The worldwide standard for labor is pitiful, as there is such a huge gap between the working conditions in first world countries vs the third world countries which are very much exploited. In this blog, I will be looking at the labor standards of third world countries, the ILO, how a NAFTA type agreement could help and how trade affects these labor standards.
Firstly, when we look at the standard of labor in third world countries, it is abysmal. Sweatshops are the best example of this as we see workers in the likes of Bangladesh with an hourly wage of $0.13, which is simply unacceptable as they are overworked and overlooked in poor working conditions. Often these wages are paid by subcontractors of the big apparel brands such as Nike, Primark or any big producer of clothing. Ultimately though, this is a job for these people and this is how they make a living.
The International Labour Organization is an agency with a mandate to promote social justice and internationally recognized human and labor standards, essentially to eliminate the likes of sweatshops and poor working conditions. Some things that the ILO specifically looks at are the rights for workers to unionize, job safety, work breaks and forced overtime. When comparing the ILO to NAFTA, NAFTA states that it will not change the said labor laws but it will improve the enforcement of such laws. To me, this is a huge difference, implementing laws properly and efficiently throughout a region of countries will almost definitely improve the standard of labor. So, this leaves me with the thought that, although the ILO is prominent and sets the standard for labor standards, could we see an improvement by seeing regions group together, such as in NAFTA, and create free trade throughout third world countries where labor standards and properly enforced, creating better working conditions.
It is hard not to blame trade for the conditions that these people suffer in, however, is this really all down to trade? We can take the idea that trade causes this because of third world countries being exploited for cheap labor and therefore they become the optimal trade partners for larger countries. However, what is the real alternative to these sweatshops, this is not a job of choice its a job through a pure need to live. If we create a free trade union for third world countries, could we see the very minimum wage and labor standards for third world countries increase?
