The Return of the Sweatshop

...Thinking Aloud THE RETURN OF THE SWEATSHOP BY JAYMAZUR Our modern industrial society is rich in paradox Although various economic and social forces have combined to provide the majority of workers with a respectable standard of living and at least some protection from arbitrary employei power, the very same forces have resulted in many other woikers being made to sul fer the indignities ot the common sweatshop In some industiics, morcovei, sweatshops operate alongside shops whose employees receive decent wages, and emov the benefits and jobsecunty otleied bv collective bai gaining striking example is the New York garment industry, where today well over 500 sweatshops noted for submmimum wages, long hours, no fringe benefits, employer intimidation, and frequent firings coexist with the shops covered by union contracts Hidden away in the alleys and garages of the South Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and in parts of Manhattan, these sweatshops have gradually increased their share of the city's garment production Consequently, wages and working conditions throughout the industry, as well as in other labor-intensive industries, are being undermined The return of the sweatshop is not attributable to human greed alone True, sweatshop owners are a special breed of businessmen who, unlike most businessmen, seek to maximize profits unconstrained by socially agreed upon norms, they let nothing—not the health, the livelihood, or the worthiness of the workers—stand m their way But the large-scale abuse of labor standards is ultimately not just a matter of personal morality In significant measure, the sweatshop has been able to flourish again because of the misguided policies government leaders have pursued throughout this dismal decade In the case of the garment industry—perhaps the only one where Adam Smith's laws of the market are still obeyed—unrestricted imports ot cheaply-made goods from abroad and the sluggish beha\ ior ot the U S economy have greatlv intensified competitive pressures At the same time, government programs that were playing an important role in the enforcement ot labor codes have been undercut Add to all this the recent linmiJay Mazur is a vice president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and manager-secretary of Local 23-25 gration of several million undocumented workers?illegal aliens," in the unfortunate popular term—and you have all the ingredients for the rebirth of the sweatshop Possessing no legal rights to residence or employment in this country, the new immigrants find themselves condemned to the status of the underclass They are easy prey for employers eager to unjustly depress labor costs, who see them as ideal employees In labor intensive industries, where competition is severe, the ability of employers to compel undocumented workers to accept low and even subminimum wages helps sweatshops multiply and thrive Comprehensive wage data does not yet exist, but the most authoritative studies demonstrate that the typical undocumented worker earns less and works longer hours than the native worker employed in a comparable job What is more important, it is estimated that almost 25 per cent of undocumented workers earn less than the Federal minimum wage The dollar savings is only one of the factors making undocumented immigrants an enticing labor force As part of an underclass bereft of legal standing and protection, these workers are easily disciplined and, therefore, highly unlikely to join a union or even report employer violations of state and Federal labor laws Those who speak up, or exhibit pro-union sympathies, soon find themselves on the street or m the clutches of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Insecure in their homes and their jobs, undocumented workers live in fear of detection, detention and eventual deportation—a fear that provides employers with their most effective disciplinary weapon The workings of this discipline is a heart-rending drama played out daily in the garment sweatshops of New York One recent poignant incident involved a group of undocumented women workers who came to the offices of Local 23-25 of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) seeking redress from their employer, the owner of a nonunion shop in the Elmhurst section of Queens For weeks they had labored daily from 7 00am to 11 00p m , earning a mere $15 for this 16-hour day, but their immediate grievance was much more basic Their paychecks had been returned marked "insufficient funds ' When they asked the employer to make good the checks, he replied, knowing full well that they were undocumented workers, that he would do so if they would produce their "green cards," the registration document foreigners are required to secure from the INS that in effect amounts to a work permit A union organizer sent to look into the situation was confronted with the same response Scared of deportation, these workers dropped their complaints and changed their addresses that very night Some of them have since been placed in jobs in union shops, the rest, unfortunately, must have moved on to other sweatshops where, in all likelihood, they will once again be abused and exploited Umon organizing drives in industries where undocumented workers make up a large proportion of the labor force are hampered in two ways First, many undocumented workers are unfamiliar with the nature and purposes of unions Coming from poor countries where unions are often government-controlled, employer dominated, weak, or simply nonexistent, many foreign workers look upon union organizers as extensions of the government They suspect that involvement with a union—signing a union authorization card, attending a meeting, or merely talking to an organizer—might very well increase the probability of apprehension by INS agents Understandably, undocumented workers prize anonymity, and contact with unions necessarily diminishes this Second, many employers have cleverly used the INS as insurance against union drives In California, for instance, employers faced with union representation elections have frequently called in INS agents shortly before the voting On election day, many potential union supporters are either back in their home countries, or attempting to avoid deportation To some extent, this practice has been curtailed by an ILGWU suit against the INS which resulted in a court order requiring that INS agents obtain search warrants before raiding shops But this ruling, along with a whole series of others, is only the beginning of an effort to clarify many constitutional questions involving the rights and status of undocumented aliens To eradicate sweatshops, we first need to eliminate or at least to erode their economic advantages Since the advantages stem primarily from their ability to compel workers to accept inferior wages and working conditions, the course of action is clear The basis of compulsion—fear among undocumented workers—must be removed This can be accomplished by easily transforming "illegal aliens" into legal resident aliens—workers who lack full citizenship rights, yet need not fear deportation to their homelands In other words, I am suggesting that we declare a full amnesty for undocumented workers already living in the United States Such a policy would, in a single sweep, end the underclass status of millions of individuals A full, unqualified amnesty, however, is a highly controversial proposal President Carter's limited amnesty, as embodied in the legislation proposed last year by Representative Peter Rodino (D -N J ) in the House and by Senators Edward M Kennedy (D -Mass ) and James O Eastland (D -Miss ) m the Senate, quickly came under heavy attack from large agribusiness interests and lobbyists for small, labor-intensive enterprises Both of these groups, of course, have a strong interest in preserving the status quo Some of their allies on the Hill have gone so far as to suggest that fines be imposed on undocumented workers Representative William S Broomfield (R -Mich ) introduced a bill calling for fines of $500 to $2,000 and prison terms of one to five years for apprehended "illegals " Nor is opposition to a full amnesty limited to those with a direct economic stake in maintaining an underclass of frightened, intimidated workers Many ordinary citizens also oppose amnesty They erroneously view it as an open invitation to millions of unskilled, low-wage workers sitting on the other side of the Mexican border, or in countries like Greece, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and now even Vietnam This inspires the concern that the flood of foreign labor into the U S will threaten their jobs, undermine their unions, and increase the burdens on their tax-financed social welfare systems In short, amnesty is not a popular proposal But much of the anti-amnesty sentiment reflects a popular mythology about undocumented workers According to these legends, foreign workers aggressively compete with native workers for decent-paying jobs They come to stay, to permanently sink their roots in the American economy And they arrive laden with dozens of sickly children who need health care, education and food stamps The facts belie each myth Undocumented workers are not a significant cause of unemployment among native workers An exhaustive study of apprehended undocumented aliens conducted for the U S Department of Labor found that over 75 per cent of them held unskilled or semiskilled jobs, with the vast majority receiving wages far below the level usually acceptable to Americans Only 1 6 per cent worked as professionals or in technical jobs, and only 15 5 per cent could be classified as craftsmen Thus, at most a very small portion of undocumented workers are effectively in economic competition with native American workers This rather slight competitive impact can be partially explained by refuting the widespread myth that all undocumented workers come to the United States in order to begin a new life Numerous studies have shown that generally they are temporary immigrants, intent upon returning home as soon as they have enough money to buy a house, some more land, or a store Typically, an undocumented worker will undergo severe deprivations or work several jobs to accumulate the needed sum in as short a time as possible Many who are from Mexico come for stays of as little as six months, or are "shuttle" migrants who spend a few working months a year in the U S and otherwise reside and work in Mexico Undocumented workers who emigrate from the Caribbean or the Eastern Hemisphere countries tend to stay longer, since distance and the cost of travel make short trips impractical, but the available data indicate that they rarely extend their time in the U S beyond 2-3 years The assertion that undocumented workers drain government revenues by further burdening already overtaxed social services is another unsupported myth The U S Labor Department study found that only a small number of undocumented workers ever avail themselves of tax-financed services Five per cent of those sampled had made use of free medical care, 3 9 per cent had received unemployment benefits, 1 3 per cent had succeeded in procuring food stamps, and less than 1 per cent had obtained welfare payments To the extent that undocumented immigrants make use of essential services—fire protection, police, water?they do draw on public funds Yet the irony here is that their illegal status accounts for the adverse effect Municipalities are increasingly reliant on Federal grants that are based on population estimates Unfortunately, the illegal status of the undocumented immigrants prompts them to hide from census takers and other collectors of information Clearly, amnesty would eliminate this problem Unnoticed in the hue and cry over the use of services, incidentally, are the considerable cash contributions undocumented workers make to the public coffers Every study has found that approximately 75 per cent of them have Federal income and Social Security taxes withheld from their paychecks These payments are partly "free" additions to the government's treasury, because most undocumented workers are so fearful of any contact with an official agency that they hardly ever file for the income tax refund they are usually entitled to Similarly, since it is unlikely that many undocumented workers will be in the U S long enough to qualify for Social Security, their payments help to replenish these hard-pressed funds Like all of us, meanwhile, undocumented workers buy goods and pay for services In areas with large concentrations of undocumented workers, this participation in the local economy is of no small weight Despite the infrastructural costs arising from the physical presence of undocumented immigrants, therefore, their net contribution to the economy and to the well-being of the society is positive While amnesty must be the cornerstone of any serious effort to counter the sweatshops, it has to be accompanied by a renewed commitment to enforcing labor standards and reforming the INS The policing of labor codes has fallen off drastically In New York State, for example, the State Labor Department's budget was slashed by 40 per cent in 1976, wiping out the unannounced field investigations that had been an integral component of the Division of Labor Standards' activities since the early 1930s At present, inspections are performed only in response to complaints from workers, leaving sweatshop employers virtually free to act as they please Compliance with local and national labor codes can be immediately tightened without further legislation if adequate funding is restored Inefficiencies caused by overlapping jurisdictions can be remedied as well by coordinating the activities of the various Federal and state agencies responsible for the enforcement of wage, child labor, health, and safety standards, and by targeting the industries most prone to abuse Ultimately, though, new standards and penalties have to be set Criminal penalties and stiff fines should be imposed on employers who violate basic labor standards, and goods produced under illegal conditions should be permanently confiscated In addition, the Immigration and Naturalization Service must be reorganized Historically, the INS has suffered from severe underfunding and administrative neglect—a phenomenon influenced by the desire of agribusinesses and nonumon employers in low-wage industries to maintain a steady flow of undocumented immigrants The consequent highly selective enforcement of the immigration codes encourages abuses and undermines the agency's credibility Moreover, the Service is plagued with massive bureaucratic backlogs, it frequently takes 48 months to process those fortunate "green card" applications that do not get lost in the INS' enormous file, deterring potentially "legal" immigrants from following proper procedures Whether the nation will choose these policies as a way out of the sweatshop is as yet unclear The mood is changing, however, and the signs are promising Recently, the Carter Administration established a Select Commission charged with a full review of immigration and refugee policies, thereby tacitly acknowledging the shortcomings of its earlier proposals As critics had noted, the limited amnesty proposed by the President arbitrarily disenfranchised immigrants who had come to the U S since 1970, and also lent itselt to abuse, for there is no way to accurately determine the length of an undocumented worker's stay Arresting the slide back into the sweatshop is the immediate task confronting the Select Commission This is contingent on relieving undocumented workers of the stigma of illegality Despite our society's increased reliance on immigrant labor, we have consistently demed any obligations to these workers In this way, we have condemned them to the status of an underclass and acquiesced in their exploitation Only by freeing them from their vulnerability to unscrupulous employers can we restore a modicum of justice and decency to the workplace And only such a policy is in keeping with the American tradition of championing human rights throughout the world Beyond amnesty lies the troubling question of regulating the future flow of immigrants While unrestricted immigration is not the answer, the long controversy over immigration policy suggests that simple, pleasing solutions are not readily available The United States must begin to rethink its overall approach to immigration in the light of current economic realities, not only here but in the home countries of prospective immigrants We must realize that the labor market is becoming truly international in scope and that national boundaries, even when heavily patrolled by guards, are becoming increasingly irrelevant for thousands of foreign workers...