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Article

11 Mar 2008

Author:
Dawn Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times

Disney taking heat over China

The company vows to step up enforcement as criticism grows about conditions at factories that make its products... A year after Walt Disney Co. banned Hao Wei Metal Plastic Manufactory as a supplier, Huang Renzhong got a job there sculpting...statuettes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White... He said he was never compensated for overtime. When he demanded back pay, he said, the factory owner threatened to have him beaten up... Huang and four co-workers sued the labor bureau in Shenzhen, scoring a victory when a court ruled that the bureau hadn't properly considered their demand for more than $90,000 in unpaid wages... It was only then, Disney executives said, that they learned that Hao Wei Metal Plastic Manufactory was still in the business of making Disney merchandise... In the case of the Shenzhen factory, a Japanese licensee [Run'A] had hired it on the sly, said Mark Spears, Disney's director of international labor standards, telling Disney that another plant was making the figurines... To some labor-rights activists, Disney's arm's length dealings with manufacturers have given it an easy out... Unlike Nike Inc., Gap Inc. and a handful of other companies that have been praised by the labor-rights community, Disney doesn't maintain long-term relationships with factories. [also refers to McDonald's, Hengli Factory]