names like donkeys and dogs in front of their co-workers, thus, degrading them. At the peak of animosity, workers operate under pressure with no permission to take a break they may need to respond to a call of nature. Despite all these ill-treatments, most of the workers are paid wages below the minimum set wages by their nations (Ross 43).
Most of the leading clothing companies, for example, Walmart, are operating their production processes in other nations outside their home countries. Strategically, this is to cut the cost of production and enable the firms to offer low prices for their customers, attract more sale and consequently high revenues. With the reduced cost of production, come the evils and atrocities that employers impose to workers in such industries in the foreign countries.
Although the companies deny any knowledge and support of such malpractices, their strategy of production fosters its perpetration. By moving their production to the third world countries, they advance child labor and slavery in their production. Most of the third world countries may not have policies regarding the working conditions or may fail to enforce them, therefore creating a chance for the exploitation of people. For example, the Chinese government does not support human rights activists, hence exposes workers to slavery (Conditions of Workers in the Garment Industry in China 37).
Most of the firms violate the human rights. Workers lack a conducive working environment, and they work for long hours. Workers in this industry lose jobs without any good reason, miss their payment, and receive below minimum wages and employers abuse them (Hale & Jane 56).
Evaluation (31)
Chamberlain exposes the conditions that workers in the clothing industry face. The article describes the situation of the workers in the clothing industry and provides numerous examples to unfold the slavery.
Inference (20)
Laborers slavery in the clothing industries is a global problem whose solution depends on the labor laws of different countries.
Explanation (52)
The working conditions are nothing short of slavery, and any attempt by workers to fight for their rights is futile because of threats of losing jobs by the management. With the differences in labor laws among countries and the increasing demand for more clothes, slavery will most likely increase in the future.
Self-Regulation (33)
While, in Florida, I did work identifying how community workers of various industries face slavery, and yet they are pertinent for the success of such firms, therefore, I have a bias towards slavery.
Works cited
Chamberlain, Gethin. "India's clothing workers: 'They slap us and call us dogs and donkeys'." The Guardian, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/25/india-clothing-workers-slave-wages>.
Conditions of Workers in the Garment Industry in China. Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center, 1997. Print.
Hale, Angela, and Jane Wills. Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Workers' Perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2005. Print.
Ross, Robert J. S. Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Print.
