Disney- A Children's Company
Although Disney claims its code of conduct & "independent" monitoring system are ensuring respect for workers' rights in its supply factories in China & other countries, studies found that violations of the Disney code of conduct & Chinese labor law were commonplace, including: excessively long hours, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, workplace hazards, poor food, dangerously overcrowded dormitories, & child labor.
http://corporate.disney.go.com/responsibility/faq.html
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One study, by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (CIC), also found that few workers interviewed were familiar with the Disney code of conduct and monitoring system, and that workers who had been exposed to the code and interviewed by monitors were often subjected to threats and intimidation to falsify work records or answer monitors' questions "properly" according to management-prepared scripts.
According to Hong Kong-based Students & Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), during a busy season in China, 3 million toy workers will be forced to spend 15 hour days, 7 days a week, 30 days a month, locked inside 2,800 factories. Mostly young women, they will handle toxic chemicals with their bare hands. What do they receive for this? 12 cents an hour making toys for our holiday season.
Olivia Given notes that corporations often “squeeze their contractors into paying sub-minimum wages. Large retailers and retail chains pressure contract manufacturers by refusing to pay more than a rock-bottom price for manufacturing orders.”
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The response of Disney and McDonalds to the CIC expose (who had a 10-year joint marketing contract in the factories reviewed) was to claim that there were no violations taking place… yet, for some unknown and mysterious reason, they both pulled their work out of the factories! This left tens of thousands of workers laid off [many of them migrants previously forced out of poor rural areas]. That's tens of thousands of people now left without jobs, money, or the ability to get food and other basic needs.
At the Shah Makhdum factory in Bangladesh, Disney garments had been produced for the last 7-8 years & accounted for 60-70% of its total output. After young women who worked in this factory demanded that their basic rights be respected, Disney pulled their work out of this factory. The reason they gave for pulling their work out (a process known as "cutting and running") was "quality control reasons"--reasons that had not existed before the demands for respect were made.
Another such case occurred in Haiti, where, after workers publicly announced the factory's violations of human rights and demanded respect in September 1997, Disney pulled their work out of at least three factories in Haiti. This threw hundreds of already poverty-stricken workers out into the streets, left to fend for themselves.
Simply put, Walt Disney Co. does not want to set a precedent that it will respond to international solidarity campaigns.
Meghan Madura & Nicole Hansen, Nov. 2005
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=70,
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=5
http://corporate.disney.go.com/responsibility/faq.html
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One study, by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (CIC), also found that few workers interviewed were familiar with the Disney code of conduct and monitoring system, and that workers who had been exposed to the code and interviewed by monitors were often subjected to threats and intimidation to falsify work records or answer monitors' questions "properly" according to management-prepared scripts.
According to Hong Kong-based Students & Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), during a busy season in China, 3 million toy workers will be forced to spend 15 hour days, 7 days a week, 30 days a month, locked inside 2,800 factories. Mostly young women, they will handle toxic chemicals with their bare hands. What do they receive for this? 12 cents an hour making toys for our holiday season.
Olivia Given notes that corporations often “squeeze their contractors into paying sub-minimum wages. Large retailers and retail chains pressure contract manufacturers by refusing to pay more than a rock-bottom price for manufacturing orders.”
---------------
The response of Disney and McDonalds to the CIC expose (who had a 10-year joint marketing contract in the factories reviewed) was to claim that there were no violations taking place… yet, for some unknown and mysterious reason, they both pulled their work out of the factories! This left tens of thousands of workers laid off [many of them migrants previously forced out of poor rural areas]. That's tens of thousands of people now left without jobs, money, or the ability to get food and other basic needs.
At the Shah Makhdum factory in Bangladesh, Disney garments had been produced for the last 7-8 years & accounted for 60-70% of its total output. After young women who worked in this factory demanded that their basic rights be respected, Disney pulled their work out of this factory. The reason they gave for pulling their work out (a process known as "cutting and running") was "quality control reasons"--reasons that had not existed before the demands for respect were made.
Another such case occurred in Haiti, where, after workers publicly announced the factory's violations of human rights and demanded respect in September 1997, Disney pulled their work out of at least three factories in Haiti. This threw hundreds of already poverty-stricken workers out into the streets, left to fend for themselves.
Simply put, Walt Disney Co. does not want to set a precedent that it will respond to international solidarity campaigns.
Meghan Madura & Nicole Hansen, Nov. 2005
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=70,
http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=5