Or not.
Last June I wrote a post on exploited labor with a hat tip to a "worker-rights" services entrepreneur. I've come across another group with plenty of documentation. The website has two large and one small complaint. The small one is too whimsical to not note: among litany of complaints the American inquired after, one was as to whether the workers ever got pizza or hamburgers. No? Never? That is as obtuse as a Russian interviewer surprised American workers never get pelmeni. What? Never?!
Anyway, aside from that wee amusement, the rest of the article is well documented. What I said about Chia Abad above I would say here as well.
Let me stress labor unrest is to be hailed. Japan, Korea, indeed, USA all had labor unrest on its way to a vibrant economy. Now, that does not mean we have to believe the stories, of view the circumstances, even if accurate, from our perspective. What must be true, is these worker be able to agitate without the powers that be in that country able to draw on USA power, techniques and equipment (like CS gas) to suppress worker agitation.
If the authors of this website desired to be effective, they ought to spend their time lobbying USA government to withdraw the assistance to the regime than organize the workers to resist, or to cut off their market in USA. I am sure of one thing, these workers being interviewed do NOT want the orders from USA to stop coming to their factory.
And both the factory owners and the workers would both like to develop the capability to trade up to more complex, profitable items to make, like Japan and China have done. Killing the market in USA for what they make now is unlikely to get them there.
Which gets to another damning document, what the USA buyers pay the Salvadoran suppliers for the garments. Not much.
The owners of the Salvadoran factories would like to get as much as possible. The owners know exactly what the Americans will pay, and exactly what price at which the American will go elsewhere. You can be sure the margins are tight.
Now there may be an unsaid dimension not reflected in the documents. Money laundering and tax avoidance are big motivators in USA. It is not uncommon for buyers to pay nominally high prices for items that do not cost so much. For example, a shirt may cost $1.00 to make with the worker paid 10 cents. And say the manager must charge $1.25 to make it worth his time to come to work and organize the labour etc. And quotes accordingly. Now sometimes, some Americans will say, charge me $5.00 per shirt, and put $3.75 of what I pay you in my swiss bank account. Now all of the official documents say $5.00. And the worker gets 10 cents. On paper it appears to be an outrage, when it is nothing of the sort. I must stress I have no idea what the situation is in this case, I am only saying documents do not tell you very much. Forensically these things can be learned, and I do not see any forensics applied to these documents. Therefore, ho hum.
What is the right approach, besides getting the USA power base out of there? Never agitate, a low grade form of violence, communicate. Look at what resources there are, what opportunity abound, and work out an agreement, pay as you go... "Sr. Jefe, luggage brings in more than clothes, if we learn luggage sewing and you will make more, will you pay us more?" Sounds simplistic, but in a complex process each side must perform step by step, and elaborate pas de deux. Workers who manage themselves can work their way up.
Managers who get nothing but grief from workers are disinclined to attempt bigger and better things. More liberal workers would be an encouragement to Sr. Jefe. This is the way.
Last June I wrote a post on exploited labor with a hat tip to a "worker-rights" services entrepreneur. I've come across another group with plenty of documentation. The website has two large and one small complaint. The small one is too whimsical to not note: among litany of complaints the American inquired after, one was as to whether the workers ever got pizza or hamburgers. No? Never? That is as obtuse as a Russian interviewer surprised American workers never get pelmeni. What? Never?!
Anyway, aside from that wee amusement, the rest of the article is well documented. What I said about Chia Abad above I would say here as well.
Let me stress labor unrest is to be hailed. Japan, Korea, indeed, USA all had labor unrest on its way to a vibrant economy. Now, that does not mean we have to believe the stories, of view the circumstances, even if accurate, from our perspective. What must be true, is these worker be able to agitate without the powers that be in that country able to draw on USA power, techniques and equipment (like CS gas) to suppress worker agitation.
If the authors of this website desired to be effective, they ought to spend their time lobbying USA government to withdraw the assistance to the regime than organize the workers to resist, or to cut off their market in USA. I am sure of one thing, these workers being interviewed do NOT want the orders from USA to stop coming to their factory.
And both the factory owners and the workers would both like to develop the capability to trade up to more complex, profitable items to make, like Japan and China have done. Killing the market in USA for what they make now is unlikely to get them there.
Which gets to another damning document, what the USA buyers pay the Salvadoran suppliers for the garments. Not much.
The owners of the Salvadoran factories would like to get as much as possible. The owners know exactly what the Americans will pay, and exactly what price at which the American will go elsewhere. You can be sure the margins are tight.
Now there may be an unsaid dimension not reflected in the documents. Money laundering and tax avoidance are big motivators in USA. It is not uncommon for buyers to pay nominally high prices for items that do not cost so much. For example, a shirt may cost $1.00 to make with the worker paid 10 cents. And say the manager must charge $1.25 to make it worth his time to come to work and organize the labour etc. And quotes accordingly. Now sometimes, some Americans will say, charge me $5.00 per shirt, and put $3.75 of what I pay you in my swiss bank account. Now all of the official documents say $5.00. And the worker gets 10 cents. On paper it appears to be an outrage, when it is nothing of the sort. I must stress I have no idea what the situation is in this case, I am only saying documents do not tell you very much. Forensically these things can be learned, and I do not see any forensics applied to these documents. Therefore, ho hum.
What is the right approach, besides getting the USA power base out of there? Never agitate, a low grade form of violence, communicate. Look at what resources there are, what opportunity abound, and work out an agreement, pay as you go... "Sr. Jefe, luggage brings in more than clothes, if we learn luggage sewing and you will make more, will you pay us more?" Sounds simplistic, but in a complex process each side must perform step by step, and elaborate pas de deux. Workers who manage themselves can work their way up.
Managers who get nothing but grief from workers are disinclined to attempt bigger and better things. More liberal workers would be an encouragement to Sr. Jefe. This is the way.
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