Re: <nettime> Beware of Mickey - Disney Sweatshops in South China

[Bill Spornitz <spornitz@pangea.ca>]

Although I couldn't find an email address for Michael Eisner himself, 
there is an *investor relations*  mail page at
http://disney.go.com/mail/investorinfo/index.html



Again, here's the text of the letter that the Chinese group suggests 
be sent to the esteemed Mr. Eisner:

Mr. Michael Eisner, CEO
Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521
Fax: 818-846-7319

Dear Mr. Eisner:

RE: Disney Sweatshops in South China

I am/We are writing to express my/our very serious concerns about recent
reports of sweatshop abuses in factories producing Disney products in
China. According to a report by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial
Committee, workers are being forced to work up to 18 hours a day, seven
days a week, often under dangerous working conditions, for poverty wages.
Workers interviewed complain of bad food and dangerous and overcrowded
living conditions. Obviously, these working and living conditions are
totally unacceptable, and are clearly in violation of both Chinese Labour
Law and your company's code of conduct.

As promised in your code of conduct, Disney should ensure that its
contractors respect workers' rights. However, your company's current
monitoring program appears to be inadequate and ineffective. Rather than
cutting and running from contract factories in violation of the Disney
code and Chinese law, which would only cause more suffering for the
affected workers, Disney should act responsibly and work with your
contractors to correct the problems immediately.

I/We strongly urge Disney to do the following:
1. Promote workers' rights education at the workplace so that workers are
aware of their rights and able to make complaints when those rights are
violated.
2. Involve workers in the monitoring process. They should be empowered to
act as on-going workplace monitors.
3. Provide accessible and trustworthy channels (e.g. letter box in the
factory with prepaid postal envelopes) for workers to lodge complaints to
the company and interested third parties. The company should guarantee that
there will be no retaliation against workers who register complaints.
4. Strictly monitor and assist your suppliers to comply with the national
labour laws and Disney's Code. Instead of simply cutting and running,
Disney should work with the non-complying factories to improve the
situation.
5. Disclose all information on your suppliers for public scrutiny.

I/we look forward to receiving a prompt reply outlining the specific steps
your company is taking to correct these problems and to make your
monitoring program more transparent, credible and effective.

Yours sincerely,
Name/ Organization / Contact Information

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net