Sweatshops
...r and has caused its success as the largest clothing company in the U.S. One of the factories which Gap Incorporated buys its’ apparel from is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The factory is called the “June Textiles.” The average wage in this factory and in all factories in Cambodia is twenty-one cents per hour. Employees as young as twelve years old work seven-day work weeks and live in unhealthy dormitories. The average family of four in the United States spends about two thousand five hundred dollars in a year. Of that two thousand five hundred dollars, about sixty dollars went to apparel production workers. Another factory owned by Gap Incorporated is located in the Dominican Republic. The factory known as “BJ&B” workers earn about thirty to forty dollars per week. The funds in these situations are not nearly enough to support a family. Unfortunately, most people in those countries have no choice but to work in those factories. They have no choice but to work for such little pay. They can’t just form a union and go on strike to demand better pay or working conditions like we can here in the United States. They do not have the benefits we do, or the freedom. In one situation, BJ&B workers in the Dominican Republic attempted to organize a union. They were fired on the spot and immediately replaced. United States retailers have made millions upon millions in the industry by one simple formula: creating a popular look to attract customers in the U.S while making the clothing as cheaply as possible. The manufacturing factories around the world used by these retailers but are not owned by the retailers; instead, many companies save money by buying the clothing made in the factories rather than paying for the clothing to be made. When retailers such as Gap incorporated are accused of operating sweatshops, they simply use the excuse that they do not own the factories and therefore are not responsible for the labor conditions. However, even though they don’t technically own the factory they do control the success of each factory. What is made, the amount of workers needed, and the demand of the product depends on what the company needs. All of this comes back to what we as consumers in the United States buy. If one of the big retailers were to change factories, they would most likely be forced to shut down, putting thousands of people out of work. Therefore, if we as consumers stop buying from these retailers, we are indirectly putting people out of the job. While it doesn’t seem like it would be such a bad thing to shut down these factories and get workers out of those conditions, it is actually a huge source of income for that country. Due to the fact that these workers dep...