As one of our major importers, China, they are having to deal with major mistreatments and illegal operations in their leading toy factories. The Chinese Labor Watch reported this Tuesday, which is located here in the U.S. in New York. This has been the most resent of many reporting. Some of which are major corporations such as Hasbro, Walt Disney, Apple, and McDonalds. The accusations accused are troubles with dangerous working environments, hiring minors, mandatory overtime, and sexual and verbal abuse by management.
The reason it has been brought to light has been because of the problems with recent toy recalls. The Chinese government has stated that all exports are high-quality, although the workers don’t necessarily agree. Hasbro has agreed to look into the issues at hand, but the Disney Company was the only one to state that they would actually look into labor problems and look for the workers best interest. The International Council of Toy Industries reported they would be willing to investigate and help the workers to ensure a better working environment.
Toy companies are easy targets for mistreatment and unfair working conditions because of the major names on the products and the billions of dollars they produce. The unfair working conditions of these companies are most likely not going to change. The manufacturers can easily mistreat the workers because they are treated as one of many, easily replaced. At cost in China a toy can easily be around just five dollars, but in America maybe forty-five. The money made by the workers are not even close to the “at cost” for making these products. The employees probably don’t even have benefits and can easily be disregarded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/business/worldbusiness/22factory.html?ref=world
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