Seeing Christmas toys under the tree, unwrapping them with excitement, and playing with them for many days to come, is a delightful experience for many children throughout the world!
But seldom do we think of where the toys came from, who made them, and under what conditions were they made.
Thankfully, the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights (IGLHR) has painstakingly asked, and answered, many of these questions.
In its investigative report “Dirty Toys Made in China” (http://bit.ly/1QppDGA), IGLHR reports that the Dongguan Zhenyang Wanju Limited toy factory in China employees over 1,800 workers – many of whom are just 16-year-old – in near freezing conditions, for wages as small as $1.36 an hour.
The workers mainly produce Christmas toys, dolls and baby toys for Disney, Hasbro, Mattel and others companies in the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Workers at the Zhenyang toy factory are forbidden to move from their work areas, and can’t even stop to take a drink of water. And because noise levels are extremely high in some departments, longtime employees have suffer hearing loss.
The quota for a team of 36 workers making toy cars is 11,000 pieces per day. This means in essence each worker must make 306 toys per shift.
In the paint and printing work rooms, which are filled with chemical fumes including industrial alcohol, phenylenediamine, and sodium peroxide, workers are denied air filter masks causing some to feel nauseous and dizzy.
And after toiling at least 12 hours a day in these inhumane conditions, workers must sleep on narrow bare wooden bunk beds in crowded dorms.
Please go to this IGLHR link http://bit.ly/1O5yXPL and click each of the seven toy companies listed, to send a pre-written letter to each company expressing your concern regarding the terrible injustices experienced by workers laboring to make their Christmas toys. It takes less than five minutes to send a message to all seven companies.
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the [Catholic] Church insists that “Labor has an intrinsic priority over capital.” People are more important than money.
An excellent way to begin to stop this worker exploitation is to hold companies like Disney, Hasbro and Mattel accountable for these abuses — which place astronomical profit above basic human rights.