Nal0whs: You make very good points. Last time I went to The DR I had a long discussion about this topis with a lady that was flying in from Canada to work as a consultant for an organization called Batey Relief. She wanted to know more about this situation and we got into this long discussion. I was explaining to her pretty much the same thing that you just expressed here. The problem is a very complex one. It really sux that these people have to work for next to nothing. They should be paid minimun wages, but then the reality is just like you said; If this happened then a lot of these people would have no job at all.
Frankly, I'm surprised that these companies haven't replaced human labor with machinery. Every so often someone raises the flag on how these people are being exploited and these companies just weather the storm of bad publicity and continue to do the same thing they've been doing. If it was my company I probably would just use machines. That way I wouldn't have to deal with it, but apparently it's way cheaper to use humans.
Mirador: While I agree that the situation is reall ybad, I don't agree that this is slavery. As far as I understand it, they can leave any time they wish. Maybe it's a form of economic slavery, but not forced labor per se.
In the end we all find this to be despicable, but nobody ever does anything about it and we all bitch about the price of sugar or derivatives when they go up.
|