Through human history, labor has been both needed and exploited. Many would like to think events such as slavery, prison labor, exploitative factory labor, and more were historical issues that do not translate into today. While this would be a moral advancement, unfortunately today exploitative labor practices continue. Similar labor problems seen in history popped up in the 21st century with consumerism skyrocketing. In November 2021 investigative journalist Timo Kollbrunner, working with Public Eye, an organization campaigning for global human rights, published a report on Shein at the height of consumer demand. Shein, an online store selling primarily clothes, gained popularity for its diverse range of cheap products. It recently became the most rapidly growing fast fashion company in the world, valued at over $100 billion dollars (Gottfried et al.). Kollbrunner’s article was written in the same year Shein’s popularity skyrocketed on popular media platform TikTok. Shein’s popularity surge was largely due to the enticingly cheap yet trendy products they offered. The team at Public Eye got in contact with a workers’ rights organization in South China, who helped arrange interviews with Shein factory workers. These interviews revealed poor and even dangerous conditions for these laborers. Many people have given justifications for these poor conditions, in which popular items are made, but few can deny the overwhelming evidence of how privileged consumers contribute to exploitative labor practices.

So how did Shein become such a popular place for these privileged consumers? The rise of TikTok, an app where users post videos, led to the rise of video trends involving Shein. These included clothing hauls from companies such as Shein. These Shein “clothing hauls,” usually done by young women, are where young Tiktok users “unpack their [Shein] deliveries, try the clothes on and comment on how they feel in front of the camera” (Kollbrunner). The hashtag “#sheinhaul” has become extremely popular, with over 888.3k posts and counting. Back when Public Eye published their exposé, over two years ago, the hashtag already had over 3.7 billion views. Shein expanded to accommodate this popularity and “added anywhere between 2,000 and 10,000 individual styles to its app each day between July and December of 2021” (Rajvanshi). The trend of buying and posting Shein hauls grew thanks to their consistently cheap prices. Yet, as the writers at Public Eye discovered, saving money comes at its own price. 

Despite Shein’s claims that their “supplier partners shall provide a safe, hygienic and healthy workplace environment,” researchers found evidence of dangerous working conditions (Shein). When workers find their only feasible option is to work under a company that provides dangerous working conditions, the company is poised to exploit their workers. The company does this knowing they do not have to change the conditions in which their employees work, as the employees are unlikely to find work elsewhere. These dangerous conditions include massive bags of clothes and piles of fabric stacked unsteadily in corridors, entryways, and stairwells. Due to this blockage, there is no hope of a quick escape if a fire broke out; not that there were any emergency exits to utilize in the first place, a researcher reported. Employees work in incredibly close proximity, “just as narrow in the production sites as it is in the small winding streets of this sprawling neighbourhood” (Kollbrunner). One factory did have windows, though they were barred on the top floor. Others are reported to have no windows at all. Having poor or no ventilation and access to fresh air damages employees' health, as often their main task is to iron the clothes after production, causing them to work in unrelenting heat from the steam. The employees also rarely have a moment to sit while doing their laborious tasks. Conditions like these pose health and ethical problems, ones that are typically intentionally overlooked by Shein and factory owners alike. 

Not only does Shein have unsafe working conditions for laborers, the workers themselves have little job security and are exploited beyond legal means. Those interviewed, from Shein factories, couldn’t show a formal contract and had worked there for less than a year. This shows how factory owners dictate terms, without a formal agreement, and how these jobs have a high turnover rate. Public Eye reports laborers work “11 hours a day [with] no employment contract, and no social security contributions” (Kollbrunner). These long hours equate “to over 75 working hours per week”, exceeding the Chinese labor law maximum of 40 hours a week (Kollbrunner). But the workers do not speak out against it. Why? According to Public Eye, “because they feel that they do not really have an alternative” (Kollbrunner). Thus, they are willing to adhere to the harsh expectations of their employers. These violations provide contemporary examples of forced labor. 

Despite our history and experience with exploitative labor practices, the privileged continue to find new ways to justify forced labor for their own benefit, or entertainment. Whether this be using child labor to make up the difference in a wartime economy, targeting minorities with little alternative work opportunities, coercing uninformed women to work in life-threatening circumstances, or indenturing Black people in the name of providing “racially inferior” people with productivity and providing economic value for the masses. These many justifications of exploitative labor happen both historically and contemporarily. It is as invaluable then as it is now for all to understand, expose, and change these exploitative labor practices within the world, whether it is Shein’s factories or any other form of exploitation.

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