Quiet Sweatshops in Canada

Paper Summary:

The paper is a comprehensive description of the problems facing the garment industry in Canada with specific relation to the ill treatment and exploitation of employees. The paper further delves into the reasons for mistreatment and indicates how the situation in Canada differs from that found elsewhere in the world.The paper calls on Canadian citizens to rectify the situation.

From the Paper:

"As Canadians, we like to think that many of the world's problems do not affect us. Things like sweatshops, human rights violations, human smuggling, gross gender inequalities and racism - all of these things are characteristics of other nations but not our nation. Unfortunately, that is not the case. For instance, a study done a few years ago found that homeworkers in Toronto earned as little as $2 per hour. In fact, the research of Dr. Roxana Ng found that homeworkers were not being paid overtime, were working longer hours each week than the average employee, were not receiving vacation pay, were plagued by back, knee, and shoulder problems for which they were receiving no compensation, and - in most instances - were earning between $6 and $8 per hour. Finally, and this might be the most disagreeable finding of all, Ng uncovered that the piece rate of these homeworkers was actually reduced as their productivity increased ("Sweatshop Labour," 14). Simply put, even though we pride ourselves on being a nation with minimum wage standards and with a high regard for basic human rights, the stark reality is that there are large numbers of Canadians being exploited even now by unscrupulous business people."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bacon, David. "Organizing Workers on LA's Mean Streets." Canadian Dimension, 33.4/5 (1999): 25-28.
• Hamilton, Mary Agnes, and Stephen F. Hamilton. "Work and Service-Learning." Handbook of Youth Mentoring. Eds. David L. Dubois and Michael J. Karcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005. 348-363.
• Lynk, Michael. "A Hardy Transplant: The Duty to Accommodate and Disability Rights in Canadian Labor Law." Labor Law Journal, 49.4 (1998): 962-980.
• McIntyre, Richard. "Are Workers Rights Human Rights and Would it Matter if They Were? Human Rights & Human Welfare: An International Review of Books & Other Publications, 6(2006): 1-12.
• National Union of Public and General Employees. "The Quiet Sweatshops at Canada's Glitzy Magazines." National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). 1 Oct. 2004. NUPGE. 21 Jun. 2007 <http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n01oc04a.htm>

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