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Barbie Toys Made in Chinese Sweatshop?

October 25, 2007 11:50 AM

In 2006 U.S. consumers gobbled up over $457 BILLION worth of toys during the holidays, many of them made in China.  But 2006 was not a good year for the toy makers who work in the XIN YI factory in Shenzhen, China which produces MATTEL's BARBIE TOYS.

In testimony prepared for a senate hearing this morning, Charles Kernaghan, the director of the National labor Committee, says those workers were kept at the factory 15 HOURS A DAY, from 7:30am to 10:30pm, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, "going for MONTHS without a SINGLE DAY OFF."   He says the workers were typically at the factory 105 HOURS a WEEK, while forced to work 50 OVERTIME HOURS A WEEK, which exceeds China's own legal limit by 530 PERCENT!"

The factory was hot, the workers sweaty, they were docked 5 hours pay if they fell behind their assigned production goals and often their legs became numb because they were "PROHIBITED FROM STANDING UP DURING WORKING HOURS."   Kernaghan says in 2006, the XIN YI factory "ILLEGALLY PAID NO OVERTIME PREMIUM AT ALL, robbing the workers of 40% of the WAGES LEGALLY DUE THEM."

And Kernaghan adds--"MATTEL'S CEO paid himself $7.3 MILLION LAST YEAR, 6,533 TIMES MORE THAN HE PAID HIS TOY WORKERS IN CHINA."

HO! HO! HO!

October 25, 2007 in Weblogs | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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