McDonald's / Disney
Linked to Six Cent-an-Hour
Sweatshop in Vietnam

Seventeen year-old women are forced to work 9 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, earning as little as six cents an hour in the Keyhinge factory in Vietnam making giveaway promotional toys--especially Disney characters--for McDonald's. After working a 70-hour week, some of the teenage women earn just $4.20! At the end of February, 200 of the workers fell ill, 25 collapsed and three were hospitalized as a result of acute exposure to acetone.

Background / Disney and McDonald's form a 10-year exclusive global marketing alliance

Happy Meals at McDonald's include giveaway toys based on characters from Disney's films. According to Brad Ball, McDonald's senior vice president, "Last year's 101 Dalmatians holiday movie promotion produced the most successful Happy Meal in our history, which speaks to the tremendous customer appeal of the McDonald's-Disney partnership. As we embark on our new global alliance, we anticipate 10 great years of unbeatable family fun as customers enjoy 'the magic of Disney' only at McDonald's." (PR Newswire Associates, March 19, 1997). McDonald's is the largest retail food chain in the world, with 12,000 franchises in the U.S. . Disney is the second largest entertainment / media conglomerate in the world. One out of every four T.V. stations in the U.S. belongs to Disney.

Keyhinge Toys Company/Vietnam:

The Keyhinge Toys Co. factory is located in Da Nang City, Vietnam. Of the approximately 1,000 employees, 90 percent are young women 17 to 20 years old. Overtime is mandatory: shifts of 9 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week. Wage rates average between six cents and eight cents an hour--well below subsistence levels. Overcome by fatigue and poor ventilation in late February, 200 women fell ill, 25 collapsed and three were hospitalized of acute exposure to acetone. Acute or prolonged exposure to acetone--a chemical solvent--can cause dizziness, unconsciousness, damage to the liver and kidneys and chronic eye, nose, throat and skin irritation.

The Keyhinge Toys factory in Vietnam is owned by the Hong Kong based Keyhinge Industrial Company, which also has several factories in China making toys for McDonald's-Disney. At the Chi Wah Toy factory in Zhurai, the Kam Yuen Toys factory in Shenzhen, and the Sewco Toys factory in Zhongshan, there are numerous human rights abuses including mandatory 14-to-15 hour workshifts, seven days a week, working under unsafe conditions, including chemical poisoning. In January 1992, 23 workers at the Chi Wah Toy Factory were hospitalized and three died following acute benzene poisoning. (McDonald's contracts its toy production through the Chicago-based company MB Sales, which subcontracts the work to Keyhinge Industrial.)

Keyhinge management continues to reject all appeals from local human and labor rights organizations to improve the ventilation systems in the factory. Compounding unsafe working conditions, forced overtime and starvation wages, Keyhinge management has refused to make the legally mandated payments for health insurance coverage for its employees, who now receive no compensation for injury or sickness.

Six Cents an Hour is a starvation wage:

The most basic, simple meal in Vietnam--rice, vegetables, and tofu--costs 70 cents. So, three meals would cost $2.10, yet many of the young women at the Keyhinge factory making McDonald's / Disney toys earn just 60 cents after a 10 hour shift. Just to eat and get back and forth to work, the women estimate they would need to earn--after deductions--at least 32 cents an hour. So, the wages at the Keyhinge factory do not even cover 20 percent of the daily food and travel costs for a single worker, let alone her family--not to mention rent ($6.00 a month for a single room) and other basic expenses.

DEMANDS:

McDonald's and Disney must immediately intervene at the Keyhinge Toy factories in Vietnam and China:

1. Under the guidance of qualified occupational health and safety professionals, steps should be taken to correct unsafe working conditions, especially with regard to poor ventilation and exposure to chemicals.

2. In light of the ongoing violations regarding unsafe working conditions, forced overtime, sub-subsistence wage and failure to pay legal benefits, McDonald's-Disney should open these factories to independent monitoring by respected local non-governmental human and labor rights organizations to verify compliance with fundamental human rights.

3. McDonald's and Disney must seriously address the plight of these factory workers suffering under sub-subsistence wages and move toward paying at least subsistence-level wages.

4. McDonald's and Disney should join and work with the White House Task Force to end sweatshop abuses around the world.

Company Addresses:

James R. Cantalupo, President

McDonald's Corp

1 McDonald's Plaza

Oakbrook, IL 60521

tel 630-623-3000

fax 630-623-7409

Michael Eisner, Chief Executive Officer

Walt Disney Company

500 South Buena Vista Street

Burbank, CA 91521

tel 818-560-1000

fax 818-560-1930

Additional Sources / Experts:

* Asia Monitor Resource Center / Hong Kong

Gerard Greenfield

phone: (852) 2332-1346

* Vietnam Labor Watch / Washington, DC

Thuyen Nguyen

phone: (202) 518-8461

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