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Sweatshops
Contents
History > The Evolution of a Garment
-- How the Sweatshop System Worked > Roles within the Tenement
Sweatshop > Seasonality in the Garment Industry > Contemporary
Sweatshops > Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Contemporary Sweatshops
There is a popular misconception that sweatshops
no longer operate in the United States, and exist only as a problem
in "developing" nations that lack unions and other fair
practice labor laws. This is in fact false. In 2000, it was estimated
that there were 93,000 workers in the New York City garment industry.
Of the shops that employed these workers, approximately 60% (7,000-7,500
shops) could be deemed sweatshops in the sense that their operators
abused and disregarded laws designed to ensure that workers were
treated decently.
Even as the 21st century begins, the Lower East Side and adjoining
Chinatown remain intricately tied to the garment industry. Along
with the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn, many garment shops in Chinatown
still work on the system of contracting. Presently, Chinese workers
constitute the largest portion of immigrants working in both legal
and illegal garment shops, although they are joined by other recent
immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Vietnam and
myriad other nations.
Many of the same issues persist. Contractors continue to be recent
immigrants themselves and seem to "aid" fellow immigrants
by providing a job where they need not speak English, can bring
their children to the factory (often to work in violation of child
labor laws), and receive payments in cash so as to avoid taxation
and possible detection by the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS). Like their historical counterparts, the contractors still
sweat their workers as well. The continued use of the piece-rate
system, where workers are paid for each garment produced rather
than at a standard hourly rate, ensures that garment workers in
sweatshops earn well under the federally mandated minimum wage rate.
Chinese sewing machine operators working in Chinatown and Sunset
Park often worke anywhere from 60 to 100 (!) hours a week, despite
earning only $150 to $400 per week. Furthermore, workers' wages
are often withheld for weeks at a time or altogether, if the contractor
decides to abandon his shop and move elsewhere.
The influx of numerous illegal immigrants along with immigrants
who came to the United States through legal means, further complicates
the situation. Illegal immigrants, who are often coerced into paying
for their journey on credit, work long hours for clandestine operations.
They are worked even more harshly as bosses realize they are unlikely
to form unions or level any type of complaints, since many possess
deeply rooted fears of attracting the attention of the INS. Consequently,
legal immigrants are forced to compete and match the output of illegal
immigrants in order to stay employed.
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