Sweatshops are alive and well in 2008
Posted by CP at 4/23/2008 6:32 PM 
Categories: Politics, Business, Economics, Free Trade, war on the middle class, Excessive CEO Compensation, CEO compensation, Big Business, Off shoring, Out Sourcing
Categories: Politics, Business, Economics, Free Trade, war on the middle class, Excessive CEO Compensation, CEO compensation, Big Business, Off shoring, Out Sourcing
Imagine working at a factory that is more fortress than factory, exposure to harmful chemicals, abuse of all kinds, torture and indentured servitude all for about $1/hr. Think this is a story from the Oliver Twist era or the beginning of the industrial revolution. Or maybe products made for a third world economy? Think again!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/shrimp.workers.report/index.html
In America we have all kinds of laws protecting workers and guaranteeing their safety and wages. So what do the execs at WalMart and other retailers do? Simple, produce your product where there are no rules. Next time you eat shrimp or buy that Chinese product, stop for a moment and think about the suffering that went into producing it. You'd think that we would have moved beyond this by now as a country but the Unfair Free Trade policies of the last 20 years have all but assured us that this practice will continue for the foreseeable future. Good paying American manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas to these types of sweatshops. Have prices gone down? Nope but Executive salaries have risen to incredible highs and companies are making record profits left and right.
Oh well, at least it's not here in the States right? Wrong again!
Picture this, a young Indian man answers an Indian company's add promising a high tech position. The young man signs up and is instantly moved to a different country away from his family. Forced to sign a three year agreement and the Indian company keeps 30-70% of his high tech pay as a sponsor fee, pays him months late (if at all) and if he complains, threatens to deport him and ship him out of the country. Not here? Wrong again! This is the life of an H1B tech worker in the United States. 8 out of 10 H1B workers, yes that is 80% work for Indian companies dual based in the US and India and we are about to increase the amount of H1B workers by 70%. No one really knows that these H1B's are actually getting paid, they are contracted out by the Indian contracting company and the client (Microsoft...) pay the Indian company, not the H1B worker. The worker has no recourse for immoral treatment since they don't want to be deported because conditions as bad as they are being treated here beat conditions in their countries where they'd be working at a call center with same conditions as the Shrimp factory workers above.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/shrimp.workers.report/index.html
In America we have all kinds of laws protecting workers and guaranteeing their safety and wages. So what do the execs at WalMart and other retailers do? Simple, produce your product where there are no rules. Next time you eat shrimp or buy that Chinese product, stop for a moment and think about the suffering that went into producing it. You'd think that we would have moved beyond this by now as a country but the Unfair Free Trade policies of the last 20 years have all but assured us that this practice will continue for the foreseeable future. Good paying American manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas to these types of sweatshops. Have prices gone down? Nope but Executive salaries have risen to incredible highs and companies are making record profits left and right.
Oh well, at least it's not here in the States right? Wrong again!
Picture this, a young Indian man answers an Indian company's add promising a high tech position. The young man signs up and is instantly moved to a different country away from his family. Forced to sign a three year agreement and the Indian company keeps 30-70% of his high tech pay as a sponsor fee, pays him months late (if at all) and if he complains, threatens to deport him and ship him out of the country. Not here? Wrong again! This is the life of an H1B tech worker in the United States. 8 out of 10 H1B workers, yes that is 80% work for Indian companies dual based in the US and India and we are about to increase the amount of H1B workers by 70%. No one really knows that these H1B's are actually getting paid, they are contracted out by the Indian contracting company and the client (Microsoft...) pay the Indian company, not the H1B worker. The worker has no recourse for immoral treatment since they don't want to be deported because conditions as bad as they are being treated here beat conditions in their countries where they'd be working at a call center with same conditions as the Shrimp factory workers above.
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