Economics 298a John Miller
Sweatshops in The Global Economy 006 Knapton
(508) 286-3667
Office Hours:
A century ago, when immigrants from eastern
and southern
This course engages students in the controversy regarding
sweatshops and their role in the global economy. We ask why sweatshops have returned to the
The course pays special attention to what we should and can do about sweatshop labor and asks students to develop an appropriate public response to sweatshops, as well as poor peoples' and workers' movements in the developing world. We will ask if international labor standards, including calls for a "living wage" have been effective in alleviating sweatshop conditions. We also ask if industrial codes of conducts and the recent self-monitoring efforts of corporations such as Reebok and Mattel are effective ways to regulate sweatshops. In addition, we will assess the impact of social movements – first-world anti-sweatshop movements led by consumers, religious groups, and students and third-world workers’ and poor peoples’ movements – have had on sweatshop conditions and examine our role in that movement.
REQUIRED BOOKS
Behind The Label: Inequality in The
Beyond Sweatshops: Foreign Direct
Investment Globalization in Developing Countries by Theodore
H. Moran.
Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization? by
Kimberly Ann Elliot and Richard B. Freeman
China's Workers Under
Assault: the exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy by Anita
Chan.
Made in
No Sweat: Fashion, Free trade, and The
Rights of Garment Workers edited by Andrew Ross.
Photocopied Packet of Readings available in
Knapton 007 (for $10).
Class Participation – This class
should operate as a seminar. A seminar
allows each of us to try out new ideas, to learn from each other, and to develop
our critical facilities. All of this is
possible only if each of us is willing to participate actively in our class
discussions. Part of your grade will be
based upon the quantity and quality of your class participation. This is just as much a requirement for the
course as any written assignment.
While effective class participation
requires more than just showing up, you certainly can’t be a regular
participant in our class discussions if you don’t show up. I will expect you to attend each class. Missing more than two classes will lower your
final grade.
Papers – You will
complete four short essays addressing different themes of the course as the
required formal writing. The essays will between 500 and 2000 words and due
different times during the semester. One
essay will be based on your oral report described below.
Oral Reports -- Each student will make a class
presentation as part of a research team. You will present the results of your
library study on working conditions and economic conditions in the clothing,
footwear, and toy industries in various countries of the global economy. We organize teams of students by industry,
country and corporation. You will
develop an annotated bibliography of electronic and printed sources. You will present the class with copies of
your annotated sources and a handout that summarizes your presentation.
Special Class Sessions -- We will spend one class spend
one class meeting touring Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the first
textile mill in the United States
Mid-term and Final Exam Essays: You will have a take-home mid-term and final
exam that will ask you to write essays that explore the themes we develop during
the semester.
Course Grading – Your grade
for the course will be determined by:
Papers
Class
Participation and Discussion Questions Oral
Report and Paper Mid term and Final Exam Essays
Course Outline and Tentative
Sept. 4, 9, 11 Introduction: Sweatshops
and the Anti-Sweatshop Movement
"Two
Cheers for Sweatshops," by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn,
"Tide of
In No Sweat:
“Introduction” by Ross.
"Corporate
"Knight Is Right," by Thomas
Friedman,
VIDEO: “Sweating For a T-shirt” by Global Exchange
(1999).
BROWSE: Smithsonian Institution Exhibit, Between A Rock and A Hard
Place,
especially Fashion Food Chain and Dialogue and
Sept.16,18 What is A Sweatshop?
In No Sweat:
“The Economics of the Sweatshop,” by Piore and “After the
Year of the
Sweatshop: Postscript,” by Ross, “
Workers” by
Su, and “They Want to Kill Us For Little Money,” by Mort..
Sweatshop Warriors, ch. 1, ch. 2, "Rojan 'Na'
Cheuchujit," pp. 235-242.
China's Workers Under
Assault,
cases 19a & 19b. pp. 185-196.
"Clothiers
fold on sweatshop lawsuit,"
Which
of these is a Sweatshop?
The Ottawa
Citizen
BROWSE:
Sweatshop Watch, especially Factsheet, the Garment Industry,
and Corporate
Watch, Facts on the Global Sweatshop, Feminists Against Sweatshops, Frequently
Asked Questions, , and "Sweatshops in the
Sept.23, 25, 30
Oct. 2* In
No Sweat: “Labor, History, and Sweatshops in the New Global
Economy” by Howard.
Behind The
Label,
intro.
Part I: Capital, ch. 1 –
4, Part II: Labor , ch. 5 - 7.
Sweatshop
Warriors
by Miriam Ching Yoon Louie ch. 2,
“Maquiladoras:
The View from the Inside,” by Fernandez-Kelly in
The Women,
Gender, and Development Reader edited by Visvanathan et al. The
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and Sweatshop Reform In
American History by
Suzanne
Lieurance, ch 1, ch.2, ch. 4- ch. 6.
"Budgets
of the Triangle Fire Victims," in The Triangle
Strike and Fire,
by McClymer, pp.
107-109.
"The Big City: A 1911 Fire as Good TV,
Bad History," New York Times,
BROWSE: Cornell ILR Triangle Fire Website, especially
narrative 2 & 3
and Letters, Newman;
"Remembering Rose Freedman, last survivor of the
Triangle Factory Fire," CBC, 2001; Smithsonian
Institution Exhibit, Between A Rock and
Oct.
7, 9,16 Why
Would Economists Defend Sweatshops?
"In Defense of Sweatshops," in The Sweatshop Quandary, ch. 3.
"Why Economists are Wrong About Sweatshops and the Anti-Sweatshop
Movement,' by Miller, Challenge,
Jan./Feb. 2003.
"In Praise of Cheap Labor," by Paul
Krugman, Slate
“A Defense of Sweatshops” by Weidenbaum
All in Child Labor and
Sweatshops edited by Williams, 1999.
"Academic Consortium on
International Trade), Letter to University
Presidents,",
available at the ACIT website.
"Scholars Against Sweatshop Labor
Statement," available at
PERI..
Contours of Descent by Pollin, pp. 156-163,
Browse "Clothes Encounters:
Activists and Economists Clash Over
Sweatshops,"
by Liza Featherstone and Doug Henwood, Lingua Franca,
March
2001. "Antisweatshop Movement: A
Letter and a Response" by Linda Lim and John Miller, Challenge,
July-August 2003.
Oct. 21, 23 Two
Views of
Globalization and The Role of Direct Foreign Investment
28 Beyond
Sweatshops: ch. 1, ch. 2, ch. 3.
"Global Capitalism: Can it be made to
work better?" Business Week
"Globalism's
Discontents," by Joseph Stiglitz, The
American Prospect,
Vol. 13, Issue 1,
"The
Scorecard of Globalization 1980-2000: Twenty Years of Diminished
Progress,
" by Wesibrot et al and "Globalization: A Primer" by Weisbrot,
both from The
Center For Economic and Policy Research.
"Searching
for the Holy Grail?
Making FDI Work for Sustainable Development," by Zarksy and Gallagher.
VIDEO: Global
Village or Global Pillage (Global Exchange).
BROWSE: Braunstein and Epstein. 2002. Bargaining
Power and Foreign Direct Investment in
"But Mr.
Clinton, Globalization has a Human Face," by Bhagwati, The
Financial Times,
Oct. 30 Clothes
Production in the Global Economy:
Nov. 4, 6
BROWSE. Global
Exchange, Global Trade Watch, and National Labor
Committee
on
Nov. 11, 13 The Athletic Footwear Industry:
In Made in
Intro , Labor Law in
Imprisoned, Rhetoric vs.
Reality.
“Commodity
Chains and Marketing Strategies: Nike and the Global
Athletic
Footwear Industry,” by Korzeniewicz, in Commodity Chains and
Global
Capitalism,
edited by Gary Gereffic and Miguel Korzeniewicz.
“The Globetrotting
Sneaker,” by Enloe, Women’s Lives, edited by Gwyn
and Okazawa-Rey.
VIDEO: Now with Bill Moyers
BROWSE NIKE ON
THE WEB: “Nike’s Satanic Factories in
(
commitment to human
rights is genuine,” by Hong Kong Christian
Industrial Committee 2/00.
Nov. 18, 20, Labor Standards and The Living Wage
Debate;
Nov. 25
Beyond Sweatshops, ch. 4, ch. 5.
Can
Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization?, ch.
1, ch 2, ch. 3.
Contours of
Descent
by Pollin, pp. 156-163,
BROWSE:
"Thinking About Social Responsibility," by
Jagdish
Bhagwati,
World Link , Feb. 2001.
“The Case of Corporate
Responsibility: Paying a Living Wage to
Maquila Workers in El
Workers in
Clean Clothes Campaign; "The Effects of
Multinational Production
on Wages and Working Conditions in Developing
Countries," by Brown, Deadorff, and Stern; "Global
Apparel Production and Sweatshop Labor: Can Raising Retail Prices Finance
Living Wages?" by Pollin, Burns and
Heintz, Cambridge Journal of Economics, forthcoming.2003.
Dec. 2, 4 Government Enforcement, Labor Rights, Corporate Responsibility,
and
9, 11 Antisweatshop
Movement
Behind the Label:
ch. 8, ch. 9, ch. 10.
Beyond
Sweatshops, ch. 6, ch. 7, ch. 9.
Can Labor
Standards Improve Under Globalization?, ch. 6, ch. 7.
“The Era of
Corporate Rule,” by Naomi Klein, Corporate Watch.
"Knight Is Right," by Thomas
Friedman,
"Foot Fault,' by Peter Drier and
Richard Appelbaum, The American Prospect
On Line, Sept. 2003.
“Latin
Sweatshops Pressed by U.S Campus Power,”
Times,
BROWSE:
Bata Shoes, Corporate Watch, Fair Labor Association, Global
Exchange, Global Trade Watch, Mattel, Reebok, and Unite,
UC
Association, ,
Sweatshop Watch, United Students Against
Sweatshops.
* Field Trip to Slater Mill, date to be announced.
HELPFUL
WEBSITE LOCATONS
A
large Canadian owner manufacturer of shoes operating in
governmental
organizations (NGOs) as a more
responsible employer that pays a living
wage and does not use subcontractors.
Covers
the Nike in Vietnam Story reported on CBS provides a report on the dangerous
and
abusive labor practice
in the factories of Nike’s subcontractors in
Mobilizes
grassroots activism throughout the
sweatshop abuses and
child labor. Large sections on Nike in
and sweatshops in
http://www.summersault.com/~agj/cir/
Canadian
Broadcasting Company (CBC)
"Remembering
Rose Freedman, last survivor of the Triangle Factory Fire." CBC, 2001.
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/thismorning/sites/people/tirangle_010225.html
A British website with updated reports on Nike in
http://cleanclothes.org/companies/nike.htm
A
national non-profit education organization that works to promote a socially
responsible
market place.
Contains pictures of and commentary on the fire
and its aftermath.
http://ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/navigation.html
Bills itself as the watch dog of the web when it comes to corporate
irresponsibility. Of
interest are its Nike
expose page and its newsletter Blood, Sweat, and Shears.
Garment
Industry Association that emerged from a White House organized anti-sweatshop
meeting. It members include Kathie Lee Gifford, Liz
Claiborne, Reebok, and other
corporate giants and its fair labor guidelines demand that
member corporations open their plants to inspection by external monitors and
that members pay the prevailing minimum wage, not a living wage.
These standards emerged
from the labor struggles of the 1930s and the New Deal and were
enacted in 1938. They include the minimum wage, time and a
half for overtime, and the
prohibition of homework and child labor.
http://www.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm
This feminist
web site points out that women make up 90% of sweatshop laborers in the
global economy. Their frequently asked questions section is
especially helpful.
http://www.feminist.org/other/sweatshops.html
One of two leading groups in the
Information on global economy as well as corporate reports such as
Nike Update.
http://www.globalexchange.org/
Part of Ralph
Nader’s Public Citizen
devoted to promoting government and corporate
accountability in the
world economy
http://citizen.org/pctrde/tradehome.html
A
site managed by United For A Fair Economy contains the
latest data on U.S inequality.
http://www.inequality.org/index/html
International
Labor Organization (ILO)
Official
international labor and human rights organization known as the authors of
International Labor Conventions and for its studies of the informal
sector.
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/index.htm
See
their January 1999 report on Sweatshop in the
http://www.isber.ucsb.edu/CommonReport/html
Mattel, the toy company, one of the
largest contractors of toys producer in the developing world, recently
published a study of conditions in the factories of their subcontractors.
http://www.mattel.com/corporate/company/responsibility/gmp.asp/chapter=gmp
MSNBC
TV News: Sweatshops:
Assembled for their Dateline
Program. See especially the undercover diary and timetable.
http://www.msnbc.com/onair/nbc/dateline/shop
National
Labor Committee (NLC)
One
of the two (along with Global Exchange) leading Human and Workers Rights
organizations in the
NLC has conducted successful campaigns against
Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart and the
Gap and has
recently turned its attention to
Nike’s social responsibility webpage
that contains: Nike’s response to student
protests, Nike’s take on the labor
conditions in its factories in China, and an explanation of Phil Knight’s (the
CEO) decision to no longer donate to the
Sponsored by
Community Aid Abroad,
dedicated to a campaign to get Nike to upgrade its code of
conduct.
http://www.caa.org.au/campaigns/nike/
Site
contains a study of wages paid workers in factories of Nike subcontractors in
Department
of Labor (D.O.L.) anti-sweatshop page includes lists of corporations granted
The
D.O.L. no sweat label. Uses the GAO
definition of sweatshops.
http://www.dol.gov/dol/nosweat.htm
Poverty
Net:
Resources to Support People Working to
Understand and Alleviate Poverty
World Bank poverty page with data, interviews, and program
descriptions.
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/index.htm
One
of the largest manufacturers of athletic footwear,
regards itself as a model employer,
and recently
published a self-monitoring report on its subcontractors in
http://reebok.com/peduli/peduli.cfm
Reports
on its Summer 1997 Volume devoted to sweatshops. It includes helpful exercises
And curriculum suggestions.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/Archives/11_04.htm
The
controversial Sweatshop in
on the history of
the global
production game.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/seatshops/index.htm
A
coalition of labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women’s,
religious and
student organizations
and individuals committed to eliminating sweatshop conditions in
the global garment
industry. See What is a Sweatshop under garment industry.
The
role among
http://www.uniteunion.org/index.htm
United
Nations Development Program (UNDP)
UN
agency that publishes the Human Development Report and is know
for its work on
Global inequality
by income, region, and gender.
http://www.undp.org/indexalt.html
An
international coalition of students devoted to stopping sweatshop labor. It
reports
On
the USAS-directed Sweat-Free-Campus Campaign which demands that colleges
Initiate codes of conduct that go
beyond the standards set by the Fair Labor
Association.
http://home.sprintmail.com/~jeffnkari/USAS/ind