Why Is Sweatshop Labor Wrong

Labor Practices Paper
Jose Cruz
PHL/320
6/5/15 Kenneth Ferguson

Sweatshop labor is something that has been going on longer than I have been alive, but has gotten a lot more attention lately. Since many American companies have been moving to some underdeveloped countries where they can get the same work done, for pennies on a dollar. This amounts to million dollar savings and benefits for the company, but at what expense? This is a question that is being debated all over the country.
Sweatshop; a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sweatshop).
Personally, I think that sweatshop labor is wrong, because people are being taken advantage of, even if they do not know it, or see it that way. If a company would not have their workers work in an unsafe environment here in America, why would they allow it to happen in another country? There is a saying in the Bible that I like, and it is “do unto others as you would have done unto you”. The company owners should ask their selves, would I work for that
pay, in those same working conditions? Sweatshop labor is sometimes defended from critics by arguments that stress the voluntariness of the worker’s choice, and the fact that sweatshops provide a source of income where no other similar source exists (http://web.b.ebscohost.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/UniversityLibrary/Exploitation as a Path to Development: Sweatshop Labor, Micro-Unfairness, and the Non-Worseness Claim). Some people believe that it is mutually beneficial, and consensual exploitation, which coincides with the “non-worseness claim”, or NWC. I believe, in this case, it might beneficial, and voluntary because their choices are limited, because of their geographical location, and environment. It is almost like they have to pick their own poison, or the lesser evil out of the two. I am pretty sure they do not see it that way, because they might be getting paid more than the average in their area. But they are still doing the same work as someone in America use to do, but for 10 times less or more. That is not even mentioning the unhealthy conditions they are working in.

Companies are willing to do this because of consumer demand.
Consumer demand can impact business decisions by influencing what businesses purchase and even making it more or less feasible for a business to use a particular raw material, and in this case, the sweatshop workers (http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/supply-demand-impacts-decisions-business-14047.html). These sweatshop workers are readily available, and this ensures that the company will not have to pay them much at all. This allows the companies to increase their profits, and or keep their prices low. This practice allows certain companies to keep up with their competition. Without sweatshops, some companies would not even be in business today. There is so much more competition today, than there was years ago, that companies are racing to find ways to save money any which way they
can.
In these underdeveloped countries, ethical perspectives are very different, and companies know that, and that is why they are able to get away with the things that they get away with. Ethical perspectives depend on a person’s background, culture, environment, and beliefs that have been instilled in them. Unhealthy conditions in these workshops might be the norm in their country, so they do not see it as unhealthy, so that is one reason why their ethical perspective does not mind it. As Americans, our standards are a lot higher when it comes to working conditions, and that is why this issue gets so much attention. That brings me to the owners of these companies, and why they think this is okay. They know they could not get away with this in the states, so why would they do it in other places? I believe the reason is money. These companies are so money hungry driven, that they are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of these sweatshop workers. They are taking advantage of them, because the companies know their weaknesses, and their circumstances, and they are capitalizing on them. If a company owner is mature, has good moral character, and decides that sweatshops are morally right, does that make it right? I do not think so, and it should not be that way. This is a case of virtue ethics. The better employees do their jobs, the better our product will be, and the most useful it is to the end users, which supports the idea of social responsibility. Many companies today have integrity based ethics programs that help instill in people a personal responsibility for ethical behavior. Programs like this help companies and people govern themselves through a set of guiding principles that they have to embrace. Once they embrace this attitude, they will share it with society in many different ways.

REFERENCE PAGE

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sweatshop

(http://web.b.ebscohost.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/UniversityLibrary/Exploitation as a Path to Development: Sweatshop Labor, Micro-Unfairness, and the Non-Worseness Claim)

(http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/supply-demand-impacts-decisions-business-14047.html

http://www.mhhe.com/irwin/m/pages/downloads/batemanM2e_sample_ch03_small.pdf