Americans choose to turn a blind eye when it comes to really finding out how their own clothing is made. Companies worldwide use slave labor when producing and collecting materials needed to make inventory. You will be in complete shock after hearing which companies are guilty when it comes to using slave labor for their own personal benefit. Such companies include Hershey's, Victorias Secret, Urban Outfitters, Toys 'R' Us, Forever 21, and Aeropostle. The clothing companies that are listed purchase cotton from farms that use child labor and sadly they are well aware of what is happening. Forever 21 made a comment basically stating that what they do is nobodys business and that they are the perfect employees for their business. I'm sorry but to whomever said that obviously needs a serious reality check because that is not a normal mindset to have. These companies fail to care about the laws that are being broken by using slave labor and will continue to not care as long as they are getting what they want. Hershey's is at fault because of how they use children to handpick their cocoa. The International Labor Rights Forum wanted to feature an ad using Hershey's use of child labor at the Super Bowl on the big screen. However, to prevent this from happening the company donated a whopping ten million dollars to West Africa. In there own words this money would, "produce ethically sourced chocolate". The public can see through their idiocy though, and obviously it was just so they would steer away from the bad publicity. Herhsey's was embarrassed and simply did not want to lose revenue after everyone worldwide found out what they were doing behind closed doors. It would be one thing if these children were being paid to work and help these companies produce inventory. But they are not given anything at all, not even food or water to bring back to their families. They are easy targets because they can be told what to do and they won't say anything in return about it. Raise awareness and stop child slave labor!
http://www.boycottmag.com/?p=5265
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vfbv6hNeng
The Youtube video above is behind disheartening and for some reason I want to now steer away from eating any chocolate produced by Hershey's.
This was very interesting and straight-forward, which I love. I wasn't aware that those particular companies were doing such unethical business, but honestly it's not surprising. People, animals, nature, and life are cruel. They always have been. That is not to say it is an excuse as to why these type of companies choose to do business in such a way. It is to bring understanding as to why I am not surprised by the decisions and choices the CEO's and management choose to make. It's disheartening and immoral, but it is reality. What you are doing hear and now is the first and hardest step to making a change by informing the people. You're doing a great job, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that has been going on for years. American companies outsource jobs for cheap/ slave labor. The government is allowing this to happen. The US needs to take a stand and only allow products to be made in the US and not buy things from China and other counties that allow labor to be worked off of under age children or slaves.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child I remember seeing a tag on my shirt that said 'Made in America'. Sad to say, I haven't seen one since.
I completely agree with you about slavery. In America we do turn a blind eye on slavery because all we are concerned about is getting products as cheap as possible and we do not consider how we get and the consequences of it. We assume that since we buy from big companies and good brands that they do everything right, but in reality those big companies make their profit abusing and exploiting minors like the ones you mentioned. In reality what is comes down to is that it is not just the major corporation’s fault. It is also the consumers fault because we always want to pay less for more and we do not think that because of that mentality companies go to those extremes to bring cheap products to the United States.
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