Walt Disney Essays - Business, Economy, Anti-corporate Activism

Walt Disney Consumers can play an important role in closing sweatshops, and they have a right to know what companies are using sweatshops to produce their product there are simple steps consumers can take to help fight against the use of sweatshops. Right now many famous companies are using sweatshops readily to save money. However, ironically, the companies that use them are the companies that can afford to spend the extra money for regular labor. Some of these name brand companies include; Nike, Disney, Kathie- Lee Gifford, Gap, Liz Claiborne, Ralph Lauren, and Wal-Mart. Many people have no idea that these companies are using sweatshops. Disney for example is a very well known company. No one would ever expect that their favorite childhood Disney memory could have been created through sweatshops and child labor. Disney is just one of the many well respected, loved companies with dark secrets. It is hard to believe as a consumer that a company that consumers have grown to trust and love uses such forced labor, with underaged sweatshop employees making consumers favorite characters come to life. Well, Peter and Rochelle Schweizer makes it clear that it could be a possibility: " The face of Disney the manufacturer is not a pretty one. All too often Disney clothes, toys, and trinkets are made by child laborers. Disney licensees have been caught using child labor on three continents" (245). Many other companies are practicing the same type of labor policies without consumers's knowledge. If companies feel that sweatshops are a decent and fair way of doing business and have no problems with continuing to use them, they should at least make these reasons public and confront their consumers's concerns. They should let their consumers know why they choose to conduct their business in this manner. Consumers would then have the real information on the product that they choose, and not only what the company wants them to Mueckler 2 know. Consumers would then be able to base their product choice on work place conditions as well as the over all product information. Some companies's use of sweatshops have been made public. Kathie-Lee Gifford's designer clothes company for example was widely evident in the news in 1996. Gifford was shocked when she heard of the sweatshop conditions her company was using. Since this Gifford has been involved in organizing the Apparel Industry Partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor. This organization tries to crack down on the use of child labor. This is one example of where the public influenced a company to change its policies. This gives hope that with consumer support other companies can be influenced in similar ways. Disney, however, has not been so noteworthy in their efforts. Disney licensees go out of their way to bring their company to countries such as Burma, where the practice of child labor is a normal everyday event, and they exploit this to create their product as cheaply as possible. Schweizer explains how remote the locations that Disney licensees use, " For years Disney licensees were manufacturing in a country few Americans could locate on a map. Burma- also known as Myanmar, the name given it by the ruling military junta- is a poverty - stricken nation wedged between India, China, and the lush mountains of Thailand." (251). This is an ideal location because so few people are aware of it. This makes it easy for the Disney licensees to continue their business without being detected. Another insight to Burma is that drug lords hold great power and are protected by the government. Disney licensees had to get the permission to have sweatshops in Burma from these drug lords. This shows how the drug lords are the ones with the power in Burma. First companies must win the respect of these drug lords before they are able to work there. " Burma's attraction as a manufacturing site is obvious: ultracheap labor." (252). Mueckler 3 When consumers and human rights groups along with labor organizations took action in 1996, they did get a response from Disney. The National Labor Committee and other organizations together made Disney's involvement in Burma public with the Free Burma Campaign. Disney denied these claims. They pretended they had no involvement in Burma. They knew how the negative public announcement would hurt the company, which is the major reason why companies hide the facts from the consumers. Schweizer explains that many other respectable companies have volunteered to monitor their working conditions, however, Disney is not one of them. This shows that Disney is aware that