Child Labor: The Secret Behind the Factory Walls

by Robert Zimmerman & Patrick Doyle

Modern Asian Perspectives

YouTube Project

Child Labor Background Information

The first use of child labor began between 1908 and 1912.  In the U.S. child labor became a serious problem during the Industrial Revolution.  Between the 17th and 19th century poor children were sent to factories where they worked under slave conditions.  In 1788 two-thirds of workers in the new powered textile factories were children. [1]   The Industrial Revolution increased the hardships for children in America.  32% of all child labor occurs in Asia. [2] Child labor has been used in Asia for many centuries.  In India for example, a lot of children worked in the agricultural industry and did things such as mine and construction.  There are many cases of child labor found in Asia today due to economic expansion.

In 1995, an Indonesian pair of Nike shoes selling for $70 had a labor cost of $2.75.  Indonesia sets the minimum wage below the poverty line, to attract investment [3].  Only through extensive overtime hours do Nike workers make more than the minimum wage. Nike refuses to allow independent monitors to verify hours and pay levels.  The workers who receive those wages have repeatedly gone on strike because they cannot meet their most basic needs with the money they make working for Nike. Weight loss due to malnutrition is common among Nike workers.  According to a new National Labor Committee report, an estimated 200 children, some 11 years old or even younger, are sewing clothing for Hanes, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, and Puma at the Harvest Rich factory in Bangladesh [4].  The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, sometimes falling down from exhaustion, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, even some all-night, 19-to-20-hour shifts, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 ½ cents an hour [4]. The wages are so wretchedly low that many of the child workers get up at 5:00 a.m. each morning to brush their teeth using just their finger and ashes from the fire, since they cannot afford a toothbrush or toothpaste.  Although these corporations are paying their workers (6 ½ cents an hour), they are not paying them nearly enough.  The workers say that if they could earn just 36 cents an hour, they could climb out of misery and into poverty, where they could live with a modicum of decency [4].  We are addressing this issue because it is starting to become a large domestic problem.  These children shouldn’t be exposed to such harsh working conditions.  Throughout the past few years this problem has expanded to epic proportions and we must put an end to it.        

1.    Douglas A. Galbi. 1994. Child Labor and the Division of Labor in the Early English Cotton Mills. Pre-publication draft of a paper published in the Journal of Population Economics. Retrieved on April 15, 2007.

2.    Child Labor in South Asia. 2000. 14 January 2007.

http://inweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/2991b676f98842f0852567d7005d2cba16114c39343c4776238525696000487390?opendocument

3.    "Frequently Asked Questions About Nike." University of Michigan. University of Michigan. 2 Oct 2007 <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lormand/poli/nike/nike101-6.htm>.

4.    "Children Found Sewing Clothing for Wal-Mart, Hanes & Other U.S. & European Companies." Harvard Law. National Labor Committee. 16 Oct. 2007 <http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/NLC_childlabor.html>.

The Issue

Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3vXEwDTF28

Solutions

    For our solutions to child labor, we are going to place lollipops all over the entire school, with messages on each of them.  Attached to the stem of each lollipop there will be a fact about child labor written on it.  This will increase awareness greatly throughout the school since we will put many throughout the school, and many students can’t resist grabbing at candy.   

MLA Bibliography

"The Dragon Awakes: Charting the Path of Modern China." University of North Carolina: Greensboro. 14 Apr 2007. 24 Sep 2007 <http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/china/u2/lesson5.asp>.

"China." U.S. Department of Labor. 26 Sept 2007. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. 26 Sep 2007 <http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/sweat/china.htm>.

"International Labor Standards." Child Labour in Asia. 2005. Cornell University. 25 Sep 2007 <http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/child/9/>.

"Executives' decisions to employ youth workers or outsource jobs overseas." The Motivation Forum. 14 Apr 2006. Teachers College, Columbia University. 25 Sep 2007 <http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:pKAj7ZTGI50J:www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/MotivationForum/index.asp%3FId%3DOrganizational%2BProjects%26Info%3DLabor%2BDecisions%2BPast%2BComments+child+labor+China+site:.edu&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=18&gl=sg>.

Carroll, Jessica. "Child Labor in China." Children in China. 7 Dec 1999. Children & Society. 24 Sep 2007 <http://homeport.tcs.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids99/china2.html>.

Clark-Bennett, Robin. "What is child labor?." child labor public education project. University of Iowa Labor Center. 26 Sep 2007 <http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/what_is_child_labor.html>.

"Nike Shoes and Child Labor in Pakistan." American University. American University. 2 Oct 2007 <http://www.american.edu/TED/nike.htm>.

"Frequently Asked Questions About Nike." University of Michigan. University of Michigan. 2 Oct 2007 <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lormand/poli/nike/nike101-6.htm>.

Olson, Jane. "IV. Child domestic workers." Defending Human Rights Worldwide. July 2006. Human Rights Watch. 18 Sep 2007 <http://hrw.org/reports/2006/wrd0706/4.htm#_Toc139175353>.

"International Labor Standards." Digital Commons@ILR. 2006. Cornell University. 2 Oct 2007 <http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/child/9/>.

"Children Found Sewing Clothing for Wal-Mart, Hanes & Other U.S. & European Companies." Harvard Law. National Labor Committee. 16 Oct. 2007 <http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/NLC_childlabor.html>.

Douglas A. Galbi. 1994. Child Labor and the Division of Labor in the Early English Cotton Mills. Pre-publication draft of a paper published in the Journal of Population Economics. Retrieved on April 15, 2007.

Child Labor in South Asia. 2000. 14 January 2007.

http://inweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/2991b676f98842f0852567d7005d2cba16114c39343c4776238525696000487390?opendocument