Time to Act, Pooh Bear
Contractor cleans up former Disney factory in Bangladesh
Here’s some proof that worker activism can get results. In September, the Coalition for the Abolition of Sweatshops and Child Labor launched a national tour in their ongoing campaign to pass legislation that would hold corporations accountable and guarantee international responsibility.
It’s had an impact.
In October, Bangladesh factory owner Bikkis Jahan called his 325 workers together for a meeting: He apologized.
He said he was sorry for past abuses and harsh treatment. He said he was sorry that supervisors had beaten and threatened workers. And he vowed that such cruel treatment would no longer be tolerated.
Jahan, who contracts work from Disney, also promised to adhere to the nation’s labor laws.
The Shah Makhdum factory has literally cleaned up its act with fresh paint, new lighting and fans, a water purifier and a covered dining room so workers don’t have to eat their lunch on the roof.
In addition, workers get one day off a week, and Disney’s Code of Conduct (in their native Bengali language) is posted.
For eight years, young women sewing Disney garments at the factory were beaten; forced to work 15-hour days, seven days a week, and paid just 5 cents for each $17.99 Disney shirt they made.
When workers got fed up and demanded basic human rights, Disney pulled out of the factory.
“The campaign continues — harder than ever — until Disney does the right thing and returns its work to the factory and finally respects the rights of these brave workers,” said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York-based human rights group.
“Surely Disney CEO Michael Eisner — who pays himself $63,000 an hour — can find at least one or two contractors willing to return to the factory,” Kernaghan added.
You can get a sample letter to Disney CEO Michael Eisner from the NCL Web site at www.nlcnet.org; or call 212-242-3002 to get Disney campaign buttons, stickers and T-shirts.
No Wonderful World Here
If you’ve got your heart set on a winter cruise to a warmer climate, make sure you don’t do it with a Mickey Mouse outfit.
Two years ago the 46 stevedores who work the Disney cruise line voted to unionize, yet still do not have a first contract. Although it has been dragging its feet, Disney has been forced back to the table by the NLRB.
The International Longshoremen’s Locals 1359, 1922 and 1922-1 would
prefer you do your cruising with a different company.
“I know if I was going to buy a car and saw UAW members passing out
leaflets in front, I would be going down the street,” says Arthur Coffey,
president of ILA Local 1922.
The 46 cruise line workers who make vacationers’ trips safe and pleasant can never take vacations because Disney doesn’t give them any. And because they make only $8 an hour, they probably couldn’t afford to take one anyway. They or their family members better not get sick either, because the Disney health care plan doesn’t cover them.
So when Goofy tries to glad-hand you onto one of their ships, you can just tell him to shove off.
