Are Sweatshops Coming Back In A New Form?

Sweatshop USA

Many are too young to remember sweatshops. Sweatshops were largely in the garment industry and small groups of desperate workers worked long hours for low pay, in isolation and without any bargaining power.

The classic definition of a sweat shop was connected with industrialized America and included the following traits:

•         Prevalent in the garment industry origin between 1830s and 1850s

•         Desperate Workforce

•         Long Hours for low pay

•         Child labor may have been employed

•         Dangerous working conditions

•         Sweater/Subcontractor – had a workforce that did work for client, kept workers isolated and unsure of who the ultimate employer was, quickly replace workers for any reason

•         Workers Inability To Organize – due to isolation

•         Unions and labor laws largely ended sweatshops in the United States

•         Most garment related firms outsourced production to other countries that employ sweatshop practices

Labor laws and unions effected changes that largely did away with the practices and conditions that created an environment that was friendly for sweatshop formation. Now in the 21^st century are we set for the formation of a new type of sweatshop environment, not in sewing factories, but in corporate America, schools and government facilities? The reality is we may be already there. This is the current situation:

•         Desperate Workforce – millions of unemployed workers – Some with benefits exhausted

•         Sweater/Subcontractor – staffing firms – outsourcing – temp to perm – 6 month contract jobs etc.

•         Workers Inability To Organize – union membership low and unions being busted as in Wisconsin and elsewhere

•         This new sweatshop environment is invading all classes of work from public education, business professionals, health professionals and trade workers

What we are currently experiencing is a situation of surplus high-end workers that are becoming increasingly desperate after prolonged joblessness. The unemployment rate fluctuates as much from those giving up on searching for jobs as from new job placements. Many salaried workers have higher workloads and work longer hours than ever. Those trying to get back into the workplace often find themselves signed up with staffing firms and outsourcing companies that are the new age sweaters. Some find themselves working for companies on a temporary basis with hopes to move into a permanent position. Others find themselves getting back into the workforce on 6 to 12 month contracts that are often are not renewed because companies don’t want to take them onto their permanent payroll.

As for unions and collective bargaining, union membership is at an all time low. Unions are under attack and some are having their bargaining rights stripped like in Wisconsin. An article titled “WISCONSIN BUSTS THE UNIONS” by the Associated Press March 10, 2011 and published in The Huffington Post describes the move to strip public union bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. The key words are higher workloads, lower job security and little to no worker negotiating leverage, it sounds eerily similar to a sweatshop environment.