Kristof Praises Sweatshops; Skewered by North Dakota Senator

Tweet June 12, 2006

Sweatshops in Africa? Consider the Case of Jordan (1 Letter)

To the Editor [NYTIMES]:

As the sponsor of legislation introduced this week in the Senate that would ban imports of sweatshop products, I read Nicholas D. Kristof's June 6 column, "In Praise of the Maligned Sweatshop," with dismay.

He contends that Africa is so poor that it would actually benefit from sweatshops. He even makes a case for lower wages: "It already isn't profitable to pay respectable salaries, and so any pressure to raise them becomes one more reason to avoid Africa altogether."

Before Africa embraces Mr. Kristof's plan, it should consider the case of Jordan.

Last month, we learned that horrific sweatshops in Jordan were making garments for retailers like Wal-Mart. It turned out that the workers in those sweatshops were not Jordanian but had been flown in from lower-wage countries like Bangladesh and China.

The sweatshops were in Jordan for only one reason: to earn duty-free entry to our market under the United States-Jordan trade deal.

These sweatshops did nothing for the Jordanian people, nor for the Bangladeshi and Chinese workers, who were forced to work 20-hour shifts, were frequently beaten and cheated even out of their miserable wages.

The only ones who benefited were the foreign sweatshop owners and United States retailers.

Sweatshops are the problem, not the solution.

Byron L. Dorgan
U. S. Senator from North Dakota
Washington, June 7, 2006

Thanks, Angry Arab.