End sweatshop labor in big business!
- by: Shelby Bouck
- recipient: Any and all businesses that use sweatshop labor
American Eagle. Disney. Hanes and Wal-Mart. Toys-R-Us. What do all of these companies have in common?
They all use sweatshop labor.
Dictionary.com defines the word "sweatshop" as: "a shop employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions". Workers in ones like the companies above "faced daily disrespect from management"; were "forced to work 15-hour shifts, paid poverty wages... and exposed to deadly toxins"; and suffered "forced and unpaid overtime, verbal harassment and abuse... unlawful coercion of workers to sign new employment contracts and relinquish their rights, and the use of illegal tactics to thwart [their] freedom," according to sweatfree.org.
These workers are human beings with families and lives. Should we allow them to be exploited by corporations with no regard for workers' rights? Sweatshops were eradicated in America with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Should we allow them to continue elsewhere?
Do your part: sign the pledge included in the letter to eradicate the use of sweatshop labor! (A list of businesses that use labor in sweatshops can be found at
http://www.sweatfree.org/hallofshame. This site also has a list of sweat-free alternatives.)
We the undersigned refuse to believe that sweatshop labor is necessary or beneficial to any business effort. Workers in sweatshops are overworked, grossly underpaid, and outrageously disrespected: three things that should never be present in any workplace, whether in the United States or around the globe. Companies such as yours are incredibly prosperous
without sweatshop labor--you don't need to exploit workers in this way, and we're not going to stand for it anymore.
We the undersigned officially pledge to do the following:
-
Boycott businesses that use sweatshop labor, and instruct friends and family to do the same.
-Instead,
take our business to companies that do not use sweatshops in order to make a quick buck.
-
Speak out against sweatshop labor at every given opportunity.
-
Refuse to quit until American businesses are sweat-free!
