I have been watching a show on the TV this morning about 5 young English cacs, who are aspiring to make it in the fashion who went to India to see where the cheap garments we buy are made. To get a complete appreciation, they were made to work and live as the Indian factory workers....
Let me say the conditions are horrible. And I am talking by African standards. In this one factory, Indian men sew blouses in factory owned by a man who is a subcontractor for western fashion houses. The men get paid 13cents for every garment they maek, and each one is expected to make 20 garments a day. The men work in a cramped little shop for 15 to 18 hours a day. They sleep in the narrow spaces between their sewing machines, right there on the floor. They do not clock in or clock; they work until they meet their quarter. They leave and eat right there, and they have one nasty toiled which a discoloured yellow hole in the ground, shared by all 20 to 30 of them. This is also their bathroom..
The owners do not make much of a killing, and the profit margin on a garment made is about 40cents...
What is worth remembering is that there hundreds of millions of Indians wanting to do this sort of work. Therefore, these conditions will continue to exist. It also means that there will be no proper work for anyone else in this industry until there are no more people willing to work on conditions like this.
Disturbingly, these conditions also apply to other industries... Engineers in America are under pressure from Indian engineers who work happily for $6000 a year...
Let me say the conditions are horrible. And I am talking by African standards. In this one factory, Indian men sew blouses in factory owned by a man who is a subcontractor for western fashion houses. The men get paid 13cents for every garment they maek, and each one is expected to make 20 garments a day. The men work in a cramped little shop for 15 to 18 hours a day. They sleep in the narrow spaces between their sewing machines, right there on the floor. They do not clock in or clock; they work until they meet their quarter. They leave and eat right there, and they have one nasty toiled which a discoloured yellow hole in the ground, shared by all 20 to 30 of them. This is also their bathroom..
The owners do not make much of a killing, and the profit margin on a garment made is about 40cents...
What is worth remembering is that there hundreds of millions of Indians wanting to do this sort of work. Therefore, these conditions will continue to exist. It also means that there will be no proper work for anyone else in this industry until there are no more people willing to work on conditions like this.
Disturbingly, these conditions also apply to other industries... Engineers in America are under pressure from Indian engineers who work happily for $6000 a year...