, Columnist
So Long to the Asian Sweatshop
Automation is coming for low-wage factory workers.
Not-so-fun while it lasted.
Photographer: Khem Sovannara/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
For 30 years, the word "sweatshop" has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed (often incorrectly) how politicians in rich countries shape their trade policies.
Now that image is fading into history. In Asia, at least, the factors that made sweatshops an indelible part of industrialization are starting to give way to technology.