A sweatshop is any workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation. This includes hazardous working conditions, arbitrary discipline, a lack of a living wage, benefits, dignity or basic human rights, and the use of child labor. Sweatshops often involve forced overtime, low wages, punishments and fines for slow work and mistakes. People all over the world are working together to confront the greed, bigotry and myths that perpetuate sweatshops.
In 1911 a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company killed 146 garment workers in New York City. It became a catalyst that helped to end the commonplace abuse of workers in the United States. Days after the fire over 80,000 people took part in the funeral procession up. The groundswell of support led to new rights for workers and safer workplaces in America.
U.S. manufacturers have found that they no longer need to own and operate their own factories. In a world virtually free of borders, they look for subcontractors in countries where labor and operating costs are lowest.
The World Bank and foreign lenders such as the U.S. Agency for International Development require developing nations to bolster their economies by creating export industries. These policies create a glut of manufacturing plants in countries that have poorly developed labor and environmental laws, enabling transnational corporations to dictate their purchase prices.
Contractors, importers, agents and others are each trying to make a profit from those directly below them on the supply chain. Consequently, factories frequently do not know where their goods are headed, just as manufacturers and merchandisers often do not know a product's source.