Are Protesters Wrong About Sweatshops?

Oct. 10, 2003 -- Last month there were big protests when the World Trade Organization met in Cancun, Mexico. There are always protests when this meeting is held. OFTEN the protests are supported by American students who say workers are being mistreated

The students object to what they call sweatshops. They say companies are exploiting poor people, by setting up factories in developing countries and paying workers a fraction of American workers' wages.

The anti-sweatshop protesters appear to be winning the battle of public opinion. In 1996, they made Kathy Lee Gifford cry by saying she was exploiting young workers in Honduras who made her Wal-Mart clothing line. Within weeks, Gifford was admitting the error of her ways. She joined President Clinton at the White House, and renounced the mistakes of her past.

The student groups who protest get some of their funding from labor unions. The steelworkers' union lets "United Students Against Sweatshops" use part of their offices in Washington, D.C. Maybe that's why the protesting students are also upset about wages in America.

More recently, in 2001 student protesters took over the office of Harvard's president, and held it for three weeks, demanding a higher wage for workers at the school. This, too, is a popular cause. Their supporters camped outside, and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck spoke at a rally to show their support. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., came out and shook the students' hands.

The national organizer of United Students Against Sweatshops, Ben McKean, assembled a group of student leaders to tell us why sweatshops must be changed.

"Workers have no choices about what their lives are, they have to go to work in these factories. The workers themselves have come to us and said, 'You benefit from our exploitation, give us back something," he said.

Good Intentions, Bad Results?

All that sounds very nice. But when we talked to some people who live in places where the workers are supposedly being exploited in sweatshops, we heard a different story.