T Shirt GlobalizationBased on the title “T-shirts and globalization” I assumed that the videos and associated texts was going to show how the production of a simply t-shirt would be much more complex than I could of ever imagined. When you purchase a t-shirt you do not think about all the people, machines, or countries it took to create it. From the videos and associated text I learned that globalization has changed who we manufacture goods.
After watching these videos and reading the associated test I was shocked how many different countries where involved in making a basic graphic tee. The production of the Planet Money T-shirt started on a cotton farm is Mississippi where the cotton for the shirt was harvested. Once the cotton was picked it was taken to a spinning factory in Indonesia. There the cotton is stretched, twisted and turned into yarn. From the spinning factory the yarn is sent to Bangladesh where the yarn is then transformed into fabric. The t-shirt is then sewed together in a factory in either Colombia or Bangladesh. Mens t-shirt were constructed in Bangladesh while the womens t-shirt were constructed in Colombia. Once the t-shirt are done they are then shipped back to the U.S. In total, four different countries helped produced Planet Money T-shirts.
In the video entitled “People” we were able to meet some of the workers in the sewing factories that helped produce the t-shirts. We were introduced to Jasmine who work in a sewing factory in Bangladesh and Doris who worked in a sewing factory in Colombia. Both workers were responsible for sewing together the fabric produce in Bangladesh but shockingly their lives where very different. Jasmine lived with her brother, sister-in-law, and roommate in a small apartment that did not even have running water. She only makes about $80 a month working in the sewing factory. Doris lives with her mother in an apartment in Colombia. She is able to support both of them off the money she makes in the sewing factory.
The factory in Tijuana is a private and open-access building. The workers use the sewing machines directly in the fabric of the clothing from a line of fabric they hand from their factory. They then sew the t-shirts together with a line of fabric by hand.
According to the company website, the sewing machines and line of fabric are made with Tijuana materials on the floor. The sewing machines are called chamfres and they are hand made by a company called Chaman, owned by the Spanish family of Tijuana’s immigrant community. Also known as Chamford, they were founded in the US in 1878 and became involved in the fabric revolution of 1887 and in the fabric revolution of 1913. Their primary customers are the American farmers, cotton-making companies and the Mexican manufacturing companies, who are producing the cloth at a rate of over a million an hour annually.
About 2,500 people a year are employed on the factory floor between the sewing machines and line of fabric making at a total cost of 8 billion USD or less. A year on this floor alone is worth $33 billion a year. Since they are constantly cleaning the fabric, the t-shirts and other items, they are able to afford to buy the company’s clothes cheaply – only at cost of about four and two-thirds of the monthly rent in the US.
Source:
http://www.latinnado.com/the-columbian-colonization/. It seems to be a trend for the United States right now:
I was just born in a sewing house. My mother took us to a different company and said that we couldn’t afford these luxuries. I was sent to work in the sewing factory and I found out that they were selling me to others at a rate of $5 a month. I worked there for six months and then there was another 15 months. That didn’t make a lot of difference and I said that it was okay. But then I found a company that had hired me and said, ‘So you don’t know where to begin.’ I worked there one night and told myself I could do this and no one would take me with them and they were all right (for more on this), and then I left.
After the fact, more about me here. I took out an online account and logged in to pay them as well. I gave them the name of one of the factory managers who said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think we were going to pay like this when I bought you the clothing in your house for nothing’ and then I decided to quit. I wanted to write about my experience and get my bearings and get my bearings on my own career.
I also started