“Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”  ~Walt Disney

 Figure 1

You walk into the Disney store with your younger sister and it is like a land of magic for her.  It’s her birthday, so you tell her that she can pick out a gift for herself.  As you are strolling down the Disney princess aisle and the Mickey Mouse aisle, she runs up to you and says she wants the Minnie Mouse toy.  Without a question the two of you make your way to the checkout line.  While your younger sister is overjoyed with her new Minnie Mouse toy, the children in developing countries are suffering just by producing that toy.  

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Many companies throughout the world use child labor to make their products, which is a very repulsive thought to many individuals.  These children are prevented from having a real childhood.  However, the most surprising fact is that while the Walt Disney Company sells products that are catered towards making children happy, the company actually uses sweatshops and child labor to produce their products in developing countries.  Simply stated, sweatshops are factories or workshops that employ manual labor on workers at very low pay for long hours.  These sweatshops are hot, congested, dangerous, and basically all workers suffer from dirt-poor conditions.

Some countries affected by these horrible circumstances are China, Bangladesh, and Haiti.  Sweatshops are used in these countries because the wages can be lowered, and in significant amounts.  Documented by international humanitarian groups, workers in Haiti are paid 30 cents an hour, work under the legal age in factories with filthy rats, and experience sexual harassment.  This is not even as severe as Bangladesh, where workers are paid 5 cents an hour to assemble a shirt that retails for $17.99, work 14-hour days, seven days a week, and are beaten if quotas are not met ("Disney's Sad Sweatshop History”).  Luckily, since workers publicly protested about the poor working conditions, Disney removed their factory there.  However, this did not stop the company from going elsewhere, implementing even worse conditions.

By moving the factory to China, “young people are forced to work 10-13 hours a day producing Disney’s children’s books six or seven days a week” ("Disney's Sad Sweatshop History”).  They also only get paid 33-41 cents an hour, which is even below the minimum wage of 42 cents an hour in China.  Not only do workers get cheated of their overtime pay, but they also faint from exhaustion due to the unbearable heat in the factories.  The fact that people aren’t allowed to take breaks is also a contributing factor ("Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories").  No adult, let alone a child, can handle such harsh working conditions.

While the Walt Disney Company human rights section states that, “we are committed to combating the exploitation of children and therefore prohibit any use of child labor in the manufacture of Disney-branded products,” ("Human Rights") there is a recorded interview of a Chinese worker in China that begged to differ.  In the anonymous interview of a worker, who seems to be a voice of a young girl, she states that she “starts [work] half past six in the morning and works till midnight.  Then [would] do overtime until two or four am” ("Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories").  When asked what toys are produced in the factory, the interviewee stated that “dolls and dogs for Disney” ("Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories") are made.  This gives viewers of the film a first hand insight of the people working there.  The reason these interviews are kept anonymous is to protect the workers from getting punished.  People will never understand the conditions inside the sweatshops without such interviews because many companies deny entrances of people who want to film or report such conditions.  Even if people or auditors, who are there to investigate and check the working conditions there, want to speak to or interview the workers, the workers are often coached by their supervisors on how to answer the auditors’ questions.  While trying to present the best picture to visitors, the more hazardous conditions are hidden behind closed doors. 

Figure 2: Factory conditions in China

As consumers, we usually just think about whether or not the product we buy is worth the price.  No one really thinks about the real story behind the making of the product that is being bought.  It could be a 14-year-old child who made the Mickey Mouse toy you leave by your bedside or the Disneyland sweater you are gifting your younger cousin for Christmas.  While Western consumers “…worry about exposing their children to Chinese-made toys coated in lead [or any other harmful chemicals], Chinese workers, often as young as 16, face far more serious hazards” (Barboza).  These children work long hours and come face to face with these harmful chemicals on a daily basis, without even knowing the side effects that come along with it.  The numerous negative effects on their health hinder both their physical and intellectual development.  They can’t go to school and consequently doesn’t have the same opportunities as other children.  This could lead them to become illiterate adults who will not have the means to provide for their children, leading to a snowball effect in developing countries.  All the working children really want is to make enough money for their family to survive another day with a small meal.  The conditions these children are in are far more extreme than people will ever know.  It was found in a study that “...factory workers [in China] lose or break about 40,000 fingers on the job every year” (Barboza).  This can be a life-changing incident, which can lead to the person losing his/her job and not even get compensated for it.  Instead of fixing the machine, factories would just fire and hire new workers.  This is extremely unfair to the laborers. 

There are claims that “workers in the developing world tend to view sweatshop labor as a very attractive option” (Zwolinski) because if the law was to fire children from sweatshops, they would be seen in even worse working conditions on the streets.  It is understandable for children to want to work in sweatshops because of their low education status and to want to find easy jobs that can help them survive, but with such low pay, these children and even adults, deserve to work in better environments/settings.  New government policies also need to be established to make sure that people are given fair wages for their hard labor.  The contributing factor towards the process to cure child labor is economic growth.  Corporations need to give a fair amount of money to sweatshops for their workers instead of keeping more profit for themselves.

While people, the National Labor Committee, and Congress have started to encourage corporations and companies, such as Disney, to take responsibility for the quality of their overseas factories, nothing is really being done.  It was stated that, “rather than bettering conditions in Haiti, Disney contractor H.H. Cutler attempted to move the plant to China” (Kopp).  One reason this would be beneficial for the company is because in China they would be able to pay the workers even lower wages and maintain an even lower standard of humane treatment than in Haiti.  This caused “the U.S. government to write a personal letter to CEO Michael Eisner encouraging him to stay in Haiti and improve conditions for his workers there instead.  [However,] Eisner never responded and Cutler moved the plant from Haiti to China shortly thereafter” (Kopp).  This shows how the company is reluctant in improving the conditions of their workplaces.  These corporations just want to find better outcomes that will benefit themselves, and don’t understand that profit should not consume the whole picture for a business.

Instead of ignoring the situation corporations need to find safer ways to manufacture their products, which can be done by making sweatshops cleaner and less dangerous to their workers.  This can be accomplished either through the improvement of machinery or ventilation systems in congested sweatshops.  Additionally, new regulations need to be set and established soon, before more children get injured even further.  For example, in the United States, “…hazardous work is prohibited for all children under the age of 18; minimum age for regular employment is 16; and 14 to 16 year olds are permitted to engage in light work, for a limited of hours, that does not interfere with schooling” (Hindman).  These are policies that need to be established in many workplaces in developing countries.  Many of the developing nations still permit young children to engage in extensive work, no matter what their age is.  While, the U.S. Government cannot take significant action in these developing countries because the operations are not on U.S. soil, other governments should know to take the necessary steps to better the working conditions of these factories and sweatshops.  Luckily, there are still organizations, such as the National Labor Committee, that continue to focus on bringing the issue of child labor and sweatshops to the public’s attention and hopefully make a change.

Even though the government and other organizations are working to make a change in developing countries, consumers can also help by not purchasing products made by children.  This would decrease the demand for such products.  Instead, people should support and praise brands that contribute to free child labor.  For example, there are fair trade movements, such as Handcrafting Justice, that encourage people to buy products that ensure fair wages for the people who make them.  While we may know that “…iPads come from China, our raspberries from Chile, and our T-shirts from Bangladesh…the people working to produce these products often are subjected to unjust wages and conditions.  These injustices continue to exist because we don't have the time or the resources to trace the supply chain for every purchase we make” (“Handcrafting Justice”).  This is why the fair trade logo on various packaged goods, such as coffees and teas, are allowing consumers to know that they are purchasing a good that is fairly compensated for.  By doing so, it also promoted human dignity, giving credit to those who are manufacturing the product.  Moreover, by following fair trade standards, it is “…designed to tackle poverty and empower producers in the poorest countries in the world” (“Standards”).  These standards would apply to both producers and traders, and there are requirements that need to be met before the producers can be certified.  This will also help companies shift towards fair trade knowing that fair trade products can sell better. 

In addition, as consumers, we should let more people know about what is happening in the developing countries and the exploitation of child labor.  We should not let our community and our world be blinded to it.  Awareness is one of the first steps to making a change because it can get more people to support the cause and make a difference.  This can be done through informational sessions or to make the learning experience more enjoyable, organize activities.  Also, with our advance technology today and social media, it can help get the message across to people everywhere.  

While child labor may not affect us individuals directly, it does not mean that we can just ignore the fact that it is happening.  It is painful to hear that children are unable to obtain an education and is instead forced to work in sweatshops under unregulated conditions.  We, the people, are the ones that can make a difference in the world.  A change needs to be made to either decrease child labor or improve the working conditions of these sweatshops.  Together, we can all push for a greater change.  Walt Disney would get his heart broken if he was alive to see what people have done to his land of magic. 

Works Cited

Barboza, David. "In Chinese Factories, Lost Fingers and Low Pay." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Jan. 2008. Web. 02 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html?_r=0>.

"Disney's Sad Sweatshop History." Buzzflash. N.p., 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/disneys-sad-sweatshop-history/429-disneys-sad-sweatshop-history>.

"Handcrafting Justice." About Fair Trade. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <http://www.handcraftingjustice.org/about-fair-trade>.

Hindman, Hugh D. The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2009. Google Books. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <https://books.google.com/books?id=OjPfBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

"Human Rights." The Walt Disney Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/citizenship/policies/human-rights>.

Image, Figure 1. <http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2pChzETz9IE/URfX2PqghRI/AAAAAAAAACM/5D7GXVOM40k/s320/17_disneyrgb.jpg>

Image, Figure 2.

<http://new-standards.net/files/ns/pics/resources-re-child-labor-in-china/11.jpg>

Kopp, Frederick. "Child Slave Labor in the Walt Disney Company." IHS Child Slave Labor News ::. N.p., Nov. 2005. Web. 02 Apr. 2015. <http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=67>.

"Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories." YouTube. YouTube, 3 Dec. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8jUDzz5bE>.

"Standards." Fairtrade International /. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://www.fairtrade.net/standards.html>.

Zwolinski, Matt. "Learn Liberty | Top 3 Ways Sweatshops Help The Poor Escape Poverty." Learn Liberty. N.p., 7 June 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2015. <http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/top-3-ways-sweatshops-help-poor-escape-poverty/>.