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Sun Oct 14, 2012, 05:27 PM

 

Globalism cannot survive without the exploitation of third world workers

The only reason globalism exists is to make wages cheaper by finding cheaper wages outside the country. Without the ability to find cheaper wages elsewhere, it's simply less expensive to produce what you need nearby.

Globalism is why the United States Government turned to Haiti and pressured them into keeping their peoples' wage increases low. The Haitian garment workers would be earning a lot more per hour right now if it weren't for American interference.

Our "God given" right to cheap goods comes at the expense of other peoples' livelihoods.

http://www.thenation.com/article/161057/wikileaks-haiti-let-them-live-3-day#

Contractors for Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Levi’s worked in close concert with the US Embassy when they aggressively moved to block a minimum wage increase for Haitian assembly zone workers, the lowest-paid in the hemisphere, according to secret State Department cables.

The factory owners told the Haitian Parliament that they were willing to give workers a 9-cents-per-hour pay increase to 31 cents per hour to make T-shirts, bras and underwear for US clothing giants like Dockers and Nautica.

But the factory owners refused to pay 62 cents per hour, or $5 per day, as a measure unanimously passed by the Haitian Parliament in June 2009 would have mandated. And they had the vigorous backing of the US Agency for International Development and the US Embassy when they took that stand.

To resolve the impasse between the factory owners and Parliament, the State Department urged quick intervention by then Haitian President René Préval.

“A more visible and active engagement by Préval may be critical to resolving the issue of the minimum wage and its protest ‘spin-off’—or risk the political environment spiraling out of control,” argued US Ambassador Janet Sanderson in a June 10, 2009, cable back to Washington.

Two months later Préval negotiated a deal with Parliament to create a two-tiered minimum wage increase—one for the textile industry at about $3 per day and one for all other industrial and commercial sectors at about $5 per day.

Still the US Embassy wasn’t pleased. A deputy chief of mission, David E. Lindwall, said the $5 per day minimum “did not take economic reality into account” but was a populist measure aimed at appealing to “the unemployed and underpaid masses.”

Haitian advocates of the minimum wage argued that it was necessary to keep pace with inflation and alleviate the rising cost of living. As it is, Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere and the World Food Program estimates that as many as 3.3 million people in Haiti, a third of the population, are food insecure. In April 2008 Haiti was rocked by the so-called Clorox food riots, named after hunger so painful that it felt like bleach in your stomach.

According to a 2008 Worker Rights Consortium study, a family of one working member and two dependents needed at least 550 Haitian gourdes, or $12.50, per day to meet normal living expenses.

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Arrow 4 replies Author Time Post
Reply Globalism cannot survive without the exploitation of third world workers (Original post)
Zalatix Oct 2012 OP
bulloney Oct 2012 #1
Zalatix Oct 2012 #2
tama Oct 2012 #3
bhikkhu Oct 2012 #4

Response to Zalatix (Original post)

Sun Oct 14, 2012, 05:30 PM

1. No kidding?

I've followed the work of a rural sociologist from the University of Missouri, who said 20 years ago that the migration of jobs from the U.S. to Mexico was a short-term thing. Trans national corporations will go from there to China and India. When their labor gets organized and leverages better pay and benefits, these corporations have SE Asia and most of Africa to exploit.

The guy is looking like a soothsayer now.

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Response to bulloney (Reply #1)

Sun Oct 14, 2012, 05:42 PM

2. A soothsayer, or a historian...

 

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Response to Zalatix (Original post)

Sun Oct 14, 2012, 05:45 PM

3. Only half true

 

Neoliberal globalism cannot survive without continuously worsening exploitation of people and the planet.

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