FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS
Take a look inside at how the horrible effects of sweatshops devastated the lives of those who are touched by them.
Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Electronics
"Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Electronics." YouTube. Who Pays Film, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 09 June 2015.
https://youtu.be/ns-kJ5Podjw
https://youtu.be/ns-kJ5Podjw
This video is about working conditions in China and its effect on workers there. The main topic it covers is cell phone-making factories. It argues that employees there work in horrible conditions and often suffer from diseases caused by the dangerous chemicals used to make the iPhones and Samsung Galaxies that we all enjoy. The video consists of a wide variety of interviews of Chinese workers, all of whom work in cell phone-making factories and have suffered. Yi Yeting is the name of one of the workers that was interviewed and doctors finally concluded that his leukemia was caused by working in the factories after 19 months of illness. Yi Yeting’s account is riveting and the point of this documentary is to use the stories of the people who were interviewed to raise awareness of the issue of sweatshops in China and to get viewers to take action and do something about it.
Created by Heather White and Lynn Zhang, this video is a very useful source because it offers specific details and real life accounts of how sweatshops affected people's lives. The source is reliable because the people who were interviewed in the video are real workers who were affected by the electronics industry in China. Some of the workers include Chen Qianqian, Yi Yeting, Chen Chuang, Ming Kunpeng, and Shang Jiaojiao. This source is similar to "Arifa - The Life of a Sweatshop Worker" because both are videos interviewing workers that worked in sweatshops. Arifa worked in a sweatshop in Bangladesh and the workers interviewed in this source were employees of sweatshops in China. The source "Mrs. Clinton Can Have Her Factories" is not a video interview but it is similar to the other sources because it is about the story of Majorie Valcelat who worked in a sweatshop in Haiti. The video is apart of Green America's Bad Apple campaign, a petition to sweatshops used to create Apple products. Despite its reliability, the source is biased because it does not mention the potential benefits of sweatshops.
This source was very useful in our research of sweatshops because the interviews of the Chinese workers offered many details that supported our argument that sweatshops are a major issue in the world. For example, one of the workers described her daily schedule. “My work day started at 8:00 AM and ended at 11:00 PM. There were no holidays. I only had one night off a month. We sat there all day cleaning phone chips and using chemicals. There was an Apple screen and a Nokia screen. When I wasn’t eating or sleeping I would be wiping something. It was the only thing I did. There was no other ventilation. No windows. The smell was horrible at first but I eventually got used to it.” As you can see, this worker suffers from working very long hours (between 8:00 AM and 11:00 PM) and she handles dangerous chemicals. Many of the other workers that were interviewed suffered from diseases caused by dangerous chemicals, especially benzene. Benzene is a category one carcinogen, is very dangerous, and is used in the production of cell phones. In addition, many of the workers were diagnosed with leukemia like Chen Qianqian. Often times, the workers who are suffering from these diseases commit suicide. One of the ill workers, Chen Chuang, explained this very well. "I've been living in this hospital for six years now. It feels like a prison and there is no way to escape. I feel like my life is over. I really don't know what to do." That is exactly how Ming Kunpeng felt, except he knew what to do about his situation. He committed suicide six weeks after his interview. He was only 26 years old at the time. The benzene activist, Yi Yeting, spoke about Ming's story to a group of other activists, all of whom have been affected by the deadly chemical benzene. "He jumped off the building. He ultimately chose to end his own life. He couldn't take the struggle any longer, the pressure of dealing with this illness, the factory, and the benzene poisoning."
In conclusion, this documentary shows how sweatshops in China deeply affects the workers there. The labor for long hours in horrible conditions and are exposed to dangerous chemicals. Often times, they are diagnosed with cancer or chemical poisoning at a very young age. And unfortunately, sometimes they resort to taking their own life.
Created by Heather White and Lynn Zhang, this video is a very useful source because it offers specific details and real life accounts of how sweatshops affected people's lives. The source is reliable because the people who were interviewed in the video are real workers who were affected by the electronics industry in China. Some of the workers include Chen Qianqian, Yi Yeting, Chen Chuang, Ming Kunpeng, and Shang Jiaojiao. This source is similar to "Arifa - The Life of a Sweatshop Worker" because both are videos interviewing workers that worked in sweatshops. Arifa worked in a sweatshop in Bangladesh and the workers interviewed in this source were employees of sweatshops in China. The source "Mrs. Clinton Can Have Her Factories" is not a video interview but it is similar to the other sources because it is about the story of Majorie Valcelat who worked in a sweatshop in Haiti. The video is apart of Green America's Bad Apple campaign, a petition to sweatshops used to create Apple products. Despite its reliability, the source is biased because it does not mention the potential benefits of sweatshops.
This source was very useful in our research of sweatshops because the interviews of the Chinese workers offered many details that supported our argument that sweatshops are a major issue in the world. For example, one of the workers described her daily schedule. “My work day started at 8:00 AM and ended at 11:00 PM. There were no holidays. I only had one night off a month. We sat there all day cleaning phone chips and using chemicals. There was an Apple screen and a Nokia screen. When I wasn’t eating or sleeping I would be wiping something. It was the only thing I did. There was no other ventilation. No windows. The smell was horrible at first but I eventually got used to it.” As you can see, this worker suffers from working very long hours (between 8:00 AM and 11:00 PM) and she handles dangerous chemicals. Many of the other workers that were interviewed suffered from diseases caused by dangerous chemicals, especially benzene. Benzene is a category one carcinogen, is very dangerous, and is used in the production of cell phones. In addition, many of the workers were diagnosed with leukemia like Chen Qianqian. Often times, the workers who are suffering from these diseases commit suicide. One of the ill workers, Chen Chuang, explained this very well. "I've been living in this hospital for six years now. It feels like a prison and there is no way to escape. I feel like my life is over. I really don't know what to do." That is exactly how Ming Kunpeng felt, except he knew what to do about his situation. He committed suicide six weeks after his interview. He was only 26 years old at the time. The benzene activist, Yi Yeting, spoke about Ming's story to a group of other activists, all of whom have been affected by the deadly chemical benzene. "He jumped off the building. He ultimately chose to end his own life. He couldn't take the struggle any longer, the pressure of dealing with this illness, the factory, and the benzene poisoning."
In conclusion, this documentary shows how sweatshops in China deeply affects the workers there. The labor for long hours in horrible conditions and are exposed to dangerous chemicals. Often times, they are diagnosed with cancer or chemical poisoning at a very young age. And unfortunately, sometimes they resort to taking their own life.
A Haitian Sweatshop Worker Speaks: “Mrs. Clinton Can Have Her Factories”
"A Haitian Sweatshop Worker Speaks:." Global Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2015.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/5342802/5342802
Rarely are worker conditions ever described in detail. It’s one thing to summarize, it’s another to pick the details out. This interview provides an insight into the details of life surrounding an Haitian embroidery worker, Majorie Valcelat. With three children to care for, a father that has left, and a lack of adequate schooling, she decided to work in a factory. From 4:00 AM wakeup times to a pay that Americans would see as a pure violation, this worker has suffered tremendously from the greed of sweatshop factories.
Work for Valcelat began around 2005, when she decided to do factory labor. At first, she needed training for the embroidery machine she was assigned. However, this training was not free. “I spent a month training, but during that time they didn’t pay me; I had to pay them for the training.” This would be simply the start of future troubles. Ideally, Valcelat would reach the quota and receive 1,250 gourdes, $30.00 in the US dollar, per two weeks. However, due to her overall skills, this would generally be 500 gourdes [US$12.50], a value Americans might spend on their daily lunch or dinner. Speaking of lunches, in the factory, Valcelat’s only break would be lunchtime between 11:00 to about 11:30. Often times, vendors near the factory ran out of food, forcing people to either go hungry or search farther for food, cutting the 30 minutes break to sometimes 10 minutes. Should a worker not return in time, even a minute late, they would be shut out and unable to work and be paid for their efforts.
Towards the end of her work in embroidery in 2008, many factors have broken her overall ability to work down. One factor was her machine breakage. The machine was broken, seemingly so that it could still function, but able to put out even less than before. Her machine was never fixed because the mechanics practically forgot about her. Instead, “The big women, the ones with the fat bottoms that they can feel up, the mechanics would go fix their machines.” The second factor that forced her away from any factory work would be her personal health. Due to her three years in the embroidery factory, she became physically weak. This caused her pay to plummet to a measly 190 gourdes [US$4.52]. By this point, Valcelat stated, “Well, I don’t need to come here any more. I’d best quit this.” Since then, she has consistently voiced her opinion against factory expansion, especially Mrs. Clinton, who has, “promoted the expansion of the export assembly industry.” Valcelat had hoped that the US would provide schools and health centers rather than yet another offshoring exploit. Valcelat concludes by saying, “Mrs. Clinton can have her factories. Me and my children, we’ll take the health centers.” as a protest to the unrecognized treatment of workers affected by her decisions.
Overall, Valcelat’s description of life in a sweatshop factory puts into perspective the horrors of offshored labor left unmanaged by some higher power. She tells us how desperate one can be just to put food on the plate, yet drain herself of all but her life to survive the inequality she faces on a daily basis. Sweatshops must be recognized as a threat to human rights, when stories like Valcelat’s start to become increasingly common.
"A Haitian Sweatshop Worker Speaks:." Global Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2015.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/5342802/5342802
Rarely are worker conditions ever described in detail. It’s one thing to summarize, it’s another to pick the details out. This interview provides an insight into the details of life surrounding an Haitian embroidery worker, Majorie Valcelat. With three children to care for, a father that has left, and a lack of adequate schooling, she decided to work in a factory. From 4:00 AM wakeup times to a pay that Americans would see as a pure violation, this worker has suffered tremendously from the greed of sweatshop factories.
Work for Valcelat began around 2005, when she decided to do factory labor. At first, she needed training for the embroidery machine she was assigned. However, this training was not free. “I spent a month training, but during that time they didn’t pay me; I had to pay them for the training.” This would be simply the start of future troubles. Ideally, Valcelat would reach the quota and receive 1,250 gourdes, $30.00 in the US dollar, per two weeks. However, due to her overall skills, this would generally be 500 gourdes [US$12.50], a value Americans might spend on their daily lunch or dinner. Speaking of lunches, in the factory, Valcelat’s only break would be lunchtime between 11:00 to about 11:30. Often times, vendors near the factory ran out of food, forcing people to either go hungry or search farther for food, cutting the 30 minutes break to sometimes 10 minutes. Should a worker not return in time, even a minute late, they would be shut out and unable to work and be paid for their efforts.
Towards the end of her work in embroidery in 2008, many factors have broken her overall ability to work down. One factor was her machine breakage. The machine was broken, seemingly so that it could still function, but able to put out even less than before. Her machine was never fixed because the mechanics practically forgot about her. Instead, “The big women, the ones with the fat bottoms that they can feel up, the mechanics would go fix their machines.” The second factor that forced her away from any factory work would be her personal health. Due to her three years in the embroidery factory, she became physically weak. This caused her pay to plummet to a measly 190 gourdes [US$4.52]. By this point, Valcelat stated, “Well, I don’t need to come here any more. I’d best quit this.” Since then, she has consistently voiced her opinion against factory expansion, especially Mrs. Clinton, who has, “promoted the expansion of the export assembly industry.” Valcelat had hoped that the US would provide schools and health centers rather than yet another offshoring exploit. Valcelat concludes by saying, “Mrs. Clinton can have her factories. Me and my children, we’ll take the health centers.” as a protest to the unrecognized treatment of workers affected by her decisions.
Overall, Valcelat’s description of life in a sweatshop factory puts into perspective the horrors of offshored labor left unmanaged by some higher power. She tells us how desperate one can be just to put food on the plate, yet drain herself of all but her life to survive the inequality she faces on a daily basis. Sweatshops must be recognized as a threat to human rights, when stories like Valcelat’s start to become increasingly common.
Arifa -- the life of a sweatshop worker
"Arifa -- the Life of a Sweatshop Worker." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Apr. 2012. Web. 09 June 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXTwzW5mXvs
Arifa Akter is a former sweatshop worker who now works as a union organiser for the National Garment Workers' Federation, one of War on Want's partners and the largest union of garment workers in Bangladesh. She talks about her experience working in sweatshops and what people in the UK can do to support their struggle. She believes that people in sweatshops are not paid a living wage, and governments do nothing to help. They have policies dictating how many hours workers are allowed to work in a day but they do nothing to enforce or regulate that these policies are being followed-they ask managers if they are being followed, and who in their right mind would say “no”? Even if the government manages to raise the wage of a worker, consequently, prices of food and clothing are also raised, and the workers are back in the same position. Arifa believes that consumers in the UK can protest against worker conditions by asking brands questions into the conditions. This forces the brands to check the conditions in the sweatshops, and then improve them so that consumers will still be inclined to buy from them.
This is a very reliable source because Arifa has experienced both worlds of being a sweatshop worker to someone who has the choice to buy from them. Also, Arifa is part of a union, and reports in the video on how she contributed to making sweatshop conditions better. Besides this, Arifa has also suffered on having to balance on how much money to send her family and how much money to keep to raise her children. She has obviously experienced tumultuous times and being a worker, especially in Bangladesh (the poorest country in the world), she gave useful insight into how sweatshops work. This video was created by The Rainbow Collective, a very trustworthy and popular group that strives to raise awareness on the issues of human and children rights. Arifa stands out from the other two primary sources because it is the only one from Bangladesh, which as I said, ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world. It shows the worst side of sweatshops, and gives all the more reason that we have to change these conditions.
This source is extremely useful to our cause because it provided much needed information into exactly how sweatshops elude and dodge government policies and how consumer continue buying clothes, completely unaware of the strenuity that has been put into them. Once we have obtained a better understanding of the actual problem, it helps us in forming a solution against the corrupt and greedy sweatshop owners. For example, one of the ways we’d like to help the cause is by educating people in rallies about how workers receive abuse in their environment. This lets them choose their products more carefully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXTwzW5mXvs
Arifa Akter is a former sweatshop worker who now works as a union organiser for the National Garment Workers' Federation, one of War on Want's partners and the largest union of garment workers in Bangladesh. She talks about her experience working in sweatshops and what people in the UK can do to support their struggle. She believes that people in sweatshops are not paid a living wage, and governments do nothing to help. They have policies dictating how many hours workers are allowed to work in a day but they do nothing to enforce or regulate that these policies are being followed-they ask managers if they are being followed, and who in their right mind would say “no”? Even if the government manages to raise the wage of a worker, consequently, prices of food and clothing are also raised, and the workers are back in the same position. Arifa believes that consumers in the UK can protest against worker conditions by asking brands questions into the conditions. This forces the brands to check the conditions in the sweatshops, and then improve them so that consumers will still be inclined to buy from them.
This is a very reliable source because Arifa has experienced both worlds of being a sweatshop worker to someone who has the choice to buy from them. Also, Arifa is part of a union, and reports in the video on how she contributed to making sweatshop conditions better. Besides this, Arifa has also suffered on having to balance on how much money to send her family and how much money to keep to raise her children. She has obviously experienced tumultuous times and being a worker, especially in Bangladesh (the poorest country in the world), she gave useful insight into how sweatshops work. This video was created by The Rainbow Collective, a very trustworthy and popular group that strives to raise awareness on the issues of human and children rights. Arifa stands out from the other two primary sources because it is the only one from Bangladesh, which as I said, ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world. It shows the worst side of sweatshops, and gives all the more reason that we have to change these conditions.
This source is extremely useful to our cause because it provided much needed information into exactly how sweatshops elude and dodge government policies and how consumer continue buying clothes, completely unaware of the strenuity that has been put into them. Once we have obtained a better understanding of the actual problem, it helps us in forming a solution against the corrupt and greedy sweatshop owners. For example, one of the ways we’d like to help the cause is by educating people in rallies about how workers receive abuse in their environment. This lets them choose their products more carefully.