Wonderful World of Sweatshops

It is easy to meet students at Illinois State University who have worked at Walt Disney World and are proud of it. It appears effortless for other students to accept the message the Walt Disney World College Program Alumni Association promotes: "Disney doesn't use sweatshop labor." The arguments used to defend Disney are simple: "Disney don't own any factories and our merchandise producers have strong codes of conduct." Revealing the truth about Disney's sweatshops is another story. There is no guarantee that Disney merchandise, from toys to clothes, are made using sweat-free labor.

Disney: The Sweatshop Company

The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee has released a report on the labor rights and occupational safety and health conditions of toy workers in Southern Mainland China titled "How Hasbro, McDonald's, Mattel and Disney Manufacture Their Toys" (December 2001). Detailed analysis of how Disney and other toy companies operate in China is also included.

The Hong Kong toy industry started in the 1950's. Since 1979, Hong Kong manufacturers have played the OEM (original engineered manufacturing) role to US, Japan, and European toy companies who shifted focus from manufacturing to design and innovation as well as the ownership of toy labels via mergers and take over. Gradually, production from Hong Kong has shifted to Mainland China, where almost 95% of OEM production facilities are located today. In the early 80's, 2,200 toy companies employed 51,716 workers in Hong Kong. Today, about 3,000 Hong Kong toy companies employ approximately 3 million workers in Mainland China.

The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee has found that in light of a rising trend of merging activities of multinational toy companies their bargaining power is further advanced vis a vis the supplying companies. To survive, the supplying companies are forced to be more and more "competitive" in terms of price, quality and lead time. The greater concentration in the retail market sector in the US and Europe, results in a continued squeeze on prices, while shorter life cycle of toys has increased the risk of product development. In order to remain competitive, retailers need a small inventory and a responsive supply that can capture the whims of the market. The risk of inventory is gradually shifted to the manufacturers and orders will be placed just before the shopping season begins.

Seasonality is obvious in the toy industry. While US and European consumers rely on multinational toy companies to provide larger supplies of toys during the holiday season, Hong Kong manufacturers push forced overtime and hire more workers whenever necessary. This creates job insecurity and unstable employment in toy factories in China. Up to two thirds of the workforce are laid off during the slack season.

In some factories, it has been found that all workers are not insured against injury. Supervisors and above receive contracts, but production workers do not. It is common practice to only insure part of the workforce to hide the actual number of workers employed in each factory.

Between August and October of 2001, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee conducted research on the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) conditions and awareness of toy workers in Mainland China. 93 workers from more than 20 toy plants of varying size were interviewed. All were suppliers to prominent toy companies, namely, Hasbro, McDonald's, Mattel and Disney. All of these companies rely on either an internal monitoring system or commercial social auditors to inspect labor and OSH standards of their global suppliers. The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee's research shows the failure of code monitoring, both internal and external.

Of the 93 workers interviewed, 90% did not know anything about codes of conduct or minimum wage laws. 99% did not know what kind of compensation they would receive if they were injured on the job. When asked if they would like to receive more information and training about Occupational Safety and Health issues, 82% said yes.

Long working hours, low wages, payment by piece rate, are some of the major reasons behind Occupational Safety and Health problems, both acute and chronic, of the sub-contracting toy workers in Mainland China. Different OSH conditions are also found in different departments which cause varying problems to workers in different departments.

Work stress is a major problem in the assembly and packaging departments. Workers assembling or packaging stuffed toys are subject to skin allergy and sore throats as they inhale the stuffing particles in the air. Mechanical injury is common in the die-casting department. Other hazards include noise pollution and high temperature. Noise pollution is also a problem in the sewing department, where workers have reported that they can hardly hear or talk to each other at work.

In the spraying and coloring department, workers are persistently exposed to chemicals. It is found that workers are not taught what chemicals they are using or what hazards exist. At most they receive instructions about how to use various chemicals for toy production. Although a ventilation system is installed in the spaying and coloring department, workers cannot tell how efficient the system is or how to measure the level of paint particles in the air. Workers are only able to describe discomfort, strong chemical smells, or the need to frequently change masks. Bodily reactions to long hours of chemical exposure as reported by the interviewed workers include, dizziness, headaches, skin allergies, sore problems, vomits and a higher liability to acquire hepatitis B.

For some anti-sweatshop organizations, the "sweatshop" label is referred to only for clothing manufacturing. Human rights organizations such as the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (www.cic.org.hk) and the National Labor Committee (www.nlcnet.org) are releasing information to the public that shows that the toy industry also uses sweatshop labor.