Stephen Von Sychowski
Communist Party of Canada, Prince George Collective.
Ever worked for six cents and hour, for 9-10 hours a day, in unsafe work conditions, with no breaks, no time off for sick leave, no workers rights, while being exposed to deadly chemicals, with no overtime pay, without benefits like medical coverage?
Did you answer no?
Then maybe you don't work for DISNEY!
The company best known for it's children's cartoons, and the products fashioned after them such as toys, clothes and just about everything else you can imagine, may be best known for making kid's smile but you can bet one thing, the children and other workers in their factories around the world are not smiling.
In Dang Nang, Vietnam, there is a factory which produces Disney figures for distribution in McDonald's happy meals. But its workers are hardly happy and can hardly afford a meal at all. They are paid a mere six cents per hour to assemble the tiny figurines. An average work week of 70 hours provides a worker with a take home pay of $4.20. Most of the factories workers are females of the ages 17-20. They work an average 9-10 hours a day with no overtime pay. The factory employs about 1000 human beings under these similar conditions. The workers are exposed to acetone regularly throughout their work day. This chemical can cause dizziness and even unconsciousness. It can also cause more severe problems such as damage to the kidneys and liver, and chronic cases of irritated eyes, nose, throat and skin. Due to poor ventilation which the factory owners refuse to fix, the workers are surrounded by this chemical every day. In February 2000 alone, 200 women fell ill, 25 collapsed and three were hospitalized. The workers are provided with no compensation of any kind for these incidents. A days pay would not every cover the price of a single basic meal in Vietnam which costs about 70 cents and consists only of rice, vegetables and tofu.
In Haiti and the Megatex factory, Disney workers are paid a mere 27 cents per hour to make Disney clothing in sweatshops with poor work conditions. A day's work earns them $2.15, yet it costs the workers $6.12 a day simply to pay for breakfast, lunch, dinner, transport to work, school and rent (for a one room shack). So in an average day a worker can not make enough even to satisfy his very basic need's for the day never mind having any excess cash. Yet at the same time Disney turns around and sells their products for outrageous prices such as $44 for a Tigger sweater at Disney.com.
And that's not all folks, in the very same factory mentioned above, when the workers fought for a union to improve their conditions and pay, they eventually won their battle. Since then, however, Disney has reduced the amount of orders from that factory, resulting in widespread layoffs. And in Disney factories in China workers are also paid less than 30 cents per hour to work in sweatshops and are charged "entrance fees" and "deposits."
Disney and McDonalds must respect the rights of its workers for decent pay and decent working conditions. This is a call for a boycott of those companies, for resistance from the workers of those companies factories, for pressure from share holders in those companies and any one else in a position to create a change to these inhumane acts.
No more sweatshops!
Statistics gathered from www.sweatshops.org and The Campaign for Labour Rights.