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Analyzing Disney's Sweatshop Labor

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Analyzing: Disney's consumerism achieved through sweatshop labor For over nearly a century, Disney has grown from making small animations into a massive media and entertainment conglomerate with some of the world's most famous brands. Yet it is a small part of Disney's operations—the licensing of characters from Disney's collection of films allows Disney to mass produce children's clothing, toys, and other merchandise that has put Disney at a controversy. That's because those merchandise are frequently produced in sweatshop conditions in countries such as China, Bangladesh, and Haiti. Chamberlain states that Disney's best-selling toys are being made in a factory in China that uses child labor and forces staff to do three times the amount of …show more content…

However, behind the scenes of Disney lies human rights violations being committed around the globe. Factory workers are being paid staggeringly low wages, and not only that they work in dangerous conditions as well. This problem not only happens to third world countries, but also for Americans as well. Disney's slave-like treatment includes; sweatshops in china force young children to work 10-13 hours a day producing Disney's children's books six or seven times a week. Workers are paid 33 to 41 cents an hour (below Chinese minimum wage of 42 cents an hour). Workers are often cheated of their overtime pay. Workers have no health insurance or pension. And there many more unfair labor conditions (Chamberlain). Kopp argues these examples as Disney corporations provides a bad reputation because of how these international corporations treat their workers with unfair labor conditions. There are many other countries that have similar conditions, for example, Bangladesh sweatshop workers aren't allowed to even speak and they are beaten if they don't meet their quotas. And Haiti sweatshop workers are under the legal age and sexual harassment is common. Disney has shown a grim history of either not knowing or not caring about the people Disney exploits throughout the world to increase its own profits, and having history of sweatshops and worker abuse around the world. Giroux …show more content…

Disney sweatshops from across the world allow slave-like treatment to every single worker and it is devastating to know what lies behind Disney's face of innocence. Haiti is the most "glaring example of an inhumane Disney Sweatshop" (Kopp). Workers there stitch t-shirts for 28 cents an hour that retail for about 17.99 USD. Sadly, this is by far the highest wage paid out of the sweatshops in China and Bangladesh. The food costs in Haiti costs just as much as food in the United States. After taxes, a sweatshop worker from Haiti will only earn 15-20 dollars a month. This proves any individual would find surviving to be very difficult with this amount of money and all that month's pay is usually paid to rent a one-room shack with no running water. It isn't difficult to see what Disney is doing to these workers, it is inhumane. This is how Disney runs their business, using inhumane methods to make a huge profit margin. Jane Kuenz describes "The World of Walt Disney is not what it seems to be" (110). Which is in fact true because she has interviewed many friends, family, and interviewees about assertions made about Disney. Kuenz proves, Disney has the ability to entertain contradictory and competing claims about the park and what they're doing in it. In American culture, Disney influenced the lives of many children, but while it all seems innocent,

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