What a lot of us don't realize a lot of the time is that we MAY be supporting human trafficking/unfair labor within our everyday purchases. Do you know where each and every item you buy throughout your day comes from? I don't mean the "made in..." stamp, I mean, do you know exactly where, as in, what type of warehouse was it made in. And, who made it? How much were they paid? How many hours must they work in a day? Have any of these thoughts crossed your mind while shopping?
Has THIS crossed your mind?
I have to admit. On occasion, and more often than not, if I am being 100% honest, I am guilty of mindless shopping. My definition of mindless shopping is just that : Not thinking about the origins of the product you are buying.
In an effort to become more supportive of ANTI-trafficking, I have researched fair trade shopping and found that it is somewhat hard to find - and might I add, much more expensive. Being the frugal person that I am, I cringe when purchasing something that I know I can buy cheaper elsewhere. However, I have been working on reminding myself of the people - literally all the way across the world from me, working their butts off for little or nothing, not because they necessarily WANT to, but because they HAVE to or are being FORCED to - in order to make me a shirt, or a purse, or a pair of jeans for a bargain price. Many of them MUCH younger than the legal working age.
In a particular sweatshop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, children between the ages of 12-16 are forced to work 14 hour days with no education. They receive hardly any payment for their work, are exploited, and only given 2 short breaks for a small amount of food and tea to drink throughout the entire day. One child at the shop even stated his fear of standing up or drinking water because of what their boss might do to him if he did. Read more about their story, here.
The sad truth is, this is happening all over the world RIGHT NOW. Hundreds of companies around the world and especially in the U.S. are guilty of receiving their supplies from these types of businesses abroad. Why? It keeps costs down in order to deliver an attractive product at a cheap price to our consumer-driven country, while still giving the company a hefty profit rather than the ones putting the actual hard work into the production of it.
You may be surprised to hear names of companies who refuse to release information about their production facilities abroad. Companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, Ikea, Walmart, LL Bean, Pier 1 Imports, and Hanes are all guilty of unfair trade practices.
According to the International Labor Rights Forum, Gymboree, Hanes, and LL Bean all used forced child labor in 2010 based in Uzbekistan to supply their cotton. Children as young as 7 years old are forced to work in cotton fields all day long and even live in dormitories in remote areas during the time that they would normally be in school.
Ikea, Kohls, and Walmart all purchase bed linens from the same textile factory in Denizili, Turkey, where four workers have died in 2010 from unsafe working conditions.
Is the little less cash REALLY worth that? Is it really worth supporting something so awful?
Think about it next time you grab that awesome deal off the rack...Shop with the 2010 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide and help put an end to sweatshops and unfair trade!
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