One would hardly associate Disney’s children’s books with crushed and broken fingers, lacerated hands, broken legs and even deaths. But disturbingly, that is the case at the Hung Hing plant in China where Disney is the major client and where serious work injuries are almost a daily occurrence.
– National Labor Committee
PHOTO: Hospitalized worker (PDF report).
The human rights group, the National Labor Committee, has accused the Disney Corporation of using factories in China where workers labor under sweatshop conditions to produce children’s books. Protesters dressed in Disney cartoon character costumes demonstrated in New York in front of the Disney store. Here is National Labor Committee Director Charles Kernaghan describing the alleged conditions in one Disney factory in China: “When we buy this Disney book, in this Disney store, or we buy these Disney books in Wal-Mart, would the American people ever stop, could they imagine young workers in China forced to work 10 to 13 hours a day, six and seven days a week. Working, grueling sixty, seventy even ninety hours a week. Workers paid as low as 35 cents an hour, below the legal minimum wage, workers trapped in misery.”
– Democracy Now!, which features a video/audio clip of Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee.
The workers are fighting back. BELOW:
Video : “Those With Justice” 11 minutes (Hung Hing factory workers producing for Disney in China). There’s also a PDF transcript of the video. The video was created by SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior), an NGO located in Hong Kong.
Now, more from the Disney/China page of the National Labor Committee:
But the workers are fighting back in search of basic justice. And—in what is a hugely important development—students and scholars in Hong Kong (formed as SACOM—Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior) are joining their sisters and brothers in China in this struggle.
The National Labor Committee, together with SACOM and our NGO partners in Hong Kong, intend to launch an international campaign to shame Disney into doing the right thing.
The demands of the Chinese workers are simple and doable. Disney must release the names and addresses of the factories they use across China to make their goods. Disney must allow SACOM and other human, women’s and worker rights NGOs access to these plants to train the workers so they can play the key role in monitoring these factories. This will bring an end to the violations.
Disney/China page, NLCnet.orgNOTE: If you scroll down this page, you’ll find several reports, in PDF format, each highlighted with an image of the workers in the Disney factories in China.
