From:Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives  From: Queens, NYC, 1994, National Museum of American History

Sweatshop:

workplace in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy or oppressive conditions. In England, the word "sweater" was used as early as 1850 to describe an employer or middleman who exacted monotonous work at very low wages. Sweating first became widespread in the United States during the 1880s, when immigrants from eastern and southern Europe provided a large source of cheap labour. In continental Europe the same conditions were present, and with the industrialization of parts of Latin America and Asia in the 20th century, the problem emerged there as well. --Encyclopedia Britannica

Sociology 090
NO SWEAT!
A FIRST YEAR SEMINAR ON SWEATSHOPS IN AMERICA IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Fall 2000
THURSDAYS 2:40-5:40 PM

Prof. Robert J.S. ("Bob")Ross
Office: 405 Jeff
Phone: 793 7243, 7376
mailto: rjsross@clarku.edu

Office Hours: Wed. 2-5
and by appointment

NOTE: This syllabus is available on the World Wide Web at http:www.clarku.edu/~rross.Wherever you see text which is blue on your monitor or oddly faded in print, it means that it is linked to a world wide web resource, or some file I have put on computer. You may access it by "clicking" your "mouse" on it; it's called hypertext.

COURSE MISSION:

Low wages, long hours, and dangerous conditions characterized work in turn of the century sweatshops - especially the garment industry. These conditions are back, characterizing more than half the U.S. apparel industry. The seminar will explore the rise and decline and then the rise of the new sweatshops, with special attention to the ways in which child labor and super-exploitation in developing countries effects conditions here in the U.S., and what we can do about the problem. The course will develop student skills in using the Internet as a serious research tool to supplement but not replace libraries.

WORK

There will be two brief essay exams and a research paper for the course.  

RESEARCH PAPERS: Students will choose projects from a short list, appended below, and work in teams.You will put together your projects together and all team members earn the same grade.You must choose your project by week 2;and write and an outline by week four. Students will also present their work and papers in class. Very good drafts of the research papers will be due approximately November 30; final versions will be due December 14th.

Grade Distribution:

Class participation, including reading notes

20%

Essay I

20%

Essay II

20%

Draft research paper

15%

Research Paper

25%

Total

100%

CLASS EXPECTATIONS: Students are expected to master, understand, and to be aware of ALL deadlines and products. See the Table of Significant Dates and Assignments If you are in doubt: call; email; come to office hours. Students are expected to have read the assigned reading by the time class meets and to actively engage in discussion and explanation of the readings. Lack of preparation will show in your participation and will effect your grade accordingly. If readings are difficult for you, come to class with your questions - answering questions is what I get paid for and what I am supposed to teach you to do. If readings annoy you come to class with your disagreements and your arguments. Outside of meditation sessions, silence enlightens no one.

RESEARCH PAPERS : Since the project is a collaborative effort, a great deal of your work this term involves the organizing and use of individuals' efforts in relation to a team goal. For instance, you will need to establish some rules regarding meeting times, responsibilities, division of labor, and equity in contribution. Group expectations should be consensually defined and clearly articulated. Failure to meet these expectations, (i.e., persistently "forgetting" meetings, not completing drafts, uncooperativeness and so forth), must be responded to immediately.
However, as in life, each team member must take group responsibility for the product. Each team member will receive for the project the same grade. Choose partners with care and then learn to get the most from each other's work! Since the success of your paper is tied to your ability to work effectively as a team, you must master the principles of group work.
 

ESSAYS: These will be take home essays requiring about four pages, double-spaced typed (word-processed) answers. The first will be distributed on October 5thand due on Oct. 19th. The second will be distributed on November 16th and due on Dec. 7.
 

Books Available for Purchase and on Reserve at the Library:
 

Mc=John McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire

NS= Andrew Ross, A.,ed., (no relation), No Sweat: fashion, free trade and the rights of garment workers.       Note:This book is on reserve, but not in store – it is being reprinted.Portions are in the packet.

GAO= General Accounting Office, Sweatshops in New York: A local example of a national problem.

NLC=Made In China, National Labor Committee.
 

Available for Purchase will be a Packet of Readings ("Packet"), each of which Should be available at the Reserve desk of Library. It includes (in order of assignment):
 

1)     From Ross, A.,ed., Howard: "Labor History and sweatshops in the new global economy."

2)     From Varley, "In Defense of Sweatshops

3)     Ross, Robert. The New Sweatshops in the United States: How New, How Real, How Many, and Why?with the Assistance ofLisa Grandmaison.To be published in:Global Production, Regional Response and Local Jobs:Challenges and Opportunities in the North American Apparel Industry.Edited by Gary Gereffi, David Spener and Jennifer Bair.

4)     Ross, A.,ed., Meza, "Testimony." Su, "El Monte Thai Garment Workers: Slave Sweatshops".

5)     Appelbaum and Gereffi: "Power and Profits in the Apparel Commodity Chain." From Bonacich et al, Global Production: The Apparel Industry in the Pacific Rim.

6)     Jones, Jackie. 1995. "Forces Behind Restructuring in U.S. Apparel Retailing and its Effect on the U.S. Apparel Industry." Industry Trade and Technology Review. March.. p. 23 U.S. International Trade Commission.

7)     In Ross, A.,ed., Kernaghan, "Paying to Lose Our Jobs."

8)     Krupat, "From War Zone to Free Trade Zone."

9)     National Labor Committee: Miscellaneous Nicaragua Material from http://www.nlcnet.org/press.htm

10) Ross, Robert, “Countdown in Managua,” The Nation, about August 23, 2000

11) Anita Chan: "Boot camp at the Shoe Factory" Washington Post

12) Ross (Robert): "NAFTA and the New Sweatshops", prepared for edited collection on liberation theology and global capitalism.

13) Guess Packet, including, Behar: "Guess What's Behind This IPO?" Fortune, Oct. 14, 1996.

14) Nike Packet: including Glass, "The Young and feckless," New Republic, Chan letter, and Vietnam Labor Watch report on Nike in Vietnam.

15) Ross, Robert: "Restricting Immigration: A sweatshop nonsolution" In Janice McCoart , editor, An Academic Search for Sweatshop Solutions: Conference proceedings. Pages 32-45. Marymount University. Arlington, VA.

16) Material from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

17) In Ross, A.,ed., Cavanagh, "The Global Resistance to Sweatshops."

18) |Shaw: "The Labor Behind The Label: Clean Clothes Campaigns in Europe."

19) The Sweatshop Quandary, ed. by Pamela Varley, Chapter One: "Corporate America on the Hot Seat."

20) Rothstein- Amsden Debate on Labor Standards (Boston Review).

21) Appelbaum, Richard and Katie Quan: Fighting Sweatshops: Problems of Enforcing Global Labor Standards.Paper given at ASA Annual Meeting, 2000.


In the Table of Assignments below, "Read" indicates material on Reserve or available for purchase at the Bookstore. "Packet" indicates material distributed at the Sociology Office. Most of it is also on Reserve. Please Note: "Browse" does not mean walk through casually, it means, strictly, "read material lodged on the Internet."


 
 

Table of Topics and Assignments

Date

Class #

Topic/Reading

Skill or Special Session

Part One: Sweated Labor in the United States, 1911-1942

31AUG

1

Sweated Labor: 1911


The Triangle Strike and Fire  

Read: Mc: Chapters 1 and 2.  

Browse: Cornell's Triangle Page: The Kheel Documentation Center Archive.  

3) The Wreck of the Home: Homework in tenements.  Select from other descriptions of life in the tenements of the time, at the Lower East Side site.

4) Jacob Riis' famous pictures from How the Other Half Lives: among them, Sewing and Starving in an Elizabeth Street Attic and "Knee-Pants" at Forty-Five Cents a Dozen-- A Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop".

email

Opening a web page; navigating URLs

07Sep

2

1. After the Fire: The Factory Investigating Commission and Reform

2. Reform and the New Deal


 

Read: Mc: Chapter 3  

From Packet: #Ross, A.,ed., Howard: "Labor History and sweatshops in the new global economy."  

Browse: Smithsonian Institution Exhibit, Between a Rock And a Hard Place

web search/ library search/ Nexis2:30-3:30 at Ref. Desk, Goddard

14Sep

3

The Rise of the New Sweatshops

Read:

From Packet:#U.S. General Accounting Office: "Sweatshops" in New York City: A Local Example of a Nationwide Problem.#From Varley, ed., The Sweatshop Quandary "In Defense of Sweatshops." #In Ross, A. ed., Meza, "Testimony." Also:#Su, "El Monte Thai Garment Workers: Slave Sweatshops". # Ross(Robert): " The New Sweatshops in the United States: How New, How Real, How Many, Why?"  

Browse: The El Monte portion of the Smithsonian Exhibit:  

The El Monte Condo where workers were held as slaves in a garment factory (1995)  

El Monte ; Given: " Inside a Sweatshop: An Eyewitness Account."

Sending and saving web material

Part Two

The Structure of the Apparel Industry in Global Context

21Sep

4

The structure of industry: Retail concentration in context

Read: Bonacich and Appelbaum:Chapters 1-3 (1 and 3 discussed this week)

From Packet:# Appelbaum and Gereffi: "Power and Profits in the Apparel Commodity Chain." From Bonacich et al, Global Production: The Apparel Industry in the Pacific Rim.

#Jones, Jackie. 1995. "Forces Behind Restructuring in U.S. Apparel Retailing and its Effect on the U.S. Apparel Industry." Industry Trade and Technology Review. March.. p. 23 U.S. International Trade Commission.

 

28 Sep


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

5


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Conditions in Central America

Read:

Bonacich and Appelbaum:Chapter Two.

From Packet:  

#In Ross, A.,ed., Kernaghan, "Paying to Lose Our Jobs." #Krupat, "From War Zone to Free Trade Zone."  

# Ross, Robert, “Countdown in Managua,” The Nation, about August 23, 2000

Browse

National Labor Committee: Nicaragua Material (see online: http://www.nlcnet.org/nicaragua/ andhttp://www.nlcnet.org/Press/Newsclip/jcp11_11.htm

Video about Walt Disney in Haiti from the National Labor Committee

Walt Disney Video

05Oct

6

China and Pakistan conditions

Read: National Labor Committee: Made in China: The Role of U.S. Companies in Denying Human and Worker Rights

Browse: Silver: "Child Labor In Pakistan." The Atlantic Monthly, February 1996.

Mid term distributed

12Oct

7

No class on Thursday:Field Trip to Lowell National Historical Park on Friday 10/13

 

19Oct

8

Two Case Studies: Nike and Guess Jeans

Guess and the North American Free Trade Agreement:

From Packet: #Ross (Robert): "NAFTA and the New Sweatshops"; #Guess Packet, including, #Behar: "Guess  What's Behind This IPO?" Fortune, Oct. 14, 1996.  

Nike:  

From Packet:# Nike Packet:# Glass, #Chan, and #Vietnam Labor Watch

Browse:Cross-Border Blues

Mid term due

Part Three: Explaining the New Sweatshops

26Oct

9

Overview and  The Decline of Unions and Deregulation


Bonacich and Appelbaum:Chapters 5-7. 

Browse:  

http://www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/nosweat/nosweat.htm

Speaker tba

02Nov

10

IMMIGRATION and IMPORTS

From Packet: #Ross, Robert: "Restricting Immigration: A sweatshop nonsolution" In Janice McCoart , editor, An Academic Search for Sweatshop Solutions: Conference proceedings. Pages 32-45. Marymount University. Arlington, VA.

Browse: Material from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Country of Origin ; Immigration and Emigration by Decade 1900-1990; State and Metropolitan Area of Residence

Video: La Ciudad

09Nov

11

The anti-Sweat Shop Campaigners

Read: Bonacich and Appelbaum:Chapters 8,9,10

from Packet:#Ross, A.,ed., Cavanagh, "The Global Resistance to Sweatshops." #Shaw: "The Labor Behind The Label: Clean Clothes Campaigns in Europe."#Ross, Robert: “The new New Left from the 60’s to the 21st Century.” Paper presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2000.

 

16Nov

12

Codes of conduct and Labor Rights in Trade:

Read: From Packet:

#Rothstein-Amsden Debate #From Varley, ed. "The Quest for a Universal Code and Compliance Scheme." #Appelbaum, Richard and Katie Quan: Fighting Sweatshops: Problems of Enforcing Global Labor Standards.Paper given at ASA Annual Meeting, 2000

2nd Essay questions distributed

23Nov

 

Thanksgiving

 

30 Nov

13

Reports

Research Drafts due

07Dec

14

Reports and demonstrations/Party

2nd Essay due

15 Dec

 

Research Papers Due

 

 

 

 

 


 

Research Papers
 

Each seminar participant will be part of a Research Paper team.The maximum size of a team is four.

Each team will choose a topic from this list:

1.     Guess Jeans

a.      Corporate portrait  

b.     History of the union's(UNITE) campaign

                                                    i.     Why did it fail?

c.      Current situation

2.     Nike

a.      What are the typical conditions of workers who work for Nike contractors in:

                                                    i.     Indonesia

                                                  ii.     Vietnam

                                                iii.     China

b.     How have activists changed Nike behavior

c.      Is Nike different from other shoe companies?

3.     Gear For Sports

a.      Corporate description

b.     Board of Directors:

                                                    i.     Social characteristics

c.      Response to sweat free campus campaign

4.     The new (Student) movements

a.      Who is involved in new (post-Seattle) anti-corporate, anti-global capitalism campaigns?

                                                    i.     What groups

                                                  ii.     Social characteristics of individuals

b.     What do they want?

5.     Nicaragua

a.      The nature of the union struggle  

b.     The background on the Free Trade Zone

                                                    i.     Growth of exports, employment

                                                  ii.     Growth of apparel industry

c.      Political background to current situation

d.     The allies' strategies

6.     The Decline of sweatshops in the US:1940-1980

a.      Earlier:The NIRA

b.     Factors

                                                    i.     Union growth

                                                  ii.     Fair Labor Standards Act and  

1.     Homework prohibition

2.     Minimum wage

3.     child labor

c.      Apparel Wages in relation to:

                                                    i.     Average manufacturing wage 1950 - 1960 1970 1980 1990

7.     The Decline of Unions in Apparel

a.      Membership levels in ILGWU/ACTWU/UNITE

b.     The role of Geographic dispersion to the South

                                                    i.     The roleof small contractor shops

c.      What were conditions like in the Fifties in the South? In NYC

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