Disney violates Chinese labour laws: report

[OhioChick]

Source: AFP

7 hours ago

HONG KONG (AFP) — Workers at a Chinese factory making Disney toys are overworked, underpaid, exposed to dangerous toxins and forced to live in filthy conditions, a labour rights group said in a report Wednesday.

The study, released on the second anniversary of the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, said factory workers complained they were forced to work 28 days a month and up to 15 hours a day.

Staff at Haowei Toys in southern China also are not allowed to take time off during peak seasons, according to the report released by the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM).

"The conditions at Haowei reflect the failure of the Disney system to monitor and respond effectively to violations of the Disney code of conduct and the workers' rights the code professes to defend," the report said.



Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTAetHeLGFwFSRoCzhIcijqWGM5g

[rurallib]

1. You would think that would be hard to do

Kind of confirms stories you hear about disney

[mainegreen]

2. Is Haowei Toys owned by Disney or a independantly owned sub contractor?

Not that Disney or any other company should be excused for not have procedures in place to review conditions at subcontractors factory and to take action if issues are found.
But there is a tremendous amount of problems of this nature with many of these kinds of Chinese (and asian in general) factories. Targeting Disney with a 'screw Disney' won't actually fix this sort of problem. Even if Disney were to cut ties to this factory, if this factory was a subcontractor, would simply hook up with another company. The problem is systemic, and dealing with it on a company by company basis really wont fix it.

:shrug:

[Lorien]

5. As far as I know we don't own any factories over there

I design toys for Disney (used to be an animator, but the department folded). Every year or so the company puts out calls for competing bids from various Chinese factories. The best offer wins (regardless of quality, it seems). I have friends who travel to China and do inspections at the factories yearly, and they complain about the conditions there all the time. The quality keeps getting worse too-I have more and more corrections to do on the initial sculpts-so obviously the workers aren't operating at 100% (not enough sleep I suspect). I just wish the company would pull out of there altogether. I also wish I had a job that didn't disgust me so much some of the time.

[DrunkenMaster]

8. oldest trick in the book!

Nike doesn't "own" factories in Indonesia, either, but that doesn't stop their shoes from being made by a labor force that is badly abused. It's a f**king economic dodge and nothing more...

[onehandle]

3. All American companies that import from China violate Chinese labor laws.

It's China, for God's sake.

[David__77]

4. There is a faction in China somewhat committed to enforcing labor laws.

Some of them favor this because they genuinely want to protect working people's interests, which are supposed to be at the center of the ruling party's agenda. More of them want to enforce the laws because they recognize that not doing so will increase social instability and ultimately threaten the position of the ruling party.

Hu Jintao has been keen on improving workers' conditions that Jiang Zemin ever was. He's cultivated this image, partly as a means of enforcing his leading position through positive public opinion.

[meowomon]

6. It's a Small, Small World

Corporate America has really gone too far.

[DrunkenMaster]

7. Kids: Clap to Make Tinkerbell Work Harder!

C'mon, you spoiled, braindead suburban brats, if you want your parents to be able to buy cheap, toxin-coated textiles from Wal-Mart so you can show your friends that you too have never read a book, clap as hard as you can to make that little slave fairy beeyatch work harder! Sew, Tink, sew! No bathroom break for you!

[PianoBlack]

9. So, how about that new pirates movie?

How is Disney going to play this one off? Now that this is out in the open they are going to be under fire from all sorts of organizations. Now, the real question is if there are changes how long will the changes last?