Sweatshops
Exploitation is never in fashion.

What's a sweatshop?

Students Against Sweatshops - Canada (SASC) defines a sweatshops as a factory where workers get treated very badly. This might mean low salaries, forced overtime and, in some cases, workers might be physically or sexually abused, handcuffed to sewing machines or even forced to take pregnancy tests. Sweat shops are not good places to work.

Finding out what companies use sweatshops to manufacture their clothing is almost impossible. It's very hard to get information about companies' manufacturing conditions. And, there's no master list of companies that don't use sweatshops. There's a distant relationship between retailers and manufacturers. There's a lot of subcontracting going on. This means many companies don't assume liability for treatment of workers in factories that make their goods.

Let's take Nike as an example. Nike has close to half a million workers in over 700 workplaces around the world. But, there's no way of knowing exactly where each product is made.

Just because the label says "made in Canada" doesn't mean it wasn't made in a sweatshop. It's actually possible that the house next door is a sweatshop. Street Cents found a study done in 1999 by a professor at the University of Toronto. The report says, in Canada, close to 40,000 women work at home sewing for big companies. They're sometimes mistreated. And, sometimes make as little as $2/hr.

Likewise, just because the label says, "Made in China," doesn't necessarily mean it was made in a sweatshop. Some developing countries have factories with health clinics. Some even pay their employees fair wages.

The thing is, we can't just pick one company and say they're the bad guys. It's the whole system that has to change.

So now we know the definition of a sweatshop [PLEASE LINK TO "WHAT'S A SWEATSHOP?"]. We know we don't support this kind of labour and human rights abuse. We don't want to wear clothes made in a sweatshop. We don't want to support companies who use sweatshops to make their clothes. And finally, we want to see change. In order to see change, we have to fight our opponents - companies who use sweatshops. But what techniques will work against them?

That's the problem with fighting sweatshops. There's no master list of brands that don't use them. In order to wear sweatshop-free clothes, we almost have to go naked.

Some companies, like Nike, have millions of work places around the world. Some of them are sweatshops and some of them aren't. Targeting one company doesn't really work.

It's sounds pretty dismal. We want to fight against something we feel so strongly about. We want to help put an end to sweatshops. But how do we do it?

Street Cents found student groups deep in the battle against sweatshops. We learned some of the techniques that others are using. We're hoping to learn from their experiences. Here are a few examples:

• Street Cents found Aaron Lakoff, a member of the Maquila Solidarity Network. He's in charge of the "cut-it-out campaign." Aaron and other students are cutting out labels from their clothes and sending them to the minister of Industry, Allan Rock. Aaron says it's time Canada took some action. "We need to have changes made to the textile labelling act," says Aaron, "labels need to be very explicit and need to include the factory of origin." Participants of the "cut-it-out campaign" want to know when they pick-up a shirt, that it's sweatshop free - they want the label to actually state "sweatshop free."
• Alexia Clark, in Milton Ontario, is in charge of the Sweatshop Fashion Show at her school. Alexia says during the show students come out sporting different brand names. Models describe the outfit they're wearing and the conditions that the workers, who made the items, are subjected to. Alexia says she became an activist when she realized the unfairness and unjustness of sweatshops. "I found out I could buy a pair of shoes for $100 that really only took 7 cents to make."
• Students at Mount Pearl Secondary School in Newfoundland designed, organized and produced a sweatshop fashion show to help students and teachers understand the importance of human rights. Students at Mount Pearl got funding to create an online site about social justice and environmental issues. Their funding came from SchoolNet GrassRoots, a federal government agency helping youth develop the skills we'll need for our new global economy. To check out the online project created by students at Mount Pearl, CLICK HERE.

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