Often, large multi-national companies own factories overseas in order to meet large consumer demands. Most of such factories are situated in third-world countries, and therefore low production costs are the main incentives for such companies. Although many of these factories may appear to abide by labor laws, those who work for their subcontractors face poor working conditions, child labor, low wages, and the overall breach of workers’ rights. Such an environment is commonly referred to as a ‘sweatshop’. The following is an extract from Ian Dixon’s website, ‘The Apparel Truth’, which explains the short film that he had produced based on his travels to sweatshops in Cambodia and India:
In spite of my suspicions, what I unearthed still surprised me. At first, I had only a rough idea of what I was doing, but through discussions with locals (at hotels, airports, in the street, with cab drives, anyone and everyone, in fact) I began to hear some unpleasant facts from factory workers and their relatives…From a combination of filming (both openly and under cover) and interviews with workers, their supervisors, rights campaigners and union members, I built up a disturbing sense of the inhumanity ordinary people are made to endure.
You can watch his film here:
You can join Ian in his campaign at ‘The Apparel Truth’ here.
If you have more time to spare, here is a longer documentary that similarly reveals the true nature of sweatshops in developing countries. In addition, H&M and several other Swedish multi-national companies also make their responses to this issue.
You can watch it here:
Bead the Change 