ICFTU ONLINE...

278/981221/DD

Brussels. December 21 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): "Santa's helpers who are producing toys for Christmas are being exploited as they have to work long hours in terrible conditions", said the ICFTU. "In this case, the helpers are workers in Chinese factories producing toys such as "Furbies" and "Teletubbies", this year's crazes, and their bosses are the western multinational companies".

In order to meet the craze, Furbies are selling on the Internet for as much as $200 each.

A worker in a Chinese factory producing them is earning as little as $50 a month, working six days a week, 14 hours a day, according to a new report by the Asia Monitor Research Centre.

The ICFTU is calling on consumers to use their consumer power to let companies know that they want to shop with a conscience, and to be sure that the toys they buy for their children are not being produced by underpaid, overworked workers in dangerous factories.

A recent report on world toy production by the Hong Kong-based Asia Monitor Research Centre, came out with the following information.

80% of the world's toys are produced in China, but actual toy production is organised through Hong Kong, where overseas buyers believe that the toy manufacturers are among the world's best at producing toys of high quality under very tight delivery schedules.

For a toy retailing at $10 in the US, $8 is used on transportation, marketing, retailing and profit, $1 is shared by management and transport to Hong Kong, 65 cents spent on the raw materials and China earns 35 cents by providing sites, labour and electricity.

Labour comprises only part of the 0.035% of the total China receives for every toy

Just last week, the ICFTU described the plight of Liu Jingsheng, founder of China's Free Labour Unions (FLUC), who was arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for 'counter-revolutionary activities".

Researcher May Wong managed to get into China to interview toy workers in 12 of the major toy-producing factories, and discovered that workers' problems begin as soon as they start work. They are forced to pay the company a deposit when they are recruited, which the company said would be refunded after a period of time, but often it is never repaid. Some workers, for example those working for Laxo which produces Mickey Mouse for Disney do not receive their first month's wages until 3 months later.

Details of the reports findings are as follows:

Workers have many complaints about the way in which factories fine them for misdemeanours, although this practice is against the Chinese labour code. For example, workers who leave the Happy Crafts factory (which produces toys for Italian retailer Chicco) without permission loose 3 days' wages, while others are fined for offences such as losing meal cards.

Many workers live in dormitories and receive their meals on the factory premises, for which they may be charged up to $18, (out of a monthly wage of $60). According to workers at the Tri-S factory, which produces toys for Fisher Price, sometimes breakfast consists of leftover food from the night before. Recently workers at the V-tech factory were hospitalised after eating rotten food provided by the canteens, and had to pay their own hospital fees.

Sometimes the dormitories are enormous, with no privacy. Workers at the Tri-S factory have to sleep in dormitories of 300 people sleeping in double-decked beds. At the Bingo Toy factor which produces Tomy toys, two balconies of the new dormitory building collapsed last August, killing seven workers, and injuring over 30. By September, six workers were still in hospital, and three who were seriously injured were waiting for a further operation. These three are worried that the management may not pay the operation costs if they do not return to work in the factory.

In fact, many workers try to leave these factories because conditions are so bad. However, even this right is denied, as they are often kept there against their will, and not allowed to resign, particularly in the middle of a production contract. At the Meitai factory, which produces Barbie dolls, workers cannot resign in the first three years of employment. In order to prevent workers escaping, some factories keep workers' identity cards, so that when they run away, they loose their cards, their wages and their deposit.

One of the best ways to protect these workers would be if they were allowed to form or join independent trade unions, says the ICFTU, which according to Chinese Labour law, they are allowed to do. However, in practice the law is meaningless, as workers can only join the All China Federation of Trade Unions, which is subordinated to the State and the Chinese Communist Party. Because the ACFTU refuses to take up the defence of these workers, workers at two factories - Zhongshan International (Tomy) and Laxo (Disney-Mickey Mouse) went on strike. Because there was no proper network of support such as a trade union, these strikes failed. Some workers were then fired, and at Laxo, their wages were held, and they were forced to write a statement of repentance.

The ICFTU is working with trade unions worldwide to improve working conditions for toy workers. In Ireland, the Irish Council of Trade Unions (ICTU) is campaigning with Trocaire to get consumers to write to the heads of the major toy retailers. In the United Kingdom the TUC has mounted campaigns for toy workers, as has the DGB in Germany. UNITE, the garment workers' union in the United States also carried out campaigns around the Kader Toy Factory Fire in Thailand in May 1993.

The ICFTU is asking consumers who buy toys this Christmas to write to the Chairmen of the toy retailing companies, to ask them to ensure that trade union rights are respected in factories which produce their toys.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more information
please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

ICFTU OnLine