ASA 141
Week 4
In his article "Santa's Sweatshop," William Holstein discusses examples of companies and their goods manufactured under poor working conditions. While globalization has benefitted the manufacturers and consumers by allowing the companies to produce goods at the lowest price - thanks to cheap labor in Third World countries - laborers have worked under devastating conditions to meet their bosses' expectations. Not only does globalization impact the workers financially but also physically and mentally as they have to carry their "unfinished work" back home to get paid.
It sucks and is disturbing to hear people in developing countries are not paid fairly and how their rights are neglected by many countries, mostly those that we readily recognize when we hear their names. Additionally, it was surprising to learn that these poor working conditions are also prevalent in the U.S, especially in big cities such as LA and NY. Hopefully, companies will take this matter seriously and improve their workers' working conditions immediately.
source: ecowarriorprincess
As mentioned in the article, it is impossible to remove all transnationally located companies; it is just not plausible as the world economy is interconnected and interdependent. Rather, the best shot we have is to enforce the companies to improve the working conditions like how Levi's has done in order to create a win-win situation. Finally, I am wondering how practical the recommendations are such as asking sellers about the origins of the products and contacting the companies to obtain more information about the products.
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