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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watcgl!jchapman
From: jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: tariffs,shoes: a source
Message-ID: <2673@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 09:45:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: watcgl.2673
Posted: Mon Oct 21 09:45:57 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Oct-85 05:08:34 EDT
Distribution: can
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 39

.
.
> the better.  Anybody here know much about the shoe industry (I mean
> how shoes are made, not these employment figures)?  Is it or can it
> be automated?  Who works in the factories, immigrants, 'unemployables'?

I don't know a lot but I was watching a CBC program the other night
that had some shots of Bata factories in South Africa. At least some
of it is highly automated - soles and other pieces of the shoe were
stamped out by a machine, I imagine that putting the pieces together
would require human effort.  I watched a guy (with a booth in a mall)
making shoes once - they were women's high heeled shoes with a plastic
front and back - the women got to choose what ornaments etc would be
on the shoes, how the straps would go etc. - and he made them on the
spot for about $15 in <5 min custom fitted to the foot (these were
pretty cheap shoes I think, more of a novelty item).

> 
>      Also, I noticed a custom shoemaker a while back.  Does anybody
> know whether that's viable?  I'm asking out of curiosity, although
> I expect some people would make an issue of the "who works in the
> factories" question.

Well not to make an issue out of it particularily.... but one of the
other comments during the CBC program (which may be of interest to
those worried about putting foreigners out of work) was that the
*highest* paid factory worker (all blacks) gets $40/wk which is
below even the South African governments poverty line for blacks.
It's easy to understand how the shoes from those factories might be
cheaper.
> 
>                                     Cheers! -- Jim O.
> 
> -- 
> James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
> ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
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