THE EDITOR: The article by Kanista George (“Diving into ethical fashion,” 29/06/22, Newsday Tobago) was a textbook example of misguided condemnation of so-called “sweatshops.”
George described workers in the Third World garment sector as “overworked, underpaid workers” who are not paid a “living wage.” Needless to say, all these metrics are judged by First World criteria.
The fact is when clothes brands open factories in Third World countries there are always more applicants than jobs. Are these people so stupid that they are choosing to be taken advantage of?
Moreover, the conditions in these factories, even when below First World standards, are typically better than local ones. The wages, albeit lower than First World pay scales, are usually higher than the average local income.
Upper-class activists in First World nations do these poor people no favours by hounding multinationals to increase their overhead costs or stop production.
Their First World customers have to pay more, but the Third World workers are either out of a relatively well-paying job and have to return to farming or prostitution, which are often their next best alternatives.
ELTON SINGH
Couva
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