So there appears to be some confusion on what week we're supposed to be doing. I think it should be week 10, but knowing me I'm more than likely wrong. In any case, me and Alejandro unfortunately fell victim to the confusion as well, and he made questions for week 9 while I did week 10, haha. I wasn't there for the last class, but I hear you guys didn't have much time to discuss week 9...? So I'm just going to post all the questions we made. Hopefully we'll be able to talk about both weeks... somehow... lol
Okay here they are.
WEEK NINE
1. How does the growing demand for social reproductive labor (i.e. caregiving, babysitting, etc) redefine motherhood and marriage for the South Asian community that predominantly fills this expanding niche?
2. Philippine women have been dubbed "heroines" by their country for decreasing by 5$ billion dollars a year the country's 45$ billion dollar debt. Who else benefits from their labor? How do they repay these women? (Some starters: US and Philippine families, the Philippine state,
WEEK TEN
3. In what ways does the very structure of the garment manufacturing business cause/perpetuate the oppression of immigrant seamstresses? Describe some other social, cultural, or economic systems that give rise to unjust treatment of minority workers by their very natures. What are some ways to battle the effects of these systems?
4. Feminism is an integral part of AIWA's work. Discuss the intersection of the workers' rights movement and feminism/other self-empowerment movements.
Sorry about the confusion...
As in the case of the El Monte Slave Shop, immigrant workers may be taken almost immediately as they enter the US, and are not given very much of a chance to escape. Ironically, yet almost unavoidably, the major problem of sweatshops goes back down to basic economics. (1) There is a competition for profit, and the winner is usually the clothing label that can find the cheapest labor. (2) There is a high demand for jobs made available to immigrant workers, and those that win are the ones willing to work for lower pay.
ReplyDeleteAlthough organizations like AIWA and KIWA are dedicated to breaking cultural and linguistic barriers, locating and helping these immigrant sweatshop workers to find a voice, a long term goal must be implemented in order to solve the root of the problem. Laws regarding the garment industry must be enforced so that clothing labels cannot compete for cheap labor, and must all pay minimum wage, and respect overtime laws. What is really sad however, is that it often takes a crisis or a disaster, as that of the Triangle Shirtwaise Factory situation, to instill an active change in the law.
In every scenario, the women started working as seamstresses immediately after they arrived at the states. No welcome, no friendly gestures, nothing. They are forced into factories where they work at least 18 hours a day and sometimes even on Sundays with no overtime wages. On top of that, the immigrant women must juggle between their jobs and their families. What the women earn barely help pay off their smuggling debts and the bare necessities of daily living. There is little hope for them to expand their lives beyond being underpaid immigrant workers, and their dreams of creating better lives for their children are extinguished.
ReplyDeleteSadly, nothing much has been done to improve the quality of job environment and living to these immigrant workers in the past century. This is unfortunately the truth about capitalism: rich people bully poor people. The rich people and big countries, i.e., the United States, have high demands for comfortable yet fashionable clothing, which is something that machines cannot manufacture. This in turn calls for manual labor, and hence immigrant seamstresses. These immigrants are desperate for jobs, and so the big people hire them and take advantage of them by giving in return pennies by the hour. These seamstresses put in so much time, effort, and hard work, sometimes even putting their health in danger, and yet, they get little to no return.
To combat this issue, the truth behind garment manufacturing industries must be revealed to the public. People buy brand clothes without thinking much about where the clothes came from, who made them, and how they made them. Laws should be enforced regarding the working environment, and more frequent inspections of these industries should be carried out by the government.
1) More women end up working instead of marrying and starting a family of their own. There is definitely an opportunity for abuse and oppression to a live-in domestic worker.
ReplyDelete3)Some of the factors that allow the oppression of the immigrant seamstresses are flaws in the system. What was shocking was that there were errors made by the INS, which allowed the businesses to continue even after the discover of the sweatshops. In short, the harsh conditions the workers went through could have been stopped long before the raid that exposed them in 1995.