SHOCKINGLY AWFUL: Exploitation of humans by US multi-national corporations

Every day. Millions of people worldwide are exploited, sickened, and malnourished by the US tyrannical regime and its despicable food policies, financial fraud, labour and trade practices, natural resource tyranny, brutal force, and this is just the civil sector! The military has created a perpetual state of drones flying outside of the constitutionally mandated regulation of war.

Ignorant members of the US claim they do so much good, but in fact the country is a very horrible state.

As long as the US politicians and government live in comfort despite the suffering and existential struggle of their people, the US politicians won't have an incentive to change, and the US won't change! It will only lead to more suffering for the US people, until which time the politicians share in the common strife and suffering, to effect change to better the composite condition!

http://www.globallabourrights.org/alerts?id=0176

We had the chance to meet with some of the young women in Bangladesh who sew Wal-Mart’s women’s organic jeans at the (*)Anowara Apparels factory in Chittagong. Wal-Mart accounts for nearly 100 percent of the production at Anowara Apparels, where 90 percent of the 2,500 workers are young women struggling to survive. The workers did not know much about organic cotton, but they did know that the denim fabric is rough, stiff, abrasive to handle and difficult to sew. Each assembly line of 25 sewers is given a mandatory production goal of completing 250 pairs of Faded Glory jeans per hour, or ten pairs per worker.(*) This means the women are allowed just six minutes to sew each pair of jeans.

The minimum wage in the factory is 11 ½ cents an hour for new workers, while senior sewing operators can earn 17 cents.(*) It is now becoming clearer how Wal-Mart can sell a pair of “organic” blue jeans for only $8.00 --The young workers in Bangladesh are paid less than two cents for each pair of jeans they sew! Senior sewers are paid 1.7 cents for each pair of Wal-Mart jeans they sew. (Each worker must sew 10 pairs of jeans per hour, or one pair every six minutes—which is 10 percent of an hour. Ten percent of their 17-cent-an-hour wage amounts to 1.7 cents.)

Given the 17-cent-an-hour wage senior operators earn, the women can only afford to rent miserable one-room hovel s in slum neighborhoods. When it rains at night, the roof leaks. The workers and their families must sit up, covering themselves with plastic. All they can afford to eat is the cheapest rice and lentils, and sometimes mashed potatoes. They cook with scraps of wood, as gas is too expensive. Dozens of workers share one hand pump, where they line up to clean dishes, scrub their clothes and wash themselves. Bangladesh’s woman Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, just days ago told the media: The wage the workers are paid, I will say, is not only insufficient, but also inhumane. It is simply impossible for [the garment workers] to even live from hand to mouth in the capital with the peanuts they get in wages.”

In a July 18 meeting with Bangladesh’s Minister of Labor, Mr. Khondker Mosharraf Hossain, he told us that the government would like to support the garment workers’ demands for a new minimum wage of 5,000 taka a month, which is just 35 cents an hour, $16.60 a week and $71.94 a month. In a just world, he continued, the workers should earn more than 35 cents an hour. The problem Bangladesh faces, he said, is that the giant multinational retailers—like Wal-Mart and Tesco—will not pay for the desperately-needed wage increase. It’s the exact opposite, as each year the multinationals want to cut production costs and drive down wages. The Labor Minister asked for help to control the multinationals.

The lives of over 3.5 million workers in Bangladesh, most of them young women, hang in the balance. The workers are united in their modest demand for a 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage, which they told us would “make a huge difference in our lives.” If the new minimum wage is set at 35 cents an hour for entry-level workers, this means that junior and senior operators would earn anywhere from 42 cents to 55 cents an hour, or $3.32 to $4.43 a day. With these wages, the workers explained to us, they could afford to purchase sufficient food, so they would not always be hungry, and they could rent slightly better rooms. They could afford to pay for primary school education for their children. They could help their parents a little more. Some workers told us they would even open bank accounts in order to save for emergencies.

Here is what the workers are asking for: In the case of Wal-Mart’s production at the Anowara Apparels factory, the workers explain that the denim fabric is too difficult to handle and that 25 sewers can only complete 200 pairs of jeans per hour, not 250 pairs. The workers need seven-and-a-half minutes to complete each pair of Wal-Mart “Faded Glory” jeans. If the garment workers win their modest minimum wage increase to 35 cents an hour for entry level workers, then junior operators (with three to five years experience) would earn 42 cents an hour, while senior sewing operators (with over five years experience) would earn 55 cents an hour. In the best-case scenario, instead of being paid just 1.7 cents to sew each pair of Wal-Mart jeans, the workers—under the new minimum wage and given 7 ½ minutes to sew each pair of jeans—would now earn 5.3 to seven cents for each pair of jeans they sewed.

The only question is, could Wal-Mart afford to pay the Bangladeshi workers 3 ½ to 5 ½ cents more to sew their “Faded Glory” jeans? Of course they could! There are only two reasons that Bangladesh’s over 3 ½ million young women garment workers are trapped in misery: greed, and because the multinationals can get away with it. The Anowara Apparels factory in Chittagong is just one of seven garment factories owned by the Valiant Group, which describes itself as a “market leader in the apparel industry of Bangladesh.” The Anowara factory and the Valiant Group are owned in turn by the powerful Habib Group of Industries in Bangladesh.

The Valiant Group produces not only for Wal-Mart, but also for Kohl’s, Sears, J.C. Penney, Lee, Wrangler, Arrow, Chaps, Macy’s and Izod. In short, Wal-Mart, Anowara Apparels/Valiant Group and the other garment retailers have all the power in the world to set a 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage in Bangladesh so that over 3.5 million mostly young women garment workers can finally climb out of misery and at least into poverty.

Wal-Mart, Tesco and the other giant retailers are responsible, and must be held accountable if they continue lobbying to keep the garment workers’ wages well below subsistence levels. When we asked the young Anowara Apparels workers if they had a union at the factory, they told us: “Oh, no. We couldn’t even think of it. We would all be fired and thrown out of the factory and left on the street with no way to survive.”

But the young women workers did tell us that if they did not get the 5,000 taka a month, 35 cent-an-hour new minimum wage, they would strike. If the garment workers do not win their 35 cent-an-hour minimum wage demand—or something very close to it—it is possible they will strike. If 3.5 million mostly young women garment workers walk out, this could be the largest women’s strike in history.

 

Well, they've got it twice as good as cruise ship workers. (they only make 17 cents an hour). Don't know what they're complaining about. (by the way...minimum wages is a terrible idea, but oil executive welfare is a fantastic one).

 

The only reason globalisation works for us Westerners, is our ability to exploit people from other nations.

 

So go to war with us and make us stop, because we're never going to stop on our own. Oh thats right, you can't stop us, because you aren't ruthless enough.

 

Exploitation is only exploitation when someone is left worse off than they were before.

Before, there were no jobs and those ppl starved to death. now they have and can feed themselves. That isn't exploitation, its free trade.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/29/bangladesh-garment-minimum-wage


They did just receive an 80% raise. All in all thats not a bad jump up.
Considering where Bangledesh was in 1971 they seem to be on the move up.
We can give it time to build or we can push reforms Soviet style with the gun.

My quess is in 40 years from now we'll have folks on this site opining. "That damn rich spoiled country needs to spread its wealth around".

 

Yeah yeah, keep on telling yourself that.... The African slaves were better off in America also weren't they....

 

You fellows are (dare i say) misguided in your assessment on the effects of US exploitation against the world's cultures.

The people are not much better with the remedial jobs. Really, I believe they would be better without the jobs.

It is worse to live in suffering than to die in dignity.

Also I believe the government would find another solotion if only its ass was to the fan.

What's wrong!? The US is supposed to be the wonderful highly ethical dream boat you can often be heard pleasure moaning about however when I adjust my microscope it only looks like pond water to me. What's wrong?

How hard is it to live up to those delusions? Let's be serious however.... These are real people, with real lives that you are exploiting. How far cn we turn our heads before acknowledging, at a minimum we can't be hypocrites.

 

Respectfully Marshal,

If you truly believe that, then you are preaching to the wrong crowd.

Perhaps you should be concentrating you articulate writing skill on conveying your thoughts directly to the workers. Explain to them that it would be in their best interest not to eagerly line up hoping for one of these jobs. Clearly, they are incapable of thinking for themselves.

Good luck

 

The company that owns those mills has been in that area since the 1800's.
Do you want the US to conduct war to bring about reforms in a peaceful country? Can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

Why would I be so stupid?

Yes... You are correct in your recognition that DESPERATION is a difficult phenomenon to argue with.

However I should much rather address the Bangladesh government.

Ya.. It's the responsibility of the government to protect the people from foreign exploitation regardless of their innocent act of desperation, regardless of the individual responsibility to meet their own destiny.

Responsibility without opportunity is not accountability!

 

Sounds like the Republican game plan for American workers.....

 

I am in agreement with you. With the exception of the use of the word "exploitaton," used in this context.

I have a difficult time viewing anyone (government or individual), who not only welcomes but seeks out opportunity, knowing the conditions of the bargain at the onset, to then cry foul, once the bargain is secured.

As you alluded, perhaps the culprit here is their government, not U.S. foreign investment. Thus my "preaching to the wrong crowd" comment.


Regardless, I do believe your heart is in the right place. I respect your thoughts/opinions, and appreciate your post.

Regards

 

The girls at the Bangladesh jeans factory can always go back to their pristine villages and do whatever they did before they came to the factory. Nobody is forcing them to work there.

 

These guys only believe in their own freedom and their own notion of it... they do not believe in the freedom of others or other notions of it.

They will trample over other freedoms, in order to ensure their freedom to buy cheap stuff from Wallmart.

 

They could ensure that the working conditions and wages of their suppliers are within reasonable limits... the profits of these companies clearly indicate this is possible. But this would kill the poiint of this wouldn't it... The point is to make stuff at the lowest possible cost, trampling over the human rights of others as they go.... avoiding the regulations we have, which protect us from abusive companies.

 

Funny. The Bangladeshis don't seem to agree with Marshal or Leffe.

Nobody is holding these people in their factories at gunpoint. Bangladeshis fight over those jobs. Those jobs, for all their shortcomings, beat all the available alternatives.

 

Don't ya just love the Righty's PRO-LIFE stance.....

 

So taking advantage of starving desperate people is a good thing for you...OK.

That's why I said that this is the Republican's game plan for Americans....make them so desperate just to stay alive that they're willing to do anything for any price.....that's slavery, that's Third World, that's what you want for Americans.

 

You are probably wrong about the 'nobody forcing them" Even if it only they themselves who choose, rather heroically, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their family.

 

We have a maid from Philippines. She earns about $1.40 per hour US, and she sends about 95% of it home to her family.

She has a college degree.

 

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say here except to prove you don't mind taking advantage of someone....$1.40 an hour, disgraceful!

 

If the price of walmart jeans went up a dollar I don't think any American would so much as notice. Personally I'd be happy to pay it if I knew it was going to the worker.
My point is IMO its not WalMarts or any other US company or government to intervene in a peaceful countries business practises.
This is soley between the Bangledesh workers/voters and the government. If an American company choses to ask for better reforms I'm not against that either.
They're building a country out of scratch right now. Its not perfect but by most accounts its coming along pretty well. Ours, not so much.

 

Maybe $1.40 an hour is good pay where ever taikoo lives right now?????

 

Working in the jeans factory is a better life than being your average Bangladeshi.