Sweatshops In The 1920's

All of the workers who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were very young and were not treated well. They were all around 15 years old and were mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants. Their work was 7 days a week and 12 hours a day. For all of this work and time, they were only paid about 6-15 dollars a week which is not a lot of money. Lunch was their only break during the 12 hour day and it was for just a half an hour. However, during the factories busy season, their work was basically non stop and even more demanding. Also, in some cases, they were required to bring their own supplies including needles, thread, irons and sometimes even their own sewing machines. Surprisingly, around 500 people worked there every day.

During the 1800s, people and children would work long hours in factories. I read 4 documents that talked about conditions in English Textile Factories. Based off of the 4 documents, working conditions were horrible.

In Chicago, around the eighteen-hundreds, there was the desire for cheap labor. Consumer demand for clothes and manufactured products played a big part in this issue. The desire for manufacturers to meet the increasing consumer demand ultimately led to the hiring of children and other individuals. To reduce expenditures, working conditions did not play a major concern in the factory owners’ decisions. These factories were not very safe and sanitation was poor. Oftentimes many of these sweatshop workers were found working many hours a day for a long period of time with very little, if any pay. Florence Kelley was a factory inspector who fought against child labor and the existence of sweatshops. Through her experiences and descriptions, we

Even after the terrible tragedy happened, the new building the Triangle Waist Company used was not even fire proof and “the firm had already blocked the exit to the fire escape by two rows of sewing machines” (Argersinger, 105). The previous building where the fire had happened would only undergo a few repairs and re-open in the same condition it was in before the fire. This illustrates how the owners of the company did not care much about the safety of their factories, thus it comes as no surprise that the working conditions the shirtwaist makers had to endure were also terrible.

     As companies grow larger and more competitive, they are looking for cheaper ways to produce their wares and increase their profit. That is, after all, how companies are able to succeed, by giving their customers a comparable product for a cheaper price. This increases sales and the overall bottom line. Which seems to be a beneficial plan for both the companies and the consumers. That is, as long as the consumers don’t know how the product is being produced. The places that produce these products for an extremely cheap cost are called “Sweatshops”. A sweatshop is a small manufacturing establishment in which employees work long hours under substandard conditions for low wages. Sweatshops came about

Artisans and factory workers were undergoing a process called proletarianization. It was where an owner would pay a wage and the worker would lose all ownership of production. If the factory ran smoothly, then it would be a better chance that the workers would have a safe workplace, but if that wasn’t the case then the workers may have to work in poor work conditions. Urban artisans

During the late 1700s and early 1800s power driven machines replaced hand labour for most manufacturing industry items. Factories were coming up everywhere, first in England and then in the US. Factory owners discovered a new and cheap way to run their machines, that being children. Due to the large increase of immigrants in the US in the 1800s, sweatshops began to develop in the East Coast cities. The immigrants that were mostly targeted to work in sweatshops were those mainly from European countries. Since the majority of them were not very skilled and were in a new country they had no choice but to work in these sweatshops in order to somewhat support their families- this particular situation facilitated the growth of sweatshops. The concept

A sweatshop is a factory where employees work for longer hours with minimal wages provided and with a poor working condition. Having sweatshops in a country have advantages and disadvantages.

Sweatshops have been around for centuries, beginning around the late 1880’s. Sweatshops are classified by three main components, long work hours, very low pay and unsafe and unhealthy working environments. Sweatshops are usually found in manufacturing industries and the most highlighted production is clothing corporations, who take full advantage of the low production costs of their products. Many may think sweatshops are a thing of the past but they are still affecting many lives across the nations. There are many ways sweatshops affect lives, but a recent article titled “New study finds ‘more sweatshops than Starbucks’ in Chicago” explains that there are many low wage industry jobs that are violating labor laws in the United States alone. The article also reports how employees who are working in such conditions won’t speak up in fear of the retaliation employers will implement. Analyzing Sweatshops through the lens of the Sociological perspectives will help us better understand the illegal conditions of workplaces that still exist today.

They were run by middle class businessmen taking advantage of families in poor financial situations. In Chinatown, there was a system set in place, used by most employers. In front of their building they would have a sign, one most likely written in Chinese, asking for employees. Within the buildings, there would be a similar setup; no outdoor light, rusty machines, bad equipment, and many workers. Jane H. Lii from the New York Times was a reporter who was said to have infiltrated a sweatshop in Chinatown. After working for seven days, and a total of 84 hours, she didn’t even get a paycheck but simply the promise that she would be given around $55 in three weeks (Lii 1). Sweatshops were the common business in New York’s Chinatown. “When you have an education and speak the language, you can afford to be choosy,'' said Lin Qing. ''But for people like us, there aren't that many alternatives. We have to compromise. If we don't like what we do, we stay home and starve,” (Lii 2). Workers within sweatshops had to put aside any hope of another job. They had qualities that few, maybe no employers would respect so their livelihood, was largely confined to labor. Sweatshops throughout Chinatown became unpleasant to the general population, however the attitude of the workers was rarely different due to their objectionable living

In “A Sweatshop Romance” by Cahan, certain situations relate to the middle class in the 20th century. The employees of the “Sweatshop” were not paid based on how many hours they worked but instead by the amount of coats they were able to manufacture. Mrs Lipman, a woman from a poor town in Western Russia tried to use her coat-making business to bring herself to an “equal social position” to that of her visitors’. Many of her employees felt insulted by her actions and refused to allow themselves to be treated as servants in front of

Just 10 years after the turn of the century, New York City becomes a hub for manufacturing of cheap textiles and the relocation of immigrants from across the globe. Every day, boats come into Ellis Island dropping off Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe escaping persecution, Italians fleeing poverty with hopes of supporting their families back in Italy, and many others hoping to support themselves and others but all with the mindset of making money. There were plenty of jobs for these immigrants to occupy in thousands of, what we would now call, sweatshops. These sweatshops were run by greedy businessmen and were squeezed full of hundreds of poor immigrants in large open floors, even further cramped with sewing machines and conveyor belts. The one factory to be focused on with this particular story is one of the larger factories around New York City, the Triangle Waist Company, owned and operated by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, which produced skirts and dresses. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck were both immigrants themselves and through their partnership and diligent saving of their money, they were able to create their factory, the

Sweatshops first came into existence in the 18th century in Great Britain. It later came to the United States in the late 19th century, due to a huge increase of immigration in the country. Sweatshops were commonly known in more urban areas. Usually the owners of these factories were people that were rich and were getting richer, while the poor stayed poor. With them staying poor, they could not climb the corporate ladder.(encyclopedia.com) Immigrants were usually employed in sweatshops because coming into this country they would take any job at any wage, it did not matter how low. Due to

Sweatshops date back to as far as the 16th century, but were first exposed in Britain in 1889. Around the 1830s-1840s, immigrants started coming to the United States and organized sweatshops in tenement buildings. Despite poor health problems and disease from the harsh conditions, immigrants needed the work and were appreciative. Today sweatshops are often found in slow, developing countries, but many are found around the world. Majority of the workers are commonly women and children, who are usually uneducated. By classifying what a sweatshop is, it is a workplace that violates more than one federal and state labor law and their employees work for long

As workers moved to cities to work in factories, and progress in medical and sanitation practices improved, urban crowding became a huge issue. Additionally, where industry was taking over production in markets that had previously been dominated by small business owners, these skilled workers, weavers and the like, were now being forced to take jobs working for capitalist ventures-- often working in the industry coinciding with their master skill, but