Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights report on sweatshop conditions in toy factory
A summary and the report itself can be read here.
Holidays by Hasbro: Transformers from Hell
- Workers housed in filthy, over-crowded dorms, infested with rats and
bed bugs. Workers report they cannot sleep at night from the bed bug
bites. - Workers describe factory food as "Pretty much like swine food."
- Workers allowed less than 9 minutes to assemble each Hasbro Transformer, for which they are paid 17 cents.
- "We are drenched in sweat," workers say. Factory temperatures soar to 104 degrees F in summer.
- During peak season, workers toil 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, while earning a take-home wage of just 92 cents an hour.
- Workers undergo three body-searches each day, are not permitted to
talk or lift their heads to look around, and need permission to use the
bathroom. - Hasbro is open to the hiring of 14 and 15-year-olds on a "case-by-case basis."
- Workers in the spray paint department fear they are being exposed to dangerous solvents.
- There are no fire drills and some emergency exits are locked.
- During the slow season, hundreds of workers are fired under false
charges so management does not have to pay their legal severance. - Workers are cheated of paid sick leave and maternity leave.
- Workers describe their work as mindless, miserable, constantly monotonous, yet furious and exhausting.
In case anybody's wondering, the report seems to be legit. Despite how the writer of the report is not known for credibility (see post #23), this time he has photos as evidence.
The report itself rather bugs me, though. The factory's workers are referred to as "Hasbro's workers" as if they actually own the factory.
If you look at the report itself, the factory is mentioned to make toys for other companies. So, it's not Hasbro's factory, but this is not to say that they are free from blame. They do business with it, and should follow ethics and well, the law. The conditions the workers are forced to work in even violate Chinese law.
Comments
Today I learned how outsourcing your production overseas allows you to circumvent such pesky things as labour laws and decent wages. Though griffin claws are less delicate than unicorn magic in the spray-painting of crappy recolours, a motivational whipping more than compensates for this inconvenience. Although the toxic fumes leave us with an enormous turnover rate in employees, there are always more desperate proles that eagerly replace those who've gone on an unpermitted sick leave to the hereafter.
Your Faithful CEO,
Twilight Sparkle"
But hey, that's capitalism for you."
It's also the consumers' fault because they only want more and more without consideration for what goes into making those products. Though the media tends to manufacture that tendency.
Say you decide to make gifts for people, for example, so you can avoid sweatshops
So who makes the base materials you're using...?
^^
Key phrase: "without consideration for what goes into making those products."
If you're thinking about who's making the base materials, it's a step in the right direction. That leads you to be more informed when making purchases.
In case anybody's interested, you can send an email at Hasbro's corporate social responsibilities address, csr@hasbro.com or use the form at http://hasbro.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/hasbro.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
It might help. A few people in the Transformers fandom have sent emails, and at least a couple of them received some form of response.
Well, considering how this is just one of many factories Hasbro contracts with, it's possible that at least one MLP factory is like that too, unsettling as that sounds.
Depressing though this may be, an awful lot of consumer goods nowadays are produced just this way, not just toys. If you're that bothered you can look out for Fairtrade and similar schemes, or make an effort to only buy stuff made in countries with decent records on workers' rights.
Having said all that, it's very hard to make the effort when you're shopping every day for the basic necessities of life (on the other hand, shopping for toys isn't something most people do all the time, so it's probably easier to consider this).
I must also add that the dodgy conditions they're made in is yet another reason why adults shouldn't, in general, buy Transformers or My Little Pony dolls.
That's...really not that uncommon. Knowing China I'm inclined to assume it as the general rule rather than the occasional exception.
I am not sure what that means for the report itself, though.
They at least care how this case is giving them bad PR.