Chicago has been home to many influential activists, all fighting for something different. But some of the first women activist here in Chicago fought against child labor and sweatshop like conditions. Not only where they living here in Chicagothey also created the Hull House. Which housed many other progressive women like Florence Kelly, Jane Addams, and many more. This would eventually lead to other more modern activist speaking up about injustices like sweatshops. These women help lead to many new changes in Chicago, always fighting for what they thought was right. Of course it wasn’t any surprise that Florence Kelly fought for better working conditions. According to Laura M. Westoff she stated in her article that: “Florence Kelley and her allies in Chicago worked at the state level to pass a law regulating working conditions in sweatshops. The first of the kind in the nation, the 1893 anti-sweatshop law limited the hours women and children could work and provided for inspections of factories and workshops...It set the stage for further protective legislation in the twentieth century.” Westoff captured that Kelly was a very important activist, coming from Chicago, that fought against sweatshops. Also she was able to actually make a difference with the 1893 anti-sweatshop law. This is important because she was one of the most famous activist coming from Chicago during the Progressive Era. She fought to end sweatshops and poor working conditions for others. This was something very new and revolutionary of her to do, because it lead to others doing the same. She practically influenced the other activist coming from Chicago that followed her in more recent years. Although activist are usually everyday people who just want to fight against the injustice; they can sometimes be people that already have some political power.This is less commonly heard of because people with power are usually the ones ignoring sweatshops and are only worried about money. But this wasn’t the case for Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey who is actually supporting an anti-sweatshop ordinance. In an article Craig Dellimore from CBS Chicago interviewed Fritchey where he said; “There’s a price to be paid in real lives when we don’t ethically and humanely source our products.We don’t want tainted products, we don’t want tainted goods, and we’re going to take our steps. So we need to lead by example.” Fritchey is saying that he cares about who is affected in making the products. He doesn’t want to buy any products knowing that someone is being treated unfairly. Instead we could buy sweatshop free labor products, and take steps towards the right thing to do. This is important because Fritchey is not only a commissioner, but also an activist fighting against sweatshop. This is something amazing that a commissioner is pushing an ordinance that many people have protested about and fought against. These are only some example of the many Chicago activists that have fought against sweatshops.
Sweatshops are still here in Chicago, even though people might not be aware of what is happening. I, myself, have never passed the thousand factories located here and thought whether or not they are sweatshops. Living in Chicago it is very clear that this city is very industrialized and has many job opportunities. According to People’s World an article stated, “Before the meeting a number of workers recounted their experiences with Cintas. “Everyone works in fear. We were constantly yelled at like we were animals,” said Teresa Williams, who made uniforms at one sweatshop on the city’s North Side. Williams said working conditions were often dangerous. Supervisors harassed employees and threatened immigrant workers. “They would say, ‘If you make a complaint, you and your family will be sent back home,’” said Williams, who quit after a week and had to fight the company to get her full wages.” This company was mistreating their workers and threatening to do mean things to their families. They were also making everybody become scared of them, which is what oppressors usually do to keep control over their workers. This is very important because this huge company that nobody would expect to use sweatshop labor, is doing that exact thing. However in reality no matter how big the company might be, they can still surprise people. They can be anywhere around us and we might have never noticed. An example of a local company exploiting its workers in order to make more money. In my opinion since Chicago does have a lot of immigrant workers they are the ones who are mostly affected by the local sweatshops. Since they are in desperate need for a job, and will do anything to provide money for their family, they will stand the poor working conditions. According to a survey of working conditions in low income and immigrant communities done by Rebekah Levin, Ph.D and Robert Ginsburg, Ph.D. they concluded, “Thirty-six percent (36%) of all survey respondents work in sweatshops. Seventy percent (70%) of undocumented respondents work in sweatshops.” Basically since 36% of the respondent work in a sweatshops, this means that there is still sweatshops here in Chicago. And a huge part of the percentage are immigrant workers that are not permanent citizens. This is important because it shows that maybe the reason why sweatshops are still present here in Chicago is because of the high immigrant population. Which is something really sad that immigrant, who want a better life, are being oppressed into working in horrible working conditions. Sweatshops are clearly a very local issue, yet people are still unaware of what is happening in their own neighborhood.