Ruse in Toyland: Chinese Workers' Hidden Woe (Etch-a-Sketch)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/asia/07CHIN.html?hp

<snip>

Real-world Kin Ki employees, mostly teenage migrants from internal provinces, say they work many more hours and earn about 40 percent less than the company claims. They sleep head-to-toe in tiny rooms. They staged two strikes recently demanding they get paid closer to the legal minimum wage.

Most do not have pensions, medical insurance or work contracts. The company's crib sheet recommends if inspectors press to see such documents, workers should "intentionally waste time and then say they can't find them," according to company memos provided to The New York Times by employees.

<snip>

Etch A Sketch is the same child's drawing toy today that it was in 1960, when Ohio Art first produced it in Bryan, Ohio. But efforts to keep its selling price below $10 on shelves at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us forced the company to move production to China three years ago.

<snip>

Kin Ki stays competitive, workers say, by paying them 24 cents an hour in Shenzhen, where the legal minimum wage is 33 cents. When the Etch A Sketch line shut down in Ohio just after the Christmas rush in 2000, wages for the unionized work force there had reached $9 an hour.

[pruner]

1. Etch-a-Sketch is made at the North Pole

see this for proof.

;)

[fairfaxvadem]

2. this made me ill...

i know it's the rule and not the exception, i've read similar stories in the past. But between the chinese getting the shaft and our own union workers getting the shaft, we are all so screwed.

I used to try to make an effort to read where things were made, but as the article mentions, 80% of toys, for example, are made in china. I'm not sure I own one thing made in the USA anymore that I can think of, unless it's an older item from my mom's house.

[opihimoimoi]

3. So much for the Capitalist system.... there just HAS to be a better way

and we are not even looking much less caring.

The merchants/factory owners got us by the balls.

[truthisfreedom]

4. i always hated etch-a-sketches. couldn't ever draw anyting with 'em.

now they suck even more.

[NJCher]

5. Etch A Sketch --who needs 'em?

http://www.arniie.com/sections/user/etch.php


Cher

[DivinBreuvage]

6. When I saw the title of this thread, I thought...

that it was going to be a story about the Chinese workers writing pathetic messages on the Etch-a-Sketches before they got packed into the boxes for shipment to the US.

[Old and In the Way]

7. All buyers doing business in China should demand their suppliers

conform to SA8000.

-------------

The new standard, termed SA8000, was modeled after the ISO9000 quality standard and ISO14000 environmental standard. SA8000 is globally applicable to all industries and provides a clear framework that ensures ethical responsibility.

Corporations are now realizing that a greater commitment to social justice, with consideration of ethical values and moral standards in corporate policies, is consistent with improved corporate prosperity and commercial success. Several companies have implemented corporate codes of conduct that address some of the same issues.

During a Social Accountability evaluation, ##### investigates and responds to work environment issues in regards to conformance and nonconformance with the client's policy and/or the SA8000 criteria. The following issues are addressed:


Health and Safety
Discrimination
Disciplinary Practices
Working Hours
Compensation
Management Practices
Forced Labor
Freedom of Association
Child Labor Laws