Here's a great article on the ugly side of the apparel industry and sweat shops in Cambodia. www.harpers.org/archive/2010/01/0082784 Unless you have lived in a cave most of your life as a cognisant shopper you would be fully aware that most of your big brand garments come from apparel factories overseas with less than satisfactory working conditions. While China still makes most of the T-shirts for streetwear and sporting labels you buy today, a small raise in wages (and we're talking cents not dollars) is enough to scare off the big boys to greener ($$$) pastures in Vietnam and Cambodia. The end result on very general terms is workers living in slums and you paying $50 for a (err hmm) great quality $2 t-shirt.
Beyond the moral argument, here's an economic reason that affects us all in the global community taken from the article.
“If you sell a pair of tennis shoes for $101 instead of $100, no consumer in Chicago will notice the difference, but it will totally transform villages in Vietnam,” he said. “This is not a moral argument. We are currently on government life-support, but that’s not sustainable. We are going to have an international depression if we don’t figure out a way to create new sources of global demand—in which case, all those apparel companies are going to go out of business anyway.”
Its up to the labels in question to make sure that the factories they work with adhere to strict labor practices and workers are paid a decent wage. Only a small raise can make a huge difference to these people's lives. But profit margins for these big labels always take precendent over the human cost.
At Enviart we work with small local makers that support Australian workers. It wouldn't matter where we made, working standards are as important to us as is the quality of our garments. You get what you pay for.
And what's more buying aussie made helps our economy and in turn helps us all.
