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There has undoubtedly been a race to the bottom in terms of working conditions as a result of increased globalisation. Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) awarding factory contracts to the lowest bidders have lead governments in developing nations to either not enforce or not introduce labour laws that would make investment less attractive to the TNCs (Roberts, 2000). This includes the right to organise unions. The common argument for poor working conditions and sweatshops are that developed nations went through the same stages, such as Britian in the early Industrial Revolution era. This argument that poor working conditions are an unavoidable part of development fails when looking at the example of the United States. As their pre-eminence in the world has continually increased, the use of sweatshops within the United States has re-emerged again after almost disappearing in the post world war 2 era (Ross, 2002). Other arguments, such as workers would be worse off without the sweatshops also fail not only under moral considerations, but also under simple common sense tests.

The term “sweatshop” refers to those factories relying on the exploitation and abuse of workers. Often, although not always, located in developing countries, these factories have been frequented by independent university researchers, who have published numerous accounts of worker imprisonment and physical abuse, as well as economic evidence revealing that many of these factories pay wages so small that their workers cannot live outside poverty. Several factories use horrific labor practices, and many factory workers have also been severely burned or mutilated in the workplace, while women among the labor population have often been forced to take birth control or abort their pregnancies (Given, 1997; Fernandez, 1997). The health burdens placed upon sweatshop workers have been extensively documented, and include exposure to noxious fumes, organophosphate compounds, and silica...