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RESEARCH DATABASES (not limited to these, but find a reliable source)

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RESEARCH DATABASES (not limited to these, but find a reliable source)

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Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Global Issues in Context

American History

U.S. History in Context

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Group Member Name:
Alex Ludolph

1.  Title
Rana Plaza factory collapse

2.  Summary:
In 2013 a clothing factory in Bangladesh collapsed killing 1,134 workers. The factories manufactured apparel for brands including the Children's place and Walmart. The workers at the factory were subjected to very poor working conditions that led to the eventual collapse of the factory.

3. Implications of Research (Why is it important?)
This is important because it showed that industries and large corporations, such as Walmart, overlooked the ethics and morality of the poor working conditions of their factory workers and it led to the deaths of over a thousand people.

4.  Connection to The Grapes of Wrath:
This connects to the grapes of wrath because it shows how workers can be taken advantage so that those above them can make more money (Human Greed).

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It's been more than three years since 1,138 workers were killed when the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh, yet little progress has been made to improve labor conditions for garment workers, according to the Asia Floor Wage Alliance.

Since the fatal collapse, considered the world's worst garment factory disaster, many workers have been found to still work long hours in overheated factories without proper fire exits, according to two reports from the alliance of research and advocacy groups looking at the working conditions within the supply chain at H&M, Gap, Walmart and others.

After the Rana plaza collapse, H&M was the first and the largest brand to sign on to the 2013 Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. The accord is a legally binding agreement, which encompasses over 1,600 factories. An independent inspectorate has been established to monitor whether the factories have implemented the corrective action plans set out after the Rana Plaza collapse.

Walmart, however, has refused to sign on to the accord and instead, in partnership with the Gap, founded the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which is a voluntary organization.

Despite the binding nature of the accord, progress has been slow. Just seven out of the 1,660 factories have completed implementing their corrective action plans and another 57 factories are on track with the plans. About 1,388 factories are behind schedule, while 186 factories have yet to finalize their corrective action plans and 22 have not implemented them at all.

"Due to failed compliance with the accord, 78,842 garment workers in Bangladesh continue to produce garments for H&M in buildings without fire exits," the Wage Alliance wrote in its recent report on working conditions at H&M suppliers' factories.

The two reports have been released just in time for the International Labour Conference, which is being held in Geneva over the next 10 days. In the reports, the Wage Alliance has called on the International Labour Organization (ILO) to establish a Global Labour Inspectorate, which would have monitoring and enforcement powers. It has also called on ILO to set limits on the use of temporary, outsourced and other types of labor that would limit employer liability for worker protections.

The study on Walmart's supply chain is based on interviews with 344 workers based in Bangladesh, Cambodia and India. According to the Wage Alliance, there is a lack of transparency when it comes to Walmart supply chain, which makes it difficult to hold the company accountable.

"Walmart does not publicly disclose facilities," said the report. "Instead, Walmart's reference to visibility and disclosure strictly refers to internal disclosure."

All facilities are disclosed to Walmart for a "responsible sourcing" audit. Yet since the audit reports are not public either, there is no way to confirm whether its suppliers are abiding by the company's standards.

Among other violations listed in the report are threats of termination, forced overtime, and denial of sick leave. Workers at all 14 Cambodian factories reported working 10 to14 hour days. Cambodia's workday is set at eight hours. Workers also reported working in heat, without breaks or access to drinking water, which has led to mass fainting episodes. In Bangladesh, 50% of 121 workers interviewed said that employees had been fired without notice. About 60% said that dismissed workers are often let go without receiving their due wages and benefits.

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"We care about the men and women in our supply chain, and Walmart's standards for suppliers lists our social and environmental expectations for our suppliers, specifically addressing working conditions, voluntary labor, the cultivation of a safe and healthy work environment, and freedom of association," a Walmart spokeswoman told the Guardian.

She said if an audit of a Walmart supplier reveals that it does not meet the company's standards, there is "an escalating protocol of consequences " and a three strike policy "that can lead to termination of their business with Walmart".

A report focusing on H&M factories overseas - based on interviews with 251 workers based at 12 H&M suppliers in Cambodia and four suppliers in India - found that many of its supplier factories continue to employ workers on fixed duration contracts. Workers also reported having production targets that caused them to skip breaks.

Workers interviewed by the Wage Alliance reported working nine to 17 hours a day, exceeding the 12-hour limit on weekly overtime set by H&M. Additionally, workers reported that employees who were pregnant were often fired from their jobs.

H&M did not respond to Guardian's request for comment, but told the New York Times that "the report raises important issues".

"H&M has been working actively for many years to help strengthen the textile workers' conditions and will continue to do so," it said.

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Rana Plaza collapse: workplace dangers persist three years later, reports find

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Researchers and activists say working conditions have hardly improved for garment workers since the Bangladesh factory collapse killed 1,138 people

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Group Member Name: Jake Olive

1.  Title

Fewer Youths Are Seeking Jobs in Agriculture

2.  Summary:
A change from agriculture to technology has taken place over time. As industries outside of agriculture grew, and as with technology improved, the demand for farmers declined because of greater efficiency. The few farmers were able to do more with less, leaving workers exploring other fields of work. Fewer people in the field of agriculture lead to less awareness and ultimately less young people farming.

3. Implications of Research (Why is it important?)
This is where the food in the world come from and not many people are working around it, nor even knowledgeable about the line of work. Fewer people are going to be able to own their own land like they used to such as in California. They will instead move to a compact apartment in the cities.

4.  Connection to The Grapes of Wrath:
Both this article and The Grapes of Wrath tie into the fact that many less people are working on farms. Instead, very few people own and farm the land while those very few have large farms. People are being driven out of work and the towns they lived and owned land in their whole life.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Viewpoints&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CEJ3010950206&docType=Viewpoint+essay&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=OVIC&contentSet=GALE%7CEJ3010950206&searchId=R2&userGroupName=vern39182&inPS=true

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Steinbeck established human greed by showing how the Californian's possession and ownership over their own land came above all else. That land became plentiful off the labor of the oakies but they are not treated with the respect they deserve. Because of the greed the Californian's express they are willing to do anything to keep their land and profit off of it.

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Steinbeck established the sense of us vs them in Grapes of Wrath when describing the native californians and how they treated people that are different than them. The Californians do everything to make sure that they accumulate all the wealth off their land and giving as much as possible to their minority workers. They use their citizenship status as leverage when encouraging their workers to work, and to justify their actions. They beat their workers, threaten to deport them, and do not provide them with the necessities to live.

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Group Member Name:
Alex Choi

1.  Title
Police and Racial Profiling

2.  Summary

In the last few years, police have been held under scrutiny for several actions. While being a police officer is not an easy task, statistics have shown that African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans drivers are twice as likely to be stopped and searched. In addition to this, 9 times out of 10 nothing wrong was found. The excessive use of force and violence on specific races has also been documented in addition to racial profiling and thus has led to heavy backlash against current day police.

3. Implications of Research (Why is it important?)

It is important because it shows that there is still some for racism left in America, whether it be intentional or not. Stereotyping has been continually present in our country's history and it has led to creation of Racial Profiling. Stereotyping has led to misunderstanding and unfair treatment of some races, even though racism supposedly ended after the civil rights movement. No matter how many instances of racism occur, it continues to exist so it is important to explore the idea of racial profiling to eventually end it.

4.  Connection to The Grapes of Wrath

This is similar to The Grapes of Wrath, because whether it'd be the Okies or Migrant farm workers in the Grapes of Wrath, or the African-American and Hispanic-Americans in the racial profiling article, stereotyping is present in both. The unjust treatment of specific races is present in both, as well as the idea of grouping everyone into a specific category when they are all not the same.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/15/racial-profiling-has-destroyed-public-trust-in-police-cops-are-exploiting-our-weak-laws-against-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.45622d90068b

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Group Member Name: Faheem Mannan

1.  Title
Sanctuary Cities

2.  Summary
Cities in the US that don't cooperate with immigration officers. This is so undocumented citizens in the city can trust the police because they dont ask their immigration status. This reduces crime rates and builds a good relationships between the police and immigrant communities
3. Implications of Research (Why is it important?)
Instead of taking advantage of the immigrant communities in a city the police try their best to accommodate them and to make them feel safe. This destroys a us vs them mentality because they're trying to treat everyone the same.

4.  Connection to The Grapes of Wrath
Unlike the farmers in Grapes of Wrath the police have taken a morally good approach to law enforcement to show equality in our cities (Us Vs Them)
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/browseCategory?category=Business+and+Economics&inPS=true&userGroupName=vern39182&prodId=OVIC

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The land owners made so much money, while the slave-workers made so little. The owners were greedy enough they did not even feel obligated to be at the farm. They could gain control over the workers by being elsewhere behind a desk, not having to face their faces full of agony

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This passage shows how the farmers took advantage of the cheap labor from china, japan, mexico and the Philippines. The farmers did not care about the workers and only cared about using their cheap labor to make more of a profit.They treated these workers very poorly, almost like slaves. They paid them very little because "they couldn't know what to do with good wages."

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This passage shows how greedy Americans were that nothing would top them from attaining what they wanted. They came and conquered the land of the Native Americans that had been living there and then guarded that land with guns not allowing anyone to take what was now theirs

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The way that the Okies are talked about further establishes a Us Vs Them mentality, as it labels people that automatically denotes them as inferior. Once again, the use of "they" and "them" shows how some groups are excluded from benefits and are taken advantage of just because they are from Oklahoma.

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The farm owners are the California natives. Those that migrated to California in search of work were seen as "serfs", and therefore bound to their land owners. The serfs were subject to cruel punishment with enslavement, deportation, or homicide.

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The Farm Owners are talking about the migrant workers, and how they are viewed as inferior to others. This relates to the "Us Vs Them" mentality as the workers are constantly referred to as "they" and labels them as being different from the rest of people. Thus creating the Us Vs Them mentality.

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"A man might work and feed himself; and when the work was done, he might find that he owed money to the company.  And the owners not only did not work the farms any more, many of them had never seen the farms they owned" (Pg 3).

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"They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves: Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos.  They live on rice and beans, the business men said.  They don’t need much.  They couldn’t know what to do with good wages" (Paragraph 4).

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"And such was their hunger for land that they took the land--stole Sutter’s land, Guerrero’s land, took the grants and broke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen" (Paragraph 1).

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"And the imported serfs were beaten and frightened and starved until some went home again, and some grew fierce and were killed or driven from the country" (Pg 2).

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Okies--the owners hated them because the owners knew they were soft and the Okies strong, that they were fed and the Okies hungry; and perhaps the owners had heard from their grandfathers how easy it is to steal land from a soft man if you are fierce and hungry and armed.  The owners hated them.

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They don’t need much.  They couldn’t know what to do with good wages.  Why, look how they live.  Why, look what they eat.  And if they get funny--deport them.

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1. Research contemporary examples of industry overtaking the average farmer.

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2. Research contemporary examples of industry supplanting morality/ethics.

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Essential Question #1

How and why does Steinbeck create a sense of "US vs THEM" in The Grapes of Wrath?

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Essential Question #2

How and why does Steinbeck establish this sense of HUMAN GREED throughout The Grapes of Wrath?