Human rights in present tense: Trafficked labour and garment sweatshops in Argentina

JERÓNIMO MONTERO

DesiguALdades Working Paper Series

DesiguALdades: Research Network on Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America

Lugar: Berlín; Año: 2013; p. 1 - 26

st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } [NOTA: El Working Paper Series tiene un formato particular y es más parecido a una revista que a un libro. El ISSN está en trámite] During the last two decades human trafficking has increased notably. The phenomenon has then gained increasing importance in international organisations and in policy-making. However, scholars have shown only little progress in addressing these relevant matters. This paper is aimed in part at filling in this knowledge gap by analysing the rise of sweatshops in Buenos Aires since the mid-1980s and, more specifically, the mechanism of trafficking in humans affecting a large portion of the workers in these sweatshops. Furthermore, the paper relates to the broader aim of exploring how has the garment industry changed worldwide and how those changes affected workers. The findings are grounded on six months of fieldwork during my PhD research. The rise of human trafficking worldwide is linked to changes in global political economy. Subcontracting (i.e. lean production), delocalisation, and the massive incorporation of unorganised migrant and female labour into the workforce, are strategies that have helped corporations to systematically dismantle the formal, strongly unionised labourers. Coupled with state deregulation of the labour markets and the legalisation of flexibilisation and non-standard jobs, these trends have led to a general pauperisation of labour conditions. Forced, trafficked and child labour are the most extreme illustrations of this neoliberal path. The rise of sweatshops in Argentina, were neoliberal policies applied since 1976 have had dreadful consequence for workers, illustrates a clear example of these trends.