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Disney - the Kingdom of Child Labor Violations

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. And no, six cents an hour isn't a fortune there - it's well below subsistence levels. 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 per cent of the daily food and travel costs for a single worker, let alone her family.

Acute or prolonged exposure to acetone, a chemical solvent used to make and paint plastic toys, can cause dizziness, unconsciousness, damage to the liver and kidneys and chronic eye, nose, throat and skin irritation. After working a 70 hour week, some of the teenage women take home a salary of only $4.20. Many are made ill by constant chemical exposure. 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 required payments for health insurance coverage for its employees, who now receive no compensation for injury or sickness.

For years, Disney was one of the most active members in UNICEF, an organization dedicated to the protection of children's rights including protection from sexual exploitation and child labor, specifically. Disney is well aware of all the violations and conditions of all their factories. The organizations listed in this article have made them aware. Yet they continue to use them to make their stuff.

Disney licensees have been caught using Child labor on three continents and the''' National Labor Committee in New York, whose job it is to track the labor force hiring of U.S. Corporations. Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee said, "People who are making Disney shirts are living in utter misery"'''.

Joe Allen went undercover for NBC News to investigate the sweat shops that make Disney items and said, "In some cases kids have hands eaten away by solvents". In Indonesia he found kids as young as 12 sewing Disney stuffed/plush toys. The owner proudly told him he prefers to use kids as his work force because they're "easier to control".

Remember this next time you take a cruise through McDonald's and just have to have that new Disney Happy Meal action figure

what is most commonly known as "the happiest place on earth" is supporting child slave labor overseas. The Walt Disney T-Shirt you bought your little sister for her birthday was probably stitched by a twelve year old girl in Haiti.

providing cheaper labor, the children are defenseless against bulling, beatings, and sexual abuse. They are also easier to control and threaten into obedience.

the use of the unsanitary bathrooms is only allowed twice a day. Children are forced to work thirteen to fifteen hour days that can last up to twenty-two hours with only three days off in nine months.

Workers have no health insurance, no pension, and no rights. They have no right to freedom of association or to organize. Incidents was not even reported to the state Social Security Bureau. They chose to negotiate it privately where they gave people injured badly little money and sent him home.

Disney leads us to believe that they are making an effort to improve the working conditions of their factories, although this is not the case. Their website says that they are working together with McDonald's Corporation to carry out a project that promotes sustained compliance with labor standards mandated by their codes of conduct for manufacturers. They say, "For many years, both companies have maintained strict codes of conduct for their licensees and manufacturers. These codes address a range of key labor rights issues including the prohibition of forced and child labor and the setting of requirements in such areas as health and safety, working hours, compensation and compliance with applicable laws. In addition, both companies have been active in undertaking educational, monitoring and remediation efforts to promote compliance with these codes at the factories where their products are sourced throughout the world."

The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (CIC) investigated working conditions in twelve Disney contract factories in Guangdong province in southern China and found many violations to this code.

Although Disney claims that its code of conduct and so-called "independent" monitoring system are ensuring respect for workers' right in its supply factories in China and other countries, the CIC study found that violations of the Disney code of conduct and Chinese labor law were commonplace. Those violations include: excessively long hours of work, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, workplace hazards, poor food, and dangerously overcrowded dormitories. The study also found that few workers interviewed were familiar with the Disney code of conduct and monitoring system, and that workers who had been exposed to the code and interviewed by monitors were often subjected to threats and intimidation to falsify work records or answer monitors' questions "properly" according to management-prepared scripts.

Every time you walk past a Disney store, or see a Disney movie, just think, Disney may be a happy place for you, but what about for those who slave for it?

Why helping is hard:

Helping them may sound easy, but it’s actually very complicated. Its not just make some laws that forbid children going to work. Families who rely on kids to work to keep the family fed at all will be effected. Ending child labour means not enough food for these families.

Widespread poverty in developing countries needs to be dealed with before child labour can be stopped. This means there must be enough well paid jobs for adult workers, so that they are able to feed their children and send them to school rather than to work.

Causes of child labour:

Many children from poor families have limited access to cheap and appropriate education. This puts them at risk of entering into exploitative labour or unlawful work without knowing it.

Children are paid less for their labour because they do not know their rights, and are incapable of negotiating for a fair wage.

Poor families need to keep as many family members working as possible to survive. This makes it very difficult for poor families to send their children to school. In fact, "free" public education is actually very costly to a poor family'''. '''They are expected to buy books, school supplies and uniforms. Sometimes even pay the teachers' wages.''' '''

Many children live in areas that do not have schools at all, so they work. Many countries do not even have free education for everyone.

Many parents want to send their children to school.

'''Why not make it illegal? '''

In countries all over the world, countless laws have been made against child labour. But the political will to enforce these laws however, does not exist. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is a widely known human rights treaty. Almost every country in the world agreed to recognize the right of children to be protected from exploitation and doing jobs that is likely to be dangerous or interferes with the child's education.

How we can help:

financial aid- donating $12 USD can help a child make a bright future.

Understand what is happening, and tell others about it!

Early reasons to use child labour in early ages:

Early factory owners open factories in the countryside to use power provided from fast-flowing rivers. But they found that local labour was scarce and that those farmers who were available were unsuitable for industrial production. So they started hiring children, who were cheap, fast, small, and learn things quickly.

Many children workers were not paid, they were only given cheap food for their work.

Many fathers, died in wars, mines, accidents, or epidemics, so mothers had to send their children to work.

Now Reasons :

Cheap, fast workers, children that’s not educated won’t complain about long work hours with little pay.

School is too expensive (cost of supplies).

Some countries have no public education at all.

Poor families need to keep every family member working to keep the family fed.

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'''Works Consulted '''

Keys, David. "Revealed: Industrial Revolution was powered by child slaves." Independent - London. 02 Aug. 2010: 18. eLibrary. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.

"COMBATING CHILD LABOUR IS CRUCIAL FOR THE COUNTRY'S DEVELOPMENT [OPINION]." AllAfrica. 22 Sep. 2010 eLibrary. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.

http://hubpages.com/hub/ChildLabourStillExist

http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=70

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Disney/Labor.html