Maritza's Story Analysis

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Maritza’s Story started when she lived in a town around Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. She worked for a factory that made hats for major colleges in the United States from big name brands like the famous Nike. She endured many violations made by the factory managers who demanded high production quotas, gave verbal harassment, low wages, and frankly, disrespect. She said when their quotas were not met for that day they would be locked up and trapped in the factory until done so. One of her co-workers even had to crawl over a fence to escape just to get home so she could care for her very young children who had been home alone almost all day (Vargas). While these are just two women’s stories, there are many more, which leads to the question,…show more content…
Sweatshops workers now are comparable to 21st century slaves, the workers typically receive incredibly low wages, no benefits, and no respect. The average wage for a garment factory worker starts at thirty-nine dollars a month and for a sewing operator it is fifty dollars a month, both not suitable for a living wage (Hilary). With these wages, supplies such as food, water, electricity, shelter, and clothes are challenging to come by. Most of these workers have families and dependent children they have to go home to every night to make sure they have food and a place to sleep. An estimated 250 million children, in developing countries, ages five to fourteen, are forced to work to help alleviate some of their family’s financial difficulties and are not able to finish their education. Some adults have yet to finish their education for a high school diploma as well; making job options are even slimmer without a degree [ILO]. Family members are constantly working, keeping them away from their spouses or children and never giving them the chance to spend time together. Sometimes the hardships are so dreadful families often break up (Gallagher). When the employers work for the sweatshop factories, they are learning new skills other jobs would not be able to provide them especially when they have not gone to college. The workers learn skills such as organization, general abilities, and managerial…show more content…
The businessmen and women don’t find a problem with these practices but rather look at them as a chance to get ahead and make more money. The employees obviously would appreciate being treated better but at the same times are happy that they have a job to help support their family with and would not give that up. The consumers do not tend to like the fact that companies use sweatshops and treat people in such a way as they do. They are able to put themselves in factory workers’ shoes and they know that they would not be able to handle it but they usually are not the people who experience the struggle of not having a job or not being able to just leave one. But no matter the view, sweatshops are not going anywhere soon; there will always be a demand, unless people stop buying and purchasing goods all

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