Report on Hasbro's sweatshop conditions

I found myself not surprised, which on reflection is shocking in itself. This sort of thing shouldn't just be a shoulder shrug, reading that article really hit it home for me. It's just not good enough.

I've written to Hasbro voicing my concerns, I impore you to do the same. I wasn't sure where to send an email, but shot one off to their askhasbro@hasbro.co.uk address

And it's not even the first time Hasbro has been called out on this sort of thing apparently! www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0254

It made a big splash on the Allspark and tformers, to be fair

It may blow up briefly, but then it will be forgotten about again. These stories crop up every couple of months and nothing ever appears to change. Sometimes its toys sometime fashion or sports etc but the story is always the same.

Expecting corporations to change of their own free will is like hoping a Lion will refuse to eat an Antelope that walks up to it and slits its own throat.

Individuals working for them may not be total scum but the gestalt entity is only interested in maximising profits and thats not going to change. And since they all appear to be as bad as each other if you boycott one you have to boycott all of them and then you probably are left growing your own food and weaving your own cloth to make your own clothes.

Blueshifts second link says that Chinas laws are being ignored, which means the factories are getting away with it because China allows them to. Until the Chinese government changes its stance I can't imagine much will be done.

Wow I'm feeling very negative today it seems.

Well, I've twittered the link, does anyone have Hasbro's e-mail address?

Alternatively, like my favorite radio show used to say: "I shall write to The Times about this!"

That is a very disturbing report. Shameful that Western companies opperate in such a way.

Voting with the wallet would be a good start. As would dropping Hasbro a polite note.

-Ralph

Gonna do that. TBH I've hardly acquired many Hasbro products lately (aside from MLP for Blaise).

I feel right now that I can't buy Transformers or anything with the Hasbro logo on without conviction.

Nick gave the e-mail link to me, so I'll better get started on that note.

Hasbro denial:

www.bleedingcool.com/2011/12/27/hasbro-responds-harsh-transformers-labour-allegations/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BleedingCool+%28Bleeding+Cool+Comic+News+%26+Rumors%29

-Ralph

Followup email:

"Dear Hasbro,

I am impressed by your self-confidence, sending the same standard letter to me and website Bleedingcool that you sent to major newspapers the Sun and Metro when they ran this story. I am also impressed that you would so blatantly lie me and to papers with millions of regular readers. The abuse and degrading conditions suffered by Hasbro employees has been going on for at least three years:
www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0254
You must have learned about it then, and you did nothing.

Do you expect congratulations for reducing the amount of compulsory overtime from fifty hours a week to thirty, or for reducing (but not eliminating) the number of staff assaulted without reason by security staff then fired for "fighting"? If you treated prisoners of war in ths manner your factory directors would be arrested and tried before the Hague for breaching the Geneva conventions.

I don't care what regulations you claim to adhere to or how seriously you claim to take these allegations. Fix this. Treat your employees with basic human dignity. Give them decent pay and legal benefits and health cover that they can claim and proper ventilation and appropiate protection from the toxins in your manufacturing processes. Sort it out, or you can expect many more letters like this from disgusted and horrified former Hasbro customers.

-Nicholas Davidson"

Let's see if we get the same response back.

-Nick

It is indeed. I am still yet to complete mine.

Have Hasbro replied to anything at all?

I notice that TF websites are still mostly ignoring it.

-Ralph

It is a good blogpost that, well worth reading for some cogent thoughts on the subject. A shame that this doesn't seem to have received any traction in the wider Transformers fandom. It is something that I think should at the very least be debated and it is a little bit regretful that it doesn't seemed to have sparked much in the way of comment.

Karl

I think the biggest problem I have with this is that I feel like I'm reading propaganda rather than a factual report. Its the same feeling that caused me to stop reading newspapers regularly.

Its the equivalent of reading a report on the Tory government written by Labour. Or vice versa.

I don't for one second believe that that factory is in anyway a pleasant place to work and Hasbro should do all they can to improve conditions, but well I'll take the bullet points.


•Workers housed in filthy, over-crowded dorms, infested with rats and bed bugs. Workers report they cannot sleep at night from the bed bug bites.

The alternative as reported and why it isn't feasible.

“I want to. That way there wouldn’t be any more bed bug bites. But living
outside would cost at least 300-350 RMB ($47.16-$55.02) including utilities. I
don’t care much about food, but it would still cost 400 RMB in total ($62.87).
Fifty ($7.86) for phone service, 50 RMB ($7.86) for internet, 100 RMB ($15.72)
for snacks and fruit, and 200 RMB ($31.44) for clothes. That’s 1,200 RMB
($188.63) in total. I only make 1,300 RMB ($204.34) a month, and if I meet with
some friends, then I won’t have any money left. I can’t afford the rent.”

This seems to be viewing the two extremes as if there is no middle ground. Either sleep in a crowded hell hole or have a nice place to myself. A few co workers sharing a small flat may still have to sleep 2, 3 or 4 to a single room flat room, but for only slightly more money it would be a big improvement over the dorm.

Maybe there are reasons such an option isn't available but if so I want to know why not. The lack of that information annoys me.

•Workers describe factory food as "Pretty much like swine food."

I realise I'm being flippant but I know people at work who would say the same thing about the food served at work some days.

The above worker says to live on just the basics would cost 400RMB, they pay half that for the factory food so its not hard to believe the food is bad. Again it doesnt give any reason/suggestion/evidence that alternatives such as a packed lunch or going out aren't available so I assume they are. If they were locked in or not allowed their own food I'm sure the report would have prominently featured it.

•Workers allowed less than 9 minutes to assemble each Hasbro Transformer, for which they are paid 17 cents.

•During peak season, workers toil 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, while earning a take-home wage of just 92 cents an hour.

Sounds bad to us when our minimum wage is several times that, but the cost of living is obviously vastly different. Also when you sit and look at the more detailed figures it doesnt always quite look as bad. When they are talking about how wages are so low its hard to save they use the basic wage of 40 hours a week and dont mention the time and a half wages for the 30 hours a week overtime for 4 months of the year.

When they want to talk about over worked employees and illegal hours they pull up the 70 hours. 70 hours is obviously bad, but my Dad worked 66 hours a week (6 days a week) all year (minus holidays) for the best part of 10 years in an industrial job. It was his choice, so different, but that was all year not 4 months.

•Workers undergo three body-searches each day, are not permitted to talk or lift their heads to look around, and need permission to use the bathroom.

Theres something ironic to me about highlighting the searches as another case of of poor conditions while the same report shows multiple items smuggled out of the factory. The rest well not talking, not listening to music and some of the other examples given in the report seem petty but if thats what the employer wants. The toilet breaks is just baffling if its as bad as suggested, surely no one can focus on the job while holding it.

•Hasbro is open to the hiring of 14 and 15-year-olds on a "case-by-case basis."

I know its different here but since secondary school I've been convinced that there are certain people who by the age of 14 for whatever reason should not be forced to endure traditional education. I'm not saying stick in a factory but apprenticeships would be a more sensible approach. So with that in mind and the report not going into details of the case by case (well I cant find it now that I'm rereading it) hiring I can't just sit here and assume its a bad thing.


•Workers describe their work as mindless, miserable, constantly monotonous, yet furious and exhausting.

That sounds like the majority of jobs I've had, I'm just not sure what point it has.

These are the ones that really I see as issues

•During the slow season, hundreds of workers are fired under false charges so management does not have to pay their legal severance.
•Workers are cheated of paid sick leave and maternity leave.
•There are no fire drills and some emergency exits are locked. - although thinking about it, in 5 years I've only done one of these.
•Workers in the spray paint department fear they are being exposed to dangerous solvents.
•"We are drenched in sweat," workers say. Factory temperatures soar to 104 degrees F in summer. - even from a business perspective surely cooler employees would be more productive.

And even with these I come back to something vaguely suggested in the report, but that I found while googling in more detailed articles. China's factories have a labour shortage, wages are becoming more competitive, so if working for Jet Fair is so bad other factories are hiring. I cant find the section now but I am sure it says somewhere that a large number of employees are laid off in the quiet months so likely do find work at better factories.

This isn't slave labour which I feel is what the report wants us to see it as. Its a really crap employer, but like I said at the top I really feeling the report is trying to hard and as a result I find myself not believing it.

As for Hasbros involvement I just wonder how much they can do to oversee it. At the very least I hope they do inspections regularly as it may force the factory owners to clean up the dorms on a semi regular basis and stop some of the other practices too. Though taking the report on face value I expect the workers would be the ones forced to do the cleaning,at the end of a long working day so they may not see it as such as bonus.