Democrats

Slave Labor, The New Low Class Of Globalization

November 4, 2006 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

Outsourcing is bad enough but no one can beat slave labor wages. However, a growing amount of companies in Europe, North America, and even Asia are engaging in slave labor practice and the world has done nothing to this point to stop this sad situation. Companies such as Ford, GM, Chrysler, and Toyota all have diversity training programs as well as public assistance programs.

These unique companies encourage their workers to be charitable and help in poor communities in the local areas throughout North America. These companies promote ethnic diversity and understanding. What they do not promote is their dirty little associations with companies which operate in so-called slave labor trades. Corporate America has not only outsourced a large amount of manufacturing jobs to cheap off-shore labor, they are now associating themselves with slave labor, and the new low class globalization has created throughout the world is being taken advantage of by this association.

It’s not enough to betray loyal American workers for cheap foreign labor; these companies are now seeking out other companies who then provide work and products through slave labor operations in countries way overseas or deep in jungles. These large companies have become so greedy they no longer are happy with the cheap labor of India and China and Mexico; they now want to exploit Vietnam, Brazil, Africa, and other sources of cheap labor. Without a global policy in place the world will always have a disadvantaged area being taken advantage of and this is both sad and pathetic. American politicians need to address this issue immediately.

How can we as Americans watch as not only do we lose our jobs to outsourcing but we lose our jobs to back-door, dirty, unhealthy, slave labor camps? The disgusting politicians of these downtrodden areas know that corporate greed exceeds normal morals and they easily allow their citizens to be taken advantage of and in some case imprisoned. We vilified Kathy Lee Crosby for sweatshop labor but now we have American companies with departments whose sole job it is, is to look for regions of the world where underprivileged can be exploited for cheap labor. It is not necessarily major companies that do this but it is supporting companies who do the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ dirty work of the big corporations.

America needs to enact legislation which makes it more viable for work to be done in America by Americans than it is to outsource. If we are the number one consumers in the world we should also be the number one producers in the world, it only makes sense. We must also form a global group of economic policy makers whose job is to enforce fair labor practices throughout the world. Slave labor is unfair to the ones being taken advantage of as well as the hard working laborers who lose their jobs to slave traders.

According to a Detroit News article, “Despite malaria and a chronic cough, Alexandre Pereira dos Reis, 32, said he works long days shoveling charcoal out of a kiln near the city of Tucurui in the Brazilian Amazon without getting paid…”This hits you hard,” dos Reis told Bloomberg. “I would leave if I could, but I need the work.”
Many workers spend their nights in lean-tos they make from plastic sheeting they throw over branches, in places open to rain and snakes, Bloomberg said, drinking unclean water from stagnant pools shared with cattle. Food is scarce, and many die in the poor working conditions.”

We should all be entitled to a fair wage as well as a fair job.

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