Hillary's Free Trade Agreements = Sweatshops & Misery for Lower Wage Workers in other Nations

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CAFTA and the Scourge of Sweatshops

Increased trade is the best way to eradicate poverty, so-called free trade advocates say, because exports are the key to sustained economic growth. But in reality, “free trade” agreements that are supposed to increase the global standard of living actually undermine it – through lowering workers’ wages, eroding workers’ rights, increasing unemployment, and creating a global ‘race to the bottom’ that pits workers against each other instead of promoting global worker solidarity.

Proponents of a new ‘free trade’ agreement with Central America are once again claiming that this pact will help workers. The reality, however, is that if the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is passed into law, it will transfer more power to multinational corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens and workers. While big business will win out, garment workers will be among the clear losers as CAFTA increases sweatshop-style production, and countries compete to offer potential investors lower wages and free reign over working conditions. If anything illustrates the false promises of corporate globalization and free trade agreements like CAFTA, it’s the sweatshop.

http://www.globalexchange.org/resources/cafta/sweatshops

An Ugly Side of Free Trade: Sweatshops in Jordan


Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO

Propelled by a free trade agreement with the United States, apparel manufacturing is booming in Jordan, its exports to America soaring twentyfold in the last five years.

But some foreign workers in Jordanian factories that produce garments for Target, Wal-Mart and other American retailers are complaining of dismal conditions — of 20-hour days, of not being paid for months and of being hit by supervisors and jailed when they complain.

An advocacy group for workers contends that some apparel makers in Jordan, and some contractors that supply foreign workers to them, have engaged in human trafficking. Workers from Bangladesh said they paid $1,000 to $3,000 to work in Jordan, but when they arrived, their passports were confiscated, restricting their ability to leave and tying them to jobs that often pay far less than promised and far less than the country's minimum wage.

"We used to start at 8 in the morning, and we'd work until midnight, 1 or 2 a.m., seven days a week," said Nargis Akhter, a 25-year-old Bangladeshi who, in a phone interview from Bangladesh, said she worked last year for the Paramount Garment factory outside Amman. "When we were in Bangladesh they promised us we would receive $120 a month, but in the five months I was there I only got one month's salary — and that was just $50."

The advocacy group, the National Labor Committee, which is based in New York, found substandard conditions in more than 25 of Jordan's roughly 100 garment factories and is set to release a report on its findings today. Its findings were supported in interviews with current and former workers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/business/worldbusiness/03clothing.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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1. disgusting