Sweatshops and Child Labor Day 2

1. Sweatshops and Child LaborDay 2

2. Recap • What is a sweatshop? • What is child labor? • Collect reflections from yesterday

3. Disney & McDonald’s Linked to $0.06/Hour Sweatshop in Vietnam(from Campaign for Labor Rights, May 2, 1997) Summary: Seventeen year old women are forced to work 9 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, earning as little as six cents an hour in the Keyhinge factory in Vietnam making the popular giveaway promotional toys, many of which are Disney characters, for McDonald’s Happy Meals.

4. Background: Included in the Happy Meals sold at McDonald’s are small toys based on characters from Disney films. According to McDonald’s senior vice president Brad Ball, the Happy Meals characters from the “101 Dalmatians” movie were the most successful in McDonald’s history. Ball adds, “As we embark on our new global alliance, we anticipate ten great years of unbeatable family fun as customers enjoy ‘the magic of Disney’ only at McDonald’s” (PR Newswire Associates, March 19, 1997). Located in Da Nang City, Vietnam, the Keyhinge Toys Co. Factory employs approximately 1,000 people, 90 % of whom are young women 17 to 20 years old. Overtime is mandatory: shifts of 9 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week. Wage rates average between six cents and eight cents an hour – well below subsistence levels. Overcome by fatigue and poor ventilation in late February, 200 women fell ill, 25 collapsed and three were hospitalized as a result of exposure to acetone. Acute or prolonged exposure to acetone, a chemical solvent, can cause dizziness, unconsciousness, damage to the liver and kidneys and chronic eye, nose, throat and skin irritation.

5. All appeals from local human and labor rights groups continue to be rejected by Keyhinge management which refuses to improve the ventilation system in the factory or remedy other unsafe working conditions. Along with demanding forced overtime, Keyhinge management has not made legally mandated payments for health insurance coverage for its employees, who now receive no compensation for injury or sickness. Many of the young women at the Keyhinge factory making McDonald’s/Disney toys earn just 60 cents after a 10 hour shift. The most basic meal in Vietnam – rice, vegetables, and tofu – costs 70 cents. Three meals would cost $2.10. Wages do not even cover 20% of the daily food and travel costs for a single worker, let alone her family.

6. P. Diddy clothing line accused of using sweatshop labor NEW YORK – Sean John, the clothing line of rap music mogul Sean “P. Diddy” combs, is under scrutiny from a workers rights group for allegedly using laborers from a Honduran sweatshop.

7. The director of the anti-sweatshop National Labor Committee, Charles Kernaghan, released a report Tuesday detailing poor working conditions at the Southeast Textiles factory in Choloma, Honduras, where Sean John clothes are made. Kernaghan and 19-year-old Lydda Eli Gonzalez, a former worker at the factory, stood outside the sit of a Sean John store to open next spring as Gonzalez described the alleged abuses that took place at the factory.

8. “We should be paid what we’re owed. We make so little that it’s not enough to have a dignified life,” said Gonzalez, who said she was fired after she tried to organize a union. Workers are subjected to daily body searches, contaminated drinking water and 11- to 12-hour daily shifts, the report says. In exchange, they are paid 24 cents for each $50 Sean John sweat shirt they sew. But the factory owner, Steve Hawkins, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Gonzalez was a disgruntled workers fired for producing poor quality merchandise, not clocking in when she arrived and repeatedly arriving late.

9. Hawkins, a native of North Caroline, said that charge that conditions at his factory were substandard “is completely groundless”. When Gonzalez was fired, she received a severance cheque equivalent to two-and-a-half months salary, Hawkins said. And while the minimum wage in Honduras is 55 cents an hour, he said his workers make an average of 90 cents per hour. A representative of Dean John said that clothing line was unaware of the conditions alleged by Kernaghan.

10. “We had absolutely no knowledge of the situation; however, we take these matters very seriously,” said Jeff Tweedy, executive vice president of Sean John. “We have a director of compliance who will be looking into this matter immediately”. The report also says women were given mandatory pregnancy tests, and that those who tested positive were fired. The abuses are violations of Honduran labour laws but are rarely enforced for fear of corporate divestment, Kernaghan said. His organization’s repeated attempts to contact Sean John have gone without a response, he said. Kernaghan said the study was not an attack on Combs.

11. “This is his company,” Kernaghan said pointing toward the story at Fifth Avenue and 41st Street. “He could turn this around tomorrow. He could set a new standard”. The goal, Kernaghan said, is not to have Sean John pull out of Honduras and leave the workers jobless but to improve working conditions and eliminate human rights abuses. According to the report, about 80% of the Southeast Textiles factory production is for the Sean John clothing line. The other 20% is for Rocawear, co-founded by rapper and producer Jay-Z and rap music producer Damon Dash. A call placed to Rocawear was not returned.

12. Reflective Response After listening to the two case studies presented to you in class, write a half page reflective response to one of the two studies. • Do you agree with what the company is doing? • Why do you think they might continue to do this? • What can we do as consumers to possibly change things?