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Sweatshop Workers Riot. For the Right to Work in Sweatshops.

Friday, March 18th, 2005

Somehow, I missed it. But there was a riot at a Taiwanese “sweatshop” last summer. It’s the cause of the riot that’s interesting.

Apparently, Nike set a maximum cap at 60 hours per week per worker, bowing to pressure from “advocates” for third-world workers. 1,000 laborers at this particular plant saw that as an infringement on their right to earn a living. So they rioted.

It’s really no wonder why people in developing countries have overwhelmingly high opinions of western multinationals, and overwhelmingly low opinions of western anti-sweatshop, anti-globalization activists.

One pays them money. Never mind that it isn’t the inflated wage demanded by domestic, union-bargained for workers. They get paid. And they’re better off than they were before. The other, meanwhile, is fighting like mad to take their jobs away from them. For their own good.

Thanks to Max Borders for the tip.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2005 at 11:47 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Sweatshop Workers Riot. For the Right to Work in Sweatshops.”

  1. #1 |  the LCD |  March 18th, 2005 at 1:24 pm

    Quiet Riot

    Aside from questions the validity of the facts, what would be the standard leftist, “workers’ rights” response to this story of rioting Nike workers in Taiwan? My guess is that it would elicit a Randian “blank out.”

  2. #2 |  In the Agora |  March 19th, 2005 at 12:09 pm

    Classic

    Radley Balko points to a riot at a Taiwanese “sweatshop” last summer. But the workers were rioting for the right to work there. Nike set a maximum cap at 60 hours per week per worker, thanks to pressure from “advocates”…

  3. #3 |  Right Mind |  March 20th, 2005 at 10:34 am

    Exploitation