Here are the notes of a talk given by Maggie Bremner of 'No Sweat' on Saturday March 12 2005 as part of NOW's one day forum on 'Sweated Labour: Women Workers in the Garment Trade' . Following this is an extract that she has also kindly sent us from a report on the activities of the Walt Disney Company, taken from a 'No Sweat' briefing document and from "Sweatships"(about the cruise ship industry), published by War on Want and the ITF.

DISNEY

In 1984, Eisner left Paramount to become chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Mr. Eisner not only made tons of money for Disney and its shareholders, but he has also made himself a very rich man in the process. In 1992, he exercised stock options and collected a windfall of $202 million. In 1997, he exercised yet another round of options and pocketed another $565 million.
He has an estimated net worth of $800 million (2000).
(Ask Men)
In 1997, Michael Eisner signed a new employment contract with the company that runs through 2006. Under this agreement, he is paid a yearly base salary of $1 million and is eligible for bonuses of up to almost $19 million a year, he also received stock options on 24 million common shares of Disney stock.

Michael Eisner made $700 million over the period 1997-2002 (Forbes).

Each member of Disney's Board of Directors receives a retainer fee of $45,000 a year, $1,000 for each meeting they attend and options to purchase 6,000 Disney shares a year.

Disney in Bangladesh, 2002

From the National Labor Committee (US)
For eight long years 370 young women sewed Disney garments at the Shah Makhdum factory in Bangladesh. Disney products formed 60-70 percent of the total output.
The women workers were beaten, forced to work 14 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week - while living in utter misery and being paid just five cents for each $17.99 Disney shirt they made. When the women couldn't take any more and asked that their basic rights be respected - that they be treated as human beings and not animals - Disney responded by cutting and running, pulling its work from the factory and dumping the women in the street with nothing.

At this point (2002) conditions at Shah Makhdum vastly improved: Beatings and abuse ended.
In fact the management apologized to the workers for past abuse and vows reform. The factory was cleaned and painted, clean drinking water provided. Other reforms were made and the owner agreed to independent monitoring once Disney's orders were restored. But Disney did not return.

Disney in Haiti

From the National Labor Committee (US)

On a recent trip to Haiti in late April, I had the opportunity to visit the home of a Disney worker who lived in the Delmars neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. She worked at N.S. Mart (Plant Number 32) in the Sonapi Industrial Park where she sewed Pocahontas and Mickey Mouse shirts. Her home was typical of those of other Disney employees. She was a single mother with four young children. They lived in a one-room windowless shack, 8 by 11 feet wide, lit by one bare light bulb and with a tin roof that leaked. The room contained: one table, three straight-backed chairs and two small beds. That is all the room would fit. I counted four drinking glasses and three plastic plates. There was no fan, no TV, no radio, no toys, no refrigerator, no stove, no running water. She had to buy water by the bucket and carry it home. The toilet was a hole in the ground, shared with ten other families.
The children were very small for their ages. The mother told us that when she had left for work that morning, she was only able to leave them six gourdes (30 cents U.S.). The four children had to feed themselves for the day on 30 cents. Her children had been sent home from school two and a half weeks before because she had been unable to pay their tuition. Tuition for the three older children totalled $2.63 a week, but this was more than the mother earned in a full day sewing Disney shirts.
One child had malaria, another dysentery, but their mother was unable to afford the medicines, so they had to go without and simply bear it.
This woman's salary making Pocahontas shirts was only $10.77 a week! Antibiotics for her daughter would have cost nearly three weeks' wages, which was impossible to afford.
Before leaving, I asked the family what they would eat that night. "Nothing," they responded.
Instead of eating, they would just go to bed. The mother slept in one small bed, the daughters in the other, while the two boys slept on the ground under the table. No one in this home had ever seen a Disney movie.

The mother had years of experience as a sewer. On her assembly line, working furiously under constant pressure, she handled 375 Pocahontas shirts an hour - shirts which sell at Wal-Mart for $10.97 each. Yet her average weekly wage was only $10.77.
No one can survive on 28 cent-an-hour wages - even in Haiti, which is not a cheap place to live. Seventy percent of what Haiti consumes is imported, including basic staples like rice, beans and corn meal. Food can actually be as expensive in Haiti as in the U.S. Workers producing Disney garments in Haiti are thin and tired looking

The following day, we met with a large group of N.S. Mart workers, all of whom sewed Disney garments. They told us that the majority of workers at N.S. Mart - almost everyone - earns just 28 cents an hour, which is $2.22 for a full eight-hour day. And, they reported, at times they are short-changed on their hours and pay.
The workers also told us the plant is hot, dusty and poorly lit. Some complained about having trouble with their eyesight and respiratory problems.
According to the workers, the production quotas and piece rates the company sets are impossible to reach.
Supervisors put enormous, constant pressure on the workers to go faster. Supervisors yell, scream, threaten and curse the workers. If you are young and pretty and a supervisor wants you as his mistress, you either give in to him or you are fired. Sexual harassment is common.
The toilets are filthy. Rats are everywhere. The holding tank for drinking water is covered only with a light piece of metal, which the rats have no trouble getting under.

Classic Apparel Haiti

When we inquired about conditions at the Classic factory, worker after worker responded that "conditions were miserable." They continued: "They treat us badly, like we are dirt, like we were dumb, with no respect. You can't even speak to the bosses. If you try, they fire you. The supervisors are always screaming at us to work faster. The pressure to make the quota is great. If you even try to get up to use the bathroom they scream at you."
The plant is very hot, we were told. It is poorly lit and dusty. The workers say the lint-filled dust gives them headaches. Rats are everywhere. The drinking water is right next to the toilet, which is filthy. Women are getting infections from the water, so the company dumps in more chlorine. Nor does the company pay sick days properly.

This woman earned $24.55 for two weeks of work - including overtime.
If Classic Apparel managers even suspect that there is interest in organizing a union, they immediately fire the workers they suspect are organizing. It is the same in every factory in Haiti where Disney is producing.
The production manager at Classic Apparel is John Paul Medina, who has been identified by the workers as a former member of the Fraph Death Squad, which killed thousands of civilians during the coup. He has told the workers that if they ask for a raise, "the Americans will come and take the jobs to the Dominican Republic." However, in June 1995, when President Aristide increased the minimum wage, Medina did not hesitate to increase the daily piece rate quota by 66 percent. Instead of sewing 720 collars on Disney garments in eight hours, now the workers must complete 1,200 pieces in order to earn the minimum wage, or a little above.
Similar to the other factories, sexual harassment is common.
When asked, they told us that their children were "tired and weak" and often had "to go to school without food for lunch." At the time of our visit, many of their children were sick, either with malaria or stomach infections. Like the rest of the workers we had spoken with, no one had ever heard of "Corporate Codes of Conduct" nor had Haitian Ministry of Social Affairs officials ever spoken with them.

Disney In China

On Monday, May 13, 2002, the Washington Post carried a powerful front page article which focused on a 19 year-old woman, Li Chunmei, who was literally worked to death in a toy factory in the south of China. Li Chunmei died exhausted after being forced to work 16 to 19 hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight or 3:00 a.m., seven days a week in 90-degree temperatures. During the busy season, the workers could go more than two months without receiving a single day off. Li Chunmei earned just 12 cents an hour, but her take-home pay was less due to deductions for room and board in a crowded dorm. She worked and died at the Bainan Toy Factory.

Disney in Vietnam (1996)

The Asia Monitor Resource Center, a labor monitoring organization based in Hong Kong, reported on the operations of Keyhinge Toys, a factory based in Da Nang City, Vietnam that makes giveaway toys based on characters in Disney films which are distributed with McDonald's Happy Meals. According to the Asia Monitor Resource Center, the approximately 1,000 workers in the Keyhinge factory in Vietnam earn six to eight cents an hour, far below the subsistence wage estimated at 32 cents an hour. The workers, 90 percent of them young women, 17-to-20-years-old, are required to work mandatory overtime, with 9-10 hour shifts required seven days a week. In February 1997, a combination of exposure to toxic solvents, poor ventilation and exhaustion caused 200 workers to fall ill, and 25 to collapse.

On an annual basis, the workers at Keyhinge are making approximately $250 a year.

Less than one-fifth of Michael Eisner's pay-$100 million-would be enough to quintuple the wages of each of the 1,000 Keyhinge workers-giving them a still inadequate, but at least living wage-and to pay them for 100 years! That would leave Eisner with $465 million for 1997 alone.
(Third World Traveller)

Extract about the Walt Disney Company from NO SWEAT briefing and 'Sweatships' , published by War on Want and the *ITF

(*International Transport Workers' Federation)

Disney Briefing. No Sweat. February 04

Disney sub-contractors, Haiti (1996):
We met with a large group of N.S. Mart workers, all of whom sewed Disney garments. They told us that the majority of workers at N.S. Mart - almost everyone - earns just 28 cents an hour, which is $2.22 for a full eight-hour day. And, they reported, at times they are short-changed on their hours and pay.
"The workers also told us the plant is hot, dusty and poorly lit. Some complained about having trouble with their eyesight and respiratory problems.
"According to the workers, the production quotas and piece rates the company sets are impossible to reach. Supervisors put enormous, constant pressure on the workers to go faster. Supervisors yell, scream, threaten and curse the workers. If you are young and pretty and a supervisor wants you as his mistress, you either give in to him or you are fired. Sexual harassment is common.
"The toilets are filthy. Rats are everywhere. The holding tank for drinking water is covered only with a light piece of metal, which the rats have no trouble getting under."

Profits up
Walt Disney Co. increased both profit and revenue for its third quarter and is regaining strength thanks to its media networks and studio entertainment segments. In total, Disney earned $400 million, or 19 cents per share, in third quarter 2003 on $6.18 billion in revenue. During the comparable quarter a year ago, Disney earned $364 million, or 18 cents per share, on $5.8 billion in revenue.
Revenue for Disney parks and resorts decreased 5.5 percent to $1.7 billion from $1.8 billion in the comparable period in 2002.
"Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" helped drive up revenues for the company's studio entertainment segment. Revenues increased 5 percent to $1.4 billion. Operating income also increased to $71 million from $22 million a year ago.
In addition to its theme parks and stores, media conglomerate Disney owns ABC television network, radio stations, Walt Disney Studios and stakes in several cable channels.
(Business report, July 31, 2003)

Movies bolster Disney's profits
A strong movie and home video slate and gains in its broadcast and cable networks boosted fourth quarter profits for the Walt Disney Co.
Disney reported net income of US$415 million, or US$0.20 per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with US$175 million, or US$0.09 per share, in the same period last year. The results were released Thursday after the close of regular trading.
Operating income at Disney's movie studio surged to US$205 million from US$75 million in the same quarter last year on a 9 percent rise in revenue to US$2.2 billion.
Disney's theme parks continue to be hit by declining tourism due to the war in Iraq and terrorism jitters. Revenue at the theme parks declined 1 percent to US$1.65 billion and operating income fell 4 percent to US$225 million in the quarter.

For the full year, Disney reported profits of US$1.27 billion, or US$0.62 per share, compared with US$1.24 billion, or US$0.60 per share, for last year. Revenue for the year increased 7 percent to US$27.06 billion, compared to US$25.33 billion last year.
(AP, California, Nov 22, 2003)

Campaign to oust Eisner intensifies: 2004

Roy Disney has stepped up his campaign to remove Michael Eisner as chief executive of Walt Disney, slating the firm's "cultural decay" and accusing the media and entertainment firm of squandering $25bn (£13bn) on a series of "failed ventures".
Mr Disney's latest attack comes in a filing with the securities and exchange commission, the US financial regulator, ahead of the company's annual meeting next month.
He noted that $10,000 invested in Disney on January 1 1996 would have grown to only $11,497 by December 31 2003. That amount invested in a Dow Jones index fund would have grown to $20,191 over the same period.
The company's recent financial performance has been showing signs of improvement, which appeared to insulate Mr Eisner from the attacks.
But the failure of Disney to renew a distribution deal with Pixar, the phenomenally successful computer animation studio, could galvanise support for the campaign to oust Mr Eisner. Pixar, behind the biggest ever animated film Finding Nemo, split with Disney last week and is looking for a new partner. Disney took a 12.5% distribution fee and the companies shared the profits.
Steve Jobs, who runs Pixar, launched his own public attack on Mr Eisner on Wednesday, questioning the creative capabilities of Disney, which has struggled to produce its own animated hits.
(February 6, 2004, The Guardian)

Pixar and Disney split

Pixar head Jobs slams Disney over split
New York: February 5 2004
Steve Jobs, the chairman of Pixar, launched a public attack on Michael Eisner and Disney as the recriminations over the animation studio's divorce from its long-term partner turned increasingly bitter.
Mr Jobs dismissed Disney's recent efforts in animation, and said Pixar executives "feel sick" about the prospect of Disney pushing ahead with sequels to Pixar films such as Toy Story.
The comments, Mr Jobs's first public statements since Pixar pulled out of talks with Disney last week, reflect the deterioration in relations between the two studios after a 13-year partnership which launched five hit movies, culminating in last year's blockbuster, Finding Nemo. They will also add to the pressure on Mr Eisner, who is accused by former Disney directors of mismanaging the partnership.

Pixar terminates Disney alliance (media news report)
The Hollywood partnership that found Nemo, and made millions of dollars from the search, has come to a sudden end and, in the process, added fuel to the fires burning under Michael Eisner, embattled chairman of the Walt Disney Corporation.
Mr Eisner announced on Saturday that Steve Jobs, founder and principal owner of Pixar Studios and co-founder of Apple Computer, had withdrawn from negotiations to renew what had been the most lucrative partnership in Hollywood.
The break-up was so sudden that even Dick Cook, Disney's studio chief, heard of it first on a radio news bulletin. Under the existing deal Disney and Pixar share the huge production costs but Disney gets 62 per cent of the profits, including its distribution fee. But Disney retains ownership of rights in films already made, their sequels and merchandising rights. Mr Jobs is thought to have sought a bigger share of this fat pot; more akin to that his close friend George Lucas has with Fox for the Star Wars series.

Takeover?

Sharks circle cartoon empire as Walt's creation struggles at the box office

[A] hostile $66bn (£35bn) bid for the Walt Disney company by America's biggest cable company, Comcast [was made yesterday]. In the context of a modern media world, this was all about the marriage of content and distribution and the exploitation of brands.
Comcast's bid has been a long time coming. In 1999 Fortune Magazine ran a cover story describing Disney as the "world's most troubled entertainment giant".
When Michael Eisner joined the company in 1984 as chief executive, the corporate wolves were again at the door. At that point, Disney was loved worldwide but the company had annual revenues of $1.7bn and a market value of little over $2bn, a tasty morsel for a potential buyer.
Under Mr Eisner's leadership, Disney's value rose to a peak of $90bn. He spent billions of pounds on the ABC television network, built a successful stage business and gave a new lease of life to the struggling animated film division with hits such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
Mr Eisner's long tenure at Disney and the impact he has had on the company have made him a modern-day Walt in the eyes of some.
But the recovery he began was faltering by the mid-1990s. Many point to the death of Mr Eisner's deputy, Frank Wells, in a helicopter accident as the turning point.
Things worsened when the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and an economic downturn reduced theme park attendances and exacerbated an advertising drought at ABC, already suffering from falling ratings.
Treasure Planet, an ambitious $140m reworking of Treasure Island, flopped at the box office, forcing the company to take a $74m write down in its accounts.
The company is selling off its high street stores and has cut the size of its animation workforce from 2,200 in 1999 to just 600 today. Disney brought forward its first quarter results yesterday to show that its performance is improving. It recorded a sharp increase in profits to $866m. But that may not be enough.
(Guardian, February 12, 2004)

Michael Eisner's wealth

In 1984, Eisner left Paramount to become chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Since his appointment, he has transformed Disney into a Fortune 500 global media powerhouse with over $25 billion in annual sales.
Mr. Eisner not only made tons of money for Disney and its shareholders, but he has also made himself a very rich man in the process. In 1992, he exercised stock options and collected a windfall of $202 million. In 1997, he exercised yet another round of options and pocketed another $565 million.
He has an estimated net worth of $800 million (2000).
(Ask Men)
In 1997, Michael Eisner signed a new employment contract with the company that runs through 2006. Under this agreement, he is paid a yearly base salary of $1 million and is eligible for bonuses of up to almost $19 million a year. The annual bonus is based on growth in earnings per share above 7.5 percent. In addition to this, he also received stock options on 24 million common shares of Disney stock.

Michael Eisner made $700 million over the period 1997-2002 (Forbes).

Each member of Disney's Board of Directors receives a retainer fee of $45,000 a year, $1,000 for each meeting they attend and options to purchase 6,000 Disney shares a year.

NLC reports: When Michael Eisner's close friend Michael Ovitz had to depart as Disney's president after just 14 very mediocre months Ovitz left with $138 million. That comes to $9.9 million dollars in severance pay for every month worked, $2.3 million per week, and about $45,000 an hour. Michael Eisner wrote to his friend Ovitz: "I am committed to make this a win-win situation, to keep our friendship intact, to be positive, to say and write only glowing things."

The Disney Empire

Includes:

Disney Stores - shops selling Disney merchandise (660 stores world-wide, April 2000)
ABC/Capital Cities Television Network
Various radio broadcasting companies
Cable Television (including The Disney Channel and The History Channel)
International Broadcast (The Disney Channel in the UK, France and many other countries and various sports channels)
International TV partnerships (in Germany, France, Spain etc)
Film/Television Production and Distribution (inc. Walt Disney, Buena Vista, Miramax)
Book Publishing
Magazines (many titles)
Daily Newspapers (various US cities)
Crude petroleum and natural gas production interests
Multimedia: many internet interests
Music: record companies
Theatre: Walt Disney Theatrical Productions
Sports Franchises
Theme Parks & Resorts (including Disneylands at Anaheim, Paris, Tokyo, Orlando)
Cruises: Disney Cruise Line

How does Disney work?

Disney does not own a single factory. Rather Disney uses at least 7,800 contractors (3,800 independent licensees; 2,000 manufacturers who subcontract with licensees and another 2,000 manufacturers working under direct contract with Disney) to produce its goods. Each of these licensees and contractors in turn use several factories. For example, Disney licensee Jerry Leigh of California explains that it "has a vast network of sourcing capabilities in North and South America and Asia." And these Disney figures are from five years ago. So tens of thousands of factories around the world produce Disney goods. A conservative estimate would be 50,000 to 60,000 factories.

Disney chronology (to 2001)

1919 Walt and Ubbe Iwerks form Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists
1928 first silent film featuring Mickey Mouse premieres on Sunset Boulevard
1930 Disney buys Iwerks' share of company
1937 Disney's first full-length animated feature film Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs premieres

1940 Walt Disney Productions goes public after debt reaches US$4.5 m
1941 Disney animators stage a strike with strong industry and community support
1946 Disney announces planned layoffs of over 400 employees of a staff of 1000

1952 Walt Disney forms Walt Disney Incorporated, to develop ideas for a "family park" to be called Disneyland
1953 Disney establishes Buena Vista Distribution Company as Disney's film distributor
1953 Peter Pan
1955 Disneyland opens in Anaheim, and has 1 million visitors within 6 months
1955 Mickey Mouse Club, Disney's second TV show is launched

1964 first death in Disneyland and premiere of Mary Poppins
1965 Disney buys rights to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh
1966 Walt Disney dies of lung cancer and J Edgar Hoover orders name removed from list of FBI's informants

1971 Walt Disney World in Orlando opens
1971 100 millionth visitor to Disneyland

1983 Tokyo Disneyland opens
1983 Disney Channel
1984 Eisner and Wells become Chairman and President
1986 500 millionth theme park visitor
1987 First Disney Store opens

1990 Hollywood Records founded
1990 first Hollywood Pictures release
1992 Disneyland Paris opens
1993 Buys Miramax for US$80m
1994 The Lion King
1994 Disney Interactive formed
1995 Pocahontas
1995 Takeover of Capital Cities/ABC for US$19 billion
1995 Disney Online, Disney's internet division
1996 Buys 25% and management control of California Angels baseball team
1996 Radio Disney launched on ABC Radio Networks
1998 Buys 43% in Infoseek web portal
1999 Buys remaining equity in Anaheim Angels for US$140m, spends US$100m on Edison Field stadium

2001 Buys founded Baby Einstein company from Julie Aigner-Clark for US$25m
2001 Buys Fox Family Worldwide from Murdoch and Saban for US$5.3bn

An analyst's comment:
During the late Eighties, Disney reinvented itself as "the world's premier entertainment company". The huge popular success of its movies The Little Mermaid and The Lion King encouraged the group to spread its wings into other areas; a key development was the takeover of Capital Cities/ABC to create what was then one of the world's biggest media conglomerates. But by the end of the Nineties a good deal of the shine had come off the company's prestige as the house of mouse was rocked by a series of challenges ranging from management rows to lackluster performance from its core movies division and the ABC TV network.

Working at the "happiest place on earth"

It's a boiling day at Disneyland, and some poor guy is sweating it out in a Goofy costume. No matter how faint or queasy he gets, if he takes off the mask, he loses his job.
But what about Disney's CEO? I'll bet he didn't have to put on a furry costume once last year, and he has gained over $1 billion from stock options since 1983. If the board of directors really believes that giving their chief executive a stake in the company will make him perform better, why not also give it to the poor guy with the big ears suffocating in the suit? If the wealth given to Eisner had been divided among Disney's 117,000 employees, on average each would have received $9,000 in company stock.
Disney's management doesn't see it that way. They say that top managers deserve stock options, but not Pluto, Donald and the rest of the gang.

From 1983 to 1998, the share of the nation's wealth held by the bottom 99% fell, while the assets of the wealthiest one percent, those with net worth over $3.3 million, rose by 42%. The net worth of the poorest two-fifths of households dropped by an astonishing 76%, and the middle class gained only 10 percent over those 15 years of economic growth.
We now live in a country where the wealth of the richest 1% of households exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 90%. At "The Happiest Place on Earth," the gap is even wider.
(February 2002, Common Dreams)

Appendix 1 /p>

Disney in Bangladesh, 2002

2003: a letter from the workers:

Dear Mr. Eisner,
We the undersigned workers appeal to you with our hearts to return Disney's work to our factory, Shah Makhdum. You know very well that Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, and that we need these garment jobs very much. We worked so hard for eight years sewing Disney's clothing at our factory, and we did a very good job. We beg you not to cut and run. Why punish us now that we have asked for our basic rights to be respected, and when so many improvements have been made in the factory? Shah Makhdum is a very good factory now.
Conditions are better than ever been. We like working here and our rights are now respected. If we lose these jobs we will have nothing.
We know that you are very busy. But we also know that if you could think of us for only a few minutes, and understand with your heart and humanity the reality of our lives in Bangladesh, you would not hurt us. We are human beings. You would not want to punish us by taking Disney's work from our factory, especially now that our rights are respected and we are able to work with dignity. With the return of Disney's work, Shah Makhdum can and will become a model factory.
Please do not walk abway from this hope. Please understand that our lives depend upon this work.
May God bless you,
Thank you,
Sincerely yours,
(Signatures of Shah Makhdum workers)

Appendix 2.

Disney in Haiti

Disney pulled its work out of Haiti in September 1997, throwing hundreds of desperately poor workers out in the street. After the workers publicly denounced factory violations and asked that their fundamental legal rights be respected, Disney responded by pulling its work out of Classic Apparel and at least two other Haitian factories. Employing the exact same language and cover-up then as they are now, Disney stated:
"First, you should know that Disney does not employ any workers in Haiti. Two U.S. licensees work regularly with three factories near Port au Prince. Our intensive and ongoing oversight of their operations, which included a recent on-site inspection of the factories, has found that they are adhering to all applicable laws and policies." The real message Disney and its licensee left behind in Haiti was that if you asked for your rights, you too will be left without a job, dumped out in the street penniless.

Background:
Edited report from Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee

Take the H.H. Cutler Company, for example, which along with Disney pulled out of Haiti after the workers there asked that their basic rights be protected.
In 1997, a reporter called H.H. Cutler headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a new secretary with no experience and fresh on the job naively put the reporter straight through to H.H. Cutler's president, Tom Austin. The reporter asked Tom Austin what he thought about the 28-cent-an-hour wages H.H. Cutler had been paying in Haiti. Tom Austin wasn't moved. He went straight to the point, stating: "I'm not in a position to change the wages around the world or decide the fairness, and I wouldn't if I could." According to Austin, "Individual people make individual bargains about what their labor is worth."
He even went on the offensive declaring, "It is a living wage. While it's not a wage that you or I or anyone else would want to live on, there's a whole bunch of people who are unemployed and those people are living."- So, if the worker is alive, it must be a living wage.

1996 - a letter to Michael Eisner:
Dear Mr. Eisner,
The National Labor Committee fully supports Walt Disney's decision to source production in Haiti. The Haitian people desperately need investment and jobs, but they need jobs with dignity, under conditions which respect their basic human rights, and which pay wages that allow them and their families to survive.
The National Labor Committee would like to open a serious dialogue with Walt Disney representatives regarding working conditions and wages in Haitian factories where Disney children's clothing is currently being produced. Currently, the Walt Disney Company has licensing agreements with two U.S. apparel manufacturers, L.V. Myles and H.H. Cutler, which in turn contract production to four assembly factories in Haiti: L.V. Myles, N.S. Mart, Classic and Gilanex. Children's clothing carrying the images of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Mickey Mouse and the Lion King is sewn in these factories and then exported to the U.S. for sale in Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, KMart and other retailers.

Crying Out in Disbelief:
Prior to leaving for Haiti, I went to a Wal-Mart store on Long Island and purchased several Disney garments which had been made in Haiti. I showed these to the crowd of workers, who immediately recognized the clothing they had made. Everyone pointed to the parts of the shirt that they had sewed while explaining what the quota was for those operations. I asked the L.V. Myles workers if they had any idea what these shirts - the ones they had made - sell for in the U.S. I held up a size 4 Pocahontas t-shirt. I showed them the Wal-Mart price tag indicating $10.97. But it was only when I translated the $10.97 into the local currency- 178.26 gourdes - that, all at once, in unison, the workers screamed with shock, disbelief, anger and a mixture of pain and sadness, as their eyes remained fixed on the Pocahontas shirt. People kept yelling, excited. They simply could not believe what they had heard. In a single day, they worked on hundreds of Disney shirts. Yet the sales price of just one shirt in the U.S. amounted to nearly 5 days of their wages!

Is it possible to survive in Haiti earning 28 cents an hour?
The maquila factories start operating at 7:30 a.m., and demand that the workers be there at least 10 to 15 minutes early. Most factory employees get up at 5 a.m., when it is still pitch dark. They literally squeeze themselves into overcrowded tap-taps, small pick-up trucks converted into buses, which crawl through the morning traffic jam to reach downtown. To get to and from work costs about 37 cents a day.
A cheap breakfast of spaghetti and coffee from food stands out in front of the factory will cost 62 cents. A modest lunch of rice, peas and corn meal soaking in oil, with a cup of juice, will cost the same, another 62 cents.
In total, the transportation and a small breakfast and lunch combined cost $1.61. But the factory workers only earn $2.22 for the entire day. So 73 percent of what they earn each day goes to just surviving. At the end of an eight hour day, they have only 61 cents left over.
Since the workers have no money left over from their last paycheck, the only food they can get must be purchased on credit from the food vendors. The workers literally come to work each day to eat, but they eat only on credit. If they did not come to work, they literally would not eat.
Most workers try to, or would like to, leave $2.50 or $3.00 behind with their families when they leave for work in the morning, so that their families can eat. But that is more than a day's wages. Most families are left with only 31 cents to 62 cents a day to survive on.
The average rent for the typical one room hut the workers and their families live in costs around $7.10 a week. This means that someone sewing Disney shirts must work for more than three days a week just to pay the rent.

If you have a child in school, that costs another $1.42 for tuition each week. And since the parents - given their own lack of education - cannot help their children with their lessons, they have to pay for a tutor which costs an additional 71 cents a week.
A small can of powdered milk, which if stretched could last a week for an infant, costs $3.08, or more than the mother earns in an entire day of work. If a worker or her child is sick, a visit to the doctor costs between $3.08 and $4.62. Chloroquine pills for malaria cost 62 cents. For children suffering from diarrhea, a small bottle of medicine costs $1.54. Medicine for dysentery, which is very common, costs $4.68--over two days wages--while a decongestant costs $2.77, and cough syrup costs $1.54.
If you or your children need glasses, you might as well forget it. Glasses cost $40, or three weeks wages! In Haiti, in the neighbourhoods the workers live in, there is no running water so you must buy your water by the bucket. To wash clothes, for example, two buckets of water and two bars of soap cost 37 cents, or more than you make in an hour.
No serious observer could reach any conclusion other than that the wages being paid to Haitian workers sewing Disney garments are sub-subsistence wages. No one should use the term lightly, but these are definitely starvation wages.

The Classic Apparel Factory - Workers Treated As Dirt:

At the Classic Apparel factory, which is under contract with H.H. Cutler (the label reads "The H.H. Cutler Fun Factory"), hundreds of workers sew "Mickey's for Kids Stuff" and other children's clothing for Disney.

At the end of April, when we met with the workers of Classic Apparel, they too were earning only 28 cents an hour. A typical pay stub showed a weekly wage of $12.77, which breaks down to 28 cents per hour. However, it appears that following the National Labor Committee's visit, wages have now been raised for most Classic workers to 35 cents an hour. With this raise, the workers can earn $16.62 a week, or $864.24 a year.
When we inquired about conditions at the Classic factory, worker after worker responded that "conditions were miserable." They continued: "They treat us badly, like we are dirt, like we were dumb, with no respect. You can't even speak to the bosses. If you try, they fire you. The supervisors are always screaming at us to work faster. The pressure to make the quota is great. If you even try to get up to use the bathroom they scream at you."
The plant is very hot, we were told. It is poorly lit and dusty. The workers say the lint-filled dust gives them headaches. Rats are everywhere. The drinking water is right next to the toilet, which is filthy. Women are getting infections from the water, so the company dumps in more chlorine. Nor does the company pay sick days properly.

Typical pay:
This woman earned $24.55 for two weeks of work - including overtime.
If Classic Apparel managers even suspect that there is interest in organizing a union, they immediately fire the workers they suspect are organizing. It is the same in every factory in Haiti where Disney is producing.
The production manager at Classic Apparel is John Paul Medina, who has been identified by the workers as a former member of the Fraph Death Squad, which killed thousands of civilians during the coup. He has told the workers that if they ask for a raise, "the Americans will come and take the jobs to the Dominican Republic." However, in June 1995, when President Aristide increased the minimum wage, Medina did not hesitate to increase the daily piece rate quota by 66 percent. Instead of sewing 720 collars on Disney garments in eight hours, now the workers must complete 1,200 pieces in order to earn the minimum wage, or a little above.
Similar to the other factories, sexual harassment is common.
When asked, they told us that their children were "tired and weak" and often had "to go to school without food for lunch." At the time of our visit, many of their children were sick, either with malaria or stomach infections. Like the rest of the workers we had spoken with, no one had ever heard of "Corporate Codes of Conduct" nor had Haitian Ministry of Social Affairs officials ever spoken with them.

Haitian Workers Make A Proposal To Disney:
The workers at N.S. Mart, L.V. Myles, and Classic Apparel asked the National Labor Committee to carry a message back to company representatives at Walt Disney. The Haitian workers sewing Disney clothing have several modest proposals they would like to discuss. They are as follows:
1. Primary among them is that Disney representatives come to Haiti to meet with the workers, to learn their story and see how they live. These workers want to continue sewing Disney clothing; in fact, they would like more orders. They are good at what they do and they work hard. They only want to be treated with respect.
2. They would like to work with Disney to clean up the factories, to guarantee respect for human and worker rights, including their legal right to organize. These workers want the factories to be even more productive and efficient, but they also want their rights as workers restored.
3. A very modest increase in wages from the current $.28 an hour to $.58 would allow the Disney workers and their families to survive. They would remain poor, very poor, but they would no longer be trapped in misery.
4. To guarantee respect for basic rights, local human rights organizations should have access to Disney's contractors' plants to monitor conditions. Such an independent monitoring agreement has already been signed with the Gap.

Could The U.S. Companies Afford It?
The workers' demands seem very reasonable, perhaps even overly modest, to the National Labor Committee. The wage increase the workers are calling for would allow them to earn 58 cents an hour, which is only $4.62 a day, $25.38 a week and $1,320 a year.

If wages were raised to 58 cents an hour - as the workers are requesting - what would be the effect?
At 58 cents an hour, or $4.64 for an eight hour day, the Haitian sewers would earn 9 cents - instead of 7 cents - for every $11.97 pair of Disney pajamas they made. The Haitian sewers would still be earning less than 0.8 of one percent of the sales price of the garments. If the workers earned 9 cents per pajama, this would still leave Walt Disney, L.V. Myles and Wal-Mart with over 99 percent - $11.88 - of the $11.97 sales price.

Appendix 3.

Disney in China

Case 1.
McDonald's and Disney have a 10-year joint marketing venture. Disney toys are given away as part of McDonald's Happy Meals in the 20,000 McDonald's restaurants across the country.
After the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee exposed the use of child labour, gross worker rights violations and unsafe working conditions at factories in China producing toys for McDonald's/Disney, McDonald's and Disney pulled out in August 2000, terminating their contract with City Toys' four plants in Shenzhen, causing tens of thousands of workers to be laid off.
(NLC, US)

Case 2.
On Monday, May 13, 2002, the Washington Post carried a powerful front page article which focused on a 19 year-old woman, Li Chunmei, who was literally worked to death in a toy factory in the south of China. Li Chunmei died exhausted after being forced to work 16 to 19 hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight or 3:00 a.m., seven days a week in 90-degree temperatures. During the busy season, the workers could go more than two months without receiving a single day off. Li Chunmei earned just 12 cents an hour, but her take-home pay was less due to deductions for room and board in a crowded dorm. She worked and died at the Bainan Toy Factory.
China Labor Watch was able to confirm that Disney toys were being produced at the factory. The workers reported producing Mickey Mouse stuffed toys. The workers, who had to produce 40 stuffed toys each a day, were paid less than ten cents for each toy they made.

Case 3.
In March-November 2000, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (CIC) investigated working conditions in 12 Disney contract factories in Guangdong province in southern China. Six were toy factories, two garment, three accessory, and one watch factory. Some are regular suppliers to Disney, and some are seasonal suppliers. All were producing for Disney during the investigation period. Most of the products manufactured in the factories were for export to North America and Europe. The CIC interviewed five to 15 workers from each factory.

The vast majority of workers in the 12 factories are young, single, female, migrant workers from rural areas in inland provinces. Most are between the ages of 18 and 30, though some are as young as 16.

Although Disney claims that its code of conduct and so-called "independent" monitoring system are ensuring respect for workers' right in its supply factories in China and other countries, the CIC study found that violations of the Disney code of conduct and Chinese labour law were commonplace. Those violations include: excessively long hours of work, poverty wages, unreasonable fines, workplace hazards, poor food, and dangerously overcrowded dormitories.
The study also found that few workers interviewed were familiar with the Disney code of conduct and monitoring system, and that workers who had been exposed to the code and/or interviewed by monitors were often subjected to threats and intimidation to falsify work records or answer monitors' questions "properly" according to management-prepared scripts.
The study concludes that Disney's code of conduct and monitoring system are ineffective and of little use to workers.
The report recommends that Disney do the following:
- Promote workers' rights training at the workplace.
- Actively involve workers in the on-going workplace monitoring process.
Provide accessible and trustworthy channels for workers to lodge complaints to the company and other interested third parties.
- Guarantee that there will be no retaliation against workers who make complaints.
- Disclose all information on its suppliers for public scrutiny.

Appendix 4.

Disney in the US

Case 1.
The Walt Disney Company knows very well how difficult it is to monitor factory conditions, even in its own backyard- like Los Angeles.
In September 1998, California's Commission of Labor seized 17,000 Disney garments that were sewn at the Trinity Knitworks factory in Los Angeles because 184 workers were owed $213,000 in back wages.
Disney inspectors and corporate monitors working under contract with Disney had given Trinity Knitworks a clean bill of health in July 1998, at the very moment that inspectors from the California Department of Labor were citing Trinity for serious minimum wage violations.
Paychecks at Trinity had been bouncing since May.

According to the Los Angeles Times (December 1, 1998) "...as representatives of Disney and other firms kept close watch over production details, such as placement of inseams, hemlines and zippers, monitors hired by the companies failed to notice Trinity workers were not being paid. In the face of such obviously inadequate monitoring efforts, California's Labor Commissioner, Mr. Jose Millan, was forced to conclude, "What Disney...and these other large companies are really interested in is the quality of the product- not the quality of the work lives of the workers who are actually producing the product."

Case 2.
Bruce Shapiro (May 1997)

They arrested Minnie Mouse on 42nd Street. Minnie, along with Mickey and Donald Duck, was sitting in the street on May 15, in front of the New Amsterdam Theater, the Disney Corporation's Times Square showpiece and the center of the neighborhood's renovation into a family-values oasis. As Minnie was led off to the pie wagon, a police officer grabbed her big head by the ears and yanked it off, revealing Amanda Ream, a 23-year-old union organizer, beneath. Ream was one of a couple thousand Disney-ABC employees demonstrating noisily outside the New Amsterdam, where company chairman Michael Eisner was hosting a charity benefit.
This 42nd Street protest was about the treatment Eisner's family-values company affords workers who try to raise families on a Disney paycheck. At issue in this particular protest are 2,700 unionized ABC news writers, technicians and other production-line workers, many of whom Disney wants to replace with non-union, lower-wage temps. At another time, with another company, this might be just another broadcast-news contract dispute. But these workers aren't alone. From Orlando to Rangoon - and even among the company's own shareholders - Disney is under unprecedented fire as a company associated with some of the worst employment practices on earth.

Appendix 5.

Disney in Burma

In 1996, the National Labor Committee (US) exposed the fact that Disney garments were being produced in Burma in a joint venture with the vicious military dictators. The workers were paid just 6 cents an hour. Disney was forced to pull out of Burma.

Appendix 6

Disney in Vietnam (1996)

On an annual basis, the workers at Keyhinge are making approximately $250 a year.

Appendix 7

Disney in Sri Lanka

Disney Dungeon in Sri Lanka Making Holiday Toys
Only this is not make believe, not a fantasy of the Magic Kingdom, it is reality. Disney toys are being made under abusive and violent conditions at the C & H Lanka factory in Sri Lanka by women workers:
Paid 16 cents an hour, earning just $11.27 for a 70 hour workweek; Forced to work seven days a week; The "regular" shift is 12 hours a day, though it is not uncommon for the women to be locked in the factory and forced to work through the night and into the next day - putting in a 36 hour shift! Forced to remain for unpaid overtime hours to repair "mistakes"; Sunday and night work is off the books, not recorded, paid in cash and the workers report being frequently cheated of overtime hours and pay; Workers are not allowed to drink water while on the job, are fined two days pay for talking; They work on unsafe machines; Every worker reports verbal abuse, intimidation, threats and the fear of being arbitrarily fired and blacklisted; After publicly exposing the systematic maltreatment at the plant, a union leader at the factory was viciously attacked and had his elbows and knees smashed and broken. Along with 10 other union organizers, he was then arrested, fined, and imprisoned.

Disney and its Contractor are Violating Sri Lanka's Labor Laws
The legal minimum wage in Sri Lanka is:
19 cents an hour $8.61 a week (45 hours) $37.33 a month $447.95 a year
In the export industry, the legal minimum wage has been set at 2675 rupee per month for a 45 hour workweek. In July 1999, the exchange rate was 71.66 rupee to $1.00 (U.S.) Legal Regular and Overtime Hours
The maximum regular workweek is 45 hours With a half day off Saturday, and all day Sunday The maximum allowed daily overtime is 4 hours The maximum allowed overtime for the week is 12 hours This means the longest legal daily shift is 12 hours and the maximum workweek cannot exceed 57 hours

Mr. Kang has been the most abusive manager at the C & H Lanka factory. In 1998, after the factory workers' committee had a union leader publicly report the serious systematic violations at C & H Lanka to the government, that union leader was viciously attacked by two men - who told him they were working for Mr. Kang - who smashed and broke his elbows and knees. This was a warning, the men told him, and if he continued to criticize Mr. Kang and the conditions at the factory, they would return, with even worse consequences for him.
Next, the union leader, along with ten other activists, was arrested, fined, and imprisoned for a week. The workers believe that Mr. Kang bought off the local police with bribes. The factory management then attempted to fire all 300 male workers, offering them severance pay to leave. However, the workers fought this, knowing that when pushed out of the factory, they would be blacklisted as union organizers. In Sri Lanka, it is impossible to get a job in another factory without the recommendation of the personnel director from the factory where you last worked.

Sri Lanka is an island nation of 18.8 million people. It's Gross Domestic Product is $15.8 billion - making Sri Lanka less than one-half the size of the Walt Disney Company.

Appendix 8.

Disney's cruise ships

Disney has two cruise ships, Disney Magic and Disney Wonder which started service in 1998 and 99. Each carries up to 2,400 passengers from Port Canaveral, Florida on cruises round the Caribbean.
A Trinidadian galley assistant comments, "Disney is like a book. It has a beautiful cover with colourful pictures, but when you look inside it is just dirt."
There is no union agreement on these ships and long hours are considered normal. There is no system for even logging overtime.
Jim Given from the ITF (international union) comments, "Conditions for employees are truly amazing. Long hours, low wages, bullying. The crews would like to be union members but the threat of being fired hangs heavy on each crew member."
"Sorry, I'm not allowed to talk about my job," says one musician working on Disney Wonder.

(Extracts from "Sweatships" by War on Want and the ITF)

Home