according to some sources, speedo (or companies hired to produce products for speedo) is guilty of serious abuse of its employees. follow the link.
www.nlcnet.org/reports.php
something to think about as we watch those lzr clad titans breaking records.
do we care?
should we (usms and usa swimming) act?
makes me wonder...........how 'bout you?
Parents
Former Member
Unfortunately the garment industry has a long history of exploiting workers. There was a brief period of time ('50s and '60s) when North Americans were buying clothes from North American factories and paying prices that reflected a living wage for the machine operators. Store-bought clothes were more expensive then, which is why so many people made their own. Somewhere along the line we got the idea that clothes should be really cheap and almost disposable. That meant outsourcing to poorer countries.
As someone on my favorite sewing site once put it: "People who don't sew think that clothes just magically appear in the discount stores courtesy of the Third World Labour Fairies."
How ironic that the one thing garment workers in communist China really could stand to copy from capitalist North America is... a labour union.
Unfortunately the garment industry has a long history of exploiting workers. There was a brief period of time ('50s and '60s) when North Americans were buying clothes from North American factories and paying prices that reflected a living wage for the machine operators. Store-bought clothes were more expensive then, which is why so many people made their own. Somewhere along the line we got the idea that clothes should be really cheap and almost disposable. That meant outsourcing to poorer countries.
As someone on my favorite sewing site once put it: "People who don't sew think that clothes just magically appear in the discount stores courtesy of the Third World Labour Fairies."
How ironic that the one thing garment workers in communist China really could stand to copy from capitalist North America is... a labour union.
