Bennett 1

Madison Bennett

Professor Said

Intro Comp: Writing as an Inquiry 016

12 October 2021

Text-based Inquiry paper

1. Introduction

Do you know where your favorite shirt comes from? Or what about your favorite pair of

jeans? To many people's surprise, some of America’s most popular brands like Adidas, Forever

21, and Shein aren’t produced in America at all. On the other side of the world, garment and

textile workers in developing countries, mainly women and children, slave away to make your

favorite brands. Every day millions of workers go to work in unsafe buildings in dangerous

working conditions. According to Sustain your style, the average working day for these workers

is 14-16 hours, 7 days a week (Sustain your style). These employees work brutal hours not even

to make a living wage. You might be asking yourself why people continue to work these jobs;

how did they end up here? These problems that millions of women and children face all stem

from the same issue. The lack of government support for legally mandated labor regulations as

well as the lack of high-paying jobs promotes child labor and puts garment workers in

developing countries at risk for health hazards such as physical harm and psychological issues.

2. Causes

Two of the biggest issues in places like Bangladesh and Hong Kong are dangerous

factory conditions and low wages. According to IZA’s World of Labor: Enforcement of labor

regulations in developing countries, “More than half of private sector employees in the

developing world do not receive legally mandated labor benefits”(Ronconi). Without these
 Bennett 2

benefits, there's no stopping company owners from giving workers things like days off, fair

hours, and most importantly safe working conditions. A majority of owners do what's in the best

interest of themselves and not their employees. The absence of these regulations and benefits

also leaves no way to force owners to pay their workers a minimum wage and/or a living wage.

A report from the International Labor Organisation shows that “57 million wage earners reside in

countries without minimum wage systems” (Global Wage Report 2020-2021, 61). Without a

minimum wage system, owners get to make thousands of dollars while their workers get

virtually nothing. Workers can’t even negotiate their wages in fear of getting fired. Another

major issue in these factories is child labor. All over the world, and not so long ago in America,

child labor is an extreme problem. According to the International Labor Organisation, the

greatest factor causing child labor is poverty as

well as “unhealthy family life and economic

deprivation” (International Labor Organisation). In

many families, the income of mom and dad alone

isn’t enough to survive so it’s crucial for them to

send their children to make money as well.

However, poverty is not the only reason for this.

Many of these countries have no laws in place to ban children from not going to school, in fact,

in many places it's normal for the children to not go to school. As stated by an article by World

Vision 160 million children are currently engaged in child labor while about 79 million of them

are working in dangerous conditions and 22,000 of them are killed at work every year (Reid).

Parents are forced to put their children into these kinds of situations since their lack of education
 Bennett 3

prevents them from getting any kind of high paying job. Even for people with an education in

these countries there are only a slight amount of jobs to compete for.

3. Effects

The effect of these problems can be deadly. Every day workers go to work in unsafe

buildings not knowing if they could collapse at any minute. The most famous incident of this

took place in 2013 during the Rana Plaza collapse. Rana Plaza, an 8 story building in

Bangladesh, was home to many garment factories as well as other small and big businesses and

banks. On April 24th, 2013, despite the warnings of large structural cracks in the building to the

managers, thousands of garment workers came to work as usual as they were told to. That day

the building collapsed to the ground. According to the Clean Clothes campaign the accident

killed 1,134 of the workers inside and permanently injured thousands more, the majority of

which were women (Clean Clothes Campaign). On top of horrific incidents like these, millions

of workers get fingers, hands, etc extremely cut up, burned and bruised in machines or worse

completely cut off. The Common Objective, a business network whose goal is to make fashion

more environmentally friendly, estimates around 1.4 million injuries take place in fashion

industry workplaces each year (Common objective). This number does not include the 27 million

people who are struggling with work-related diseases and illnesses (Death, Injury and Health in

the Fashion Industry). These can develop from things such as the chemicals in textiles which can

affect the skin or textile lint and dust particles getting into the lungs over time. And these are just

the physical effects. Loads of workers are suffering from mental illnesses like depression and

anxiety after working for days straight in inhumane work conditions, away from their families,

barely making enough to survive. Child labor has many negative impacts aswell but the most

important is the lack of education in these children. With no education, these children will grow
 Bennett 4

up unable to have higher-paying jobs and repeat this cycle of poverty over and over again with

their own children. A lack of education also leads to individuals having to take dangerous jobs in

order to survive like prostitution, drugs, or working in sweatshops.

4. Primary Source

From a survey I conducted titled Fast Fashion, I was able to learn a lot about how we as

Americans contribute to the garment factories in other countries.

When asked if they knew where their clothes were manufactured

81% of people said they had no idea. This is a huge part of the

problem. If you don't know your clothes are contributing to

inhumane factory conditions how can you help be a part of the

solution? Even more surprisingly, when asked if people shopped

at SHEIN, a company known for using child labor and treating

their workers unfairly, despite its reupuation 65% of people said

yes while a similar 61% said no to trying to shop sustainably.

Most people had very similar answers as to why. Many said that they could not afford more

sustainable clothing, they are not educated enough to know where their clothes are coming from,

it's faster and easier to shop fast fashion, and some simply said they didn't care where, or how,

their clothes were made. It is important to have sustainable companies that don't charge an

outrageous price and to educate people into where their clothes are coming from if we ever want

to see change.

5. Conclusion

Garment workers in developing countries work hard every day with nothing in return.

These developing countries need to put in place more labor rules and regulations to give these
 Bennett 5

workers fair and safe conditions. Governments need to realise the importance of education and

make it their number one priority to keep children in school and out of the factories. Once

enough children become educated adults we can stop the never ending cycle of poverty and

make more high paying jobs to give these workers a better quality of life.
 Bennett 6

Work Cited

Clean Clothes Campaign. “Rana Plaza.” Clean Clothes Campaign, 16 June 2021,

https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/past/rana-plaza. Accessed 10 October 2021.

Common Objective. “Death, Injury and Health in the Fashion IndustryC.” Common Objective,

Common Objective, 31 May 2018, https://www.commonobjective.co/article/death-injury-

and-health-in-the-fashion-industry. Accessed 10 October 2021.

Global Wage Report. “International Labour Organization.” Global Wage Report 2020-2021,

International Labor Organization, 2020, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/

@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_762534.pdf. Accessed 10

October 2021.

International Labor Organisation. Causes, 13 July 2011,

https://www.ilo.org/moscow/areas-of-work/child-labour/WCMS_248984/lang--en/index.

htm. Accessed 10 October 2021.

International Labor Organization. Hazardous Child Labour (IPEC), 2020,

https://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/WorstFormsofChildLabour/Hazardouschildlabour/lang--en/

index.htm. Accessed 10 October 2021.

Rebojo, Vissuelo. “Common Injuries for Textile Mill Employees: Raleigh Workers Comp Law.”

Hardison & Cochran, Hardison & Cochran, Attorneys at Law, 19 Sept. 2020,

https://www.lawyernc.com/workers-compensation-lawyer/common-workplace-injuries/te

xtile-mill-employees/. Accessed 10 October 2021.

Reid, Kathryn. “Child Labor: Facts, Faqs, and How to Help End It.” World Vision, 23 June 2021,

https://www.worldvision.org/child-protection-news-stories/child-labor-facts. Accessed 10

October 2021.
 Bennett 7

Ronconi, Lucas. “Enforcement of Labor Regulations in Developing Countries.” IZA World of

Labor, 19 Mar. 2019, https://wol.iza.org/articles/enforcement-of-labor-regulations-in

-developing-countries/long. Accessed 10 October 2021.

Soken-Huberty, Emmaline. “10 Common Root Causes of Poverty.” Human Rights Careers,

11 May 2020, https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/root-causes-of-poverty/.

Accessed 10 October 2021.

Sustain your style . “Working Conditions in the Fashion Industry.” Inhumane Working

Conditions , 2020, https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-working-conditions. Accessed

10 October 2021.