Report: The Real Story Behind Disney Toys Not Suited for Children

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/11/21/report-the-real-story-behind-disney-toys-not-suited-for-children/

by James Parks, Nov 21, 2010

Thousands of children will see Disney’s new movie “Toy Story 3,” but few will know the real story behind some of the toys they get from the fairy-tale world that Disney creates.


As many as 12 children who work at a Disney supplier sleep in dirty, cramped dorms like this one.


A report, released by China Labor Watch (CLW), describes an undercover investigation, which the report alleges, that found children between the ages of 14 and 16 working at two Disney licensee factories: Hengtai Factory and Champion Crown (Shenzhen) Ltd. Hengtai is a large Hong Kong-invested toy factory with more than 2,000 employees. Champion Crown, headquartered in Hong Kong, is a Taiwan-invested factory, with some 600 workers. One factory makes Winnie the Pooh and Piglet toys and the other was making Disney dolls and stamps, according to the report.

In the report, CLW staff relate interviews with the workers who claimed that children often worked as much as 330 hours a month, including 150 hours of forced overtime, sometimes seven days in a row. Workers who refused overtime could be fired, according to the workers who were interviewed by CLW, the report says.

Even though workers were supplied with gloves for handling hazardous chemicals, the report alleges they did not wear them because it made their work rate too slow.

In the report, CLW relates sattements from workers that they lived in cramped, dirty dormitories with as many as 12 to a room, with meals at one of the factories consisting of two vegetable dishes and one meat meal.

FULL story at link.

[peacebird]

1. Do not buy anything made in China. It is challenging to find made in America sometimes, but worth it

[liberal N proud]

2. That is typical of many companies in China

Many factories are built in industrial areas and the workers are housed either near by or bused in from a distance.

The ones that house them near the facility have dorms for the employees. The workers live in the dorms far from their families and only travel to see the family a few time each year.

Most companies in China have a fleet of buses they use to transport their workers from dorms or residential centers which in any urban setting are high rise apartment building many where the apartment only consists of a single room.

The conditions of the workers in China is far below our standard of living.

[Brickbat]

3. I assume that pretty much everything marked "made in China" is made in places such as that. It helps

cut down on impulse buys, that's for sure.

[jberryhill]

4. It's A Small World After All