Hasbro Transformers = China sweat shops

Hasbro Transformer toys made in miserable sweatshop conditions
December 19, 2011


Holidays by Hasbro, Transformers from Hell

Today, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights is releasing an explosive 40 page report "Holidays by Hasbro, Transformers from Hell," including scores of photographs and documents smuggled out of the Jet Fair toy factory in China.

The Jet Fair sweatshop in China produces Hasbro's Transformers. “I challenge Hasbro’s executives to imagine their own sons and daughters working under such miserable sweatshop conditions,” said Institute director Charles Kernaghan. “It does not have to be this way.”

- 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 at "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.

"While Hasbro demands all sorts of enforceable laws backed up by sanctions to protect their Transformers and other toys," said Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, "when it comes to the workers in China, Hasbro is happy to offer them useless voluntary codes of conduct which are designed to fail. Nothing will change until Hasbro and the other toy companies are held legally accountable to comply with internationally recognized workers' rights standards."

So, are the luxury items such as this worth creating that kind of situation? Even if you don't want to stop buying from China, putting pressure on Hasbro to stop this kind of practice would seem logical and ethical.

http://www.globallabourrights.org/alerts?id=0369

 

We must all never buy these toys again. I have never purchased one myself. Are strawberry shortcake toys produced in the same conditions?

 

Holy crap. I'm a nerd. I don't like to think about where my action figures come from. Oh, I feel like such a bad person now.

 

China and India’s population is about one-third of the world’s population. Both nations are rapidly emerging into the high-tech fully automated industrial world. Where soon the high-tech fully automated industrial factories of the world being able to produce more goods than the people of the world will be able to consume or sustain.

 

The two Transformers toys that I could find on Amazon that were made in America were both AWESOME. But one cost about $200 and the other one cost about $400. That's a lot to spend on a toy. Even if one of them is actually five toys that combine into one giant robot toy which is AWESOME.

 

Just a question. American feminists don't care about women being raped and oppressed in the middle east because it is "too far away" (that was the actual response I got from one poster on here about it). So by that logic, why should we care about sweat shops in China?

 

From "one poster" you criticise "American feminists".

Way to go

 

Heard the same rhetoric from plenty of others. Only used that example to illustrate that it wasn't an empty assumption.

 

92 cents an hour is a lot in a Communist regime.

 

Dishonest nonsense.
Your first claim is an outright lie.
There are many American feminists who are involved in fighting for issues of inequality in cultures around the world, from Hillary Clinton on down.
And comparing foreign cultural practices that are not under our control to the actions of American corporations that exploit foreign workers for short term profit is as ignorant as it is irrelevant.

 

Horse(*)(*)(*)(*). Any interest the vast majority of American feminists take in the legitimate oppression of foreign women is always secondary to petty domestic issues involving abortion, paychecks, and self-esteem. You know it, and I know it.

And your second statement is a total copout. Unless your organization only stands for domestic women's rights, then you have a responsibility to get involved in the universal problems your cause is supposed to stand for. Otherwise you only support your cause as much as it directly benefits you. Which means it's not humanitarianism at all but merely selfishness. The very thing you're blasting American coroporations for here.

Not to mention the fact that, not surprisingly, you are not making any effort at all to hold the foreign people responsible for their own participation in these sweat shops. You only see it as the fault of the big, bad American corporations because you already have a vested interest in demonizing them.

 

I never understood the objection to sweatshops. Were it not for a sweatshop, many of the people who work within would starve.

Also, what we consider to be a sweatshop can be a very high wage job where they live.

So unburden your concious, none of these people are slaves. You can be sure that they consider themselves very fortunate to have that job.

 

I knew that there would be at least ONE dimwitted conservatard that would chime in in defense of sweatshops! Good stuff!!

 

Which raises the obvious question: have you ever understood anything?

Seriously, sometimes the ignorance on this forum actually worries me.

 

That's horrible. I haven't read the rest of the posts yet but I'm positive there is at least one liberal waving their finger at our disgust, calling us hypocrites for "supporting capitalism and being disgusted at this at the same time".

EDIT: none yet, but I'll wait.

 

That's horrible that you think this is OK. Even if they are "lucky" to have that job and earn a paycheck, it is terrible that they would have to work in such hellish conditions. Human beings, no matter their intelligence or geographical location, should not ever have to live and work like that ever. I don't care whether they agreed to the job or not, it's cruel.
Of course, one cannot blame the company completely. The chinamen that make the toys should grow some balls and demand the right to better work conditions. We grew some balls in the US during the turn of the century, and so did Europe. China needs to do the same.

 

I have long been curious to hear a full explanation of this. We are constantly told that multi-nats exploit cheap labor in poorer countries for the sake of cost-cutting.

I don't want to talk about "US jobs" since I don't care about "protectionism", but why is it considered exploitation? In economic terms I would say that if people are not forced to work at a factory they must value the pay they receive more than not working there. So what is abusive about it?

 

Just because the pay is valuable doesn't mean that the working conditions aren't abusive. At least theoretically, the people do agree to the work voluntarily. But what makes it exploitation is that their pay in no way reflects the value of the work they're doing. The workers exist in conditions of poverty that the factories take advantage of, knowing that they're desperate enough to take whatever the factory will offer. That's exploitation.

 

Read the book, "The Jungle" and you will see that corporations often will realize that desperate people will do anything as far as work and put up with horrible conditions just to try and survive.

Some of these corporations take advantage of that desperation by providing horrendous and very unsafe conditions to save money at the expense of the people working there.

 

So nobody thinks they would be better off without the jobs at all?

 

I think they might be. Honestly, if the choice is between providing for yourself by taking a job in a sweatshop and providing for yourself by hunting and fishing, I think the smart choice might be hunting and fishing.

 

Your missing the point. If you see someone starving and offer them a rotting dog corpse for food do you think they will eat it to survive?

Probably, but does that make your offer any less disgusting? This is what some corporations are doing. Knowing people will do anything they provide the worst possible environment they can get away with while maintaining their production quotas.

 

I'm living in a developing country where foreign nations invest money. These companies employ local people where the law is a foreign company must employ atleast 30% locals, but in reality most employ at a rate of 70%.

Only last month, the Lao government set a minimum wage of 600,000Kip (about 90USD) per month for an unskilled worker. Bearing in mind the national average wage is only about 1000USD per annum, as most people are subsistence farmers. The national average wage in Laos has been rising due to foreign investment and employment.

What's happening is most of this foreign investment has been occurring in the provinces where before there has been on employment at all besides subsistence farming.

Strict guidelines have been put in place in relation to industrial relations and worker's rights. These laws didn't exist before foreign investment.


In a nutshell, due to foreign investment and employment, the living standards of the average Lao has increased substantially. The Lao are looking for employment with foreigners rather than with local companies because of the wages and benefits offered by foreign companies.

 

Then I suppose that would be a good example however there are many examples throughout the world where foreign plants do not operate with such positive consequences.

A little research will show you some of the horrible conditions some of these people are working in.

 

This is true.

One has to realise that Laos is a socialist democratic country. Yes, free elections are held every five years but a one party form of government.

Laws have been put in place for foreign companies where by worker's rights have to be adhered to. If not, you can pack your bags.