Disney Sweatshop in Bangladesh
Niagra Textiles Ltd.
Chandra Circle, Union-Atabah
Kaliakair, Gazipur
Workers Badly Beaten, Fired, And Imprisoned For
Asking To Be Paid On Time
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Workers routinely slapped and punched for not working fast enough;
Forced to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with at most one day off a month;
Mandatory 19-hour all-night shifts once a week, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. the following
morning, after which workers sleep on factory floor;
Forced to work 35 to 42 hours of overtime a week. Workers at the factory up to 100 hours a
week. At most workers get four to five hours of sleep a night;
Sewers paid just 11 to 20 cents an hour, as little as $5.28 a week;
Helpers earn just seven to eight cents an hour, and $3.16 a week;
Workers trapped in misery: four workers sharing one small hut exist on rice and must
borrow money to survive;
Workers paid just five cents for each Disney garment they sew;
Workers routinely paid two weeks late and are cheated of one-half of legal overtime pay;
Women denied their legal maternity benefits;
Speaking prohibited—if caught may be docked one day’s wages;
No health insurance, no doctor in the plant, no sick days;
No daycare center and no place to eat;
Drinking water is filthy;
If late three times docked one day’s wages;
Docked two days’ wages if they talk back to supervisors or managers. Any attempt to
exercise their legal right to Freedom of Association would be met with beatings, mass firings
and blacklisting;
No one has ever heard of Disney’s so-called Code of Conduct, and have no idea what it
might be;
Corporate monitoring a joke: visits announced in advance, factory is cleaned, workers are
threatened to lie about working conditions, “monitors” interview the workers inside the plant
in front of supervisors and mangers. Every worker knows that she would be immediately
fired if she ever spoke the truth;
Workers report that they have no hope, no life, and that they live only to work.
1
Disney Contractor Calls in Gang Members to
Terrorize and Beat Workers
On January 18, 2004, 22 workers were badly beaten, and eight imprisoned
for asking to be paid on time. All 22 workers have been fired.
In Bangladesh, garment workers are paid on a monthly basis, and by law, are to be paid no later
than the first week of the following month. However, at the Disney contractor’s Niagra plant,
the owner routinely holds back paying wages by an additional week or two. So, for example, the
workers did not receive their October wages until November 18; their November wages until
December 23; their December wages until January 20; and their January wages were only paid
on February 20. No doubt the owner is keeping his money in the bank to gain the seven to eight
percent interest, which over the course of a year will significantly lower his overall payroll costs.
But it is illegal. For the workers, who are already forced to exist on below-subsistence wages,
living day to day from hand to mouth and borrowing money just to survive, being paid late is a
matter of life or death.
When questioned, the manager had told the workers that they would definitely be paid their
December wages on January 15, but January 15 came and went and still no one was paid.
It was decided that on Sunday, January 18, at lunchtime, a group of a dozen or so workers would
go in to see the manager, which they did at 1:15 p.m. to inquire when they would be paid.
Another 10 workers waited outside. When the workers entered the production manager’s office
he flew into a rage, grabbing a young man by the collar violently trying to choke him as he
screamed “How dare you come into my office?” The production manager and his assistant
started hitting the workers. The production manager grabbed his cell phone and made a call. A
few of the workers were locked in a room. Within 30 or 40 minutes five gang members armed
with pistols arrived and started beating the workers, punching them, hitting them with sticks,
knocking them to the ground and kicking and stomping on them. Several of the workers were
badly injured. The gang members then broke some panes of glass which separated the shop floor
from the sample room, which was close to the manager’s office. At some point another call must
have been made, since a dozen police showed up at about 2:15 p.m. The gang members actually
picked out the workers to be handed over to the police, who put eight workers in their van and
took them to jail. The eight remained imprisoned for up to two weeks before they were finally
released on bail.
The workers still face very serious trumped up charges that could result in long term prison
sentences. Niagra management is claiming that the workers caused five million taka in property
damage, and that they looted another 1.2 million taka, which combined is over $100,000. As
ridiculous as the charge is, when you are a worker earning just $5.28 to $9.60 a week sewing
Disney garments, you are not in the position to hire attorneys and fight the large Niagra factory.
At some point the workers will have to flee into hiding rather than go to prison for years. All for
the “crime” of asking to be paid their below-subsistence wages on time.
All 22 were fired.
2
(Note: In Bangladesh, it is not uncommon for factory managers to have nearby gang members
on retainer to terrorize the young workers whenever they ask for their basic legal rights to be
respected.)
Disney Workers Trapped in Misery
They work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, yet the Disney workers from the Niagra plant can
only afford to rent a tiny one-room hut, which four workers must share. They share an outhouse
and an outdoor water pump with about 60 other people. They cannot even afford a small TV.
They exist on rice, three times a day, and sometimes a little dahl (lentils) and mashed potatoes.
And even living under these conditions they must borrow money each week in order to survive.
After leaving work at 10:00 p.m., they arrive home at around 11:00 p.m. The four workers share
the cooking, which takes about an hour. Then they eat. It is 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. before they can
get to sleep and they have to be up again at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. to wash, prepare their rice and get
to work on time. They have to get by on four to five hours of sleep a night.
When we asked the Disney workers how they felt about their lives, they responded: “We have
no hope. There are no rays of hope for us.” Several of the young men told us: “We have no life.
We can’t afford to marry, we have no wife, no social life. We live just to work.”
We asked if they thought that the people in the U.S. and Europe ever stopped to think about
them, or cared about them, when they bought the clothing they sewed. They responded: “No, no
one ever thinks about us.” When asked if they knew what the garments they make sell for in the
U.S., they simply responded “no.”
None of the workers we spoke with went home to their villages during the important national
religious holiday Eid in February, explaining that: “We can’t go home. There is no reason to.
We have no money, and it would be a great humiliation for us to go home with nothing for our
families.”
Workers Asking For Help to Win Their Modest Demands
•
Management must drop the trumped up charges against the fired
workers and immediately reinstate them to their former positions, with
no further retaliation and payment of back wages.
•
Management must:
o Provide one day off a week on Friday, the Muslim holiday.
o Immediately end all physical abuse and threats.
o Pay overtime and wages correctly and on time.
o Pay the legal maternity benefits.
o Provide proper place set aside to eat.
3
This is NOT a Boycott
Please Do Not Let Disney Cut and Run
The Disney Niagra workers are not asking for a boycott. In fact, the worst thing Disney and the
other companies could do would be to pull their work from the factory. The workers desperately
need these jobs, but they also want to be treated with a minimal amount of respect and not as
slaves. They want Disney to keep its production in the factory while at the same time
working with their contractor to clean up the Niagra plant and to guarantee that the basic
legal rights of the workers are finally respected. If the Disney Company has any commitment
whatsoever to human rights—as Disney’s Code of Conduct clearly claims it does—then the
workers are asking Disney to act on that commitment.
However, it is important to be aware that the Disney Company has a long history of
punishing workers in the developing world who dare ask for their basic rights. In the face
of such modest demands, Disney has pulled its work from factories in Bangladesh, Haiti and
China, leaving thousands of workers in the street.
The real message Disney leaves behind—we believe intentionally—for workers across these
developing countries is that if you also dare raise your voice to claim any of your legal rights,
you too will be fired, and put out onto the streets with nothing, penniless. This is a frightening
message anywhere in the world, but even more so in these poor countries.
In 2002, Disney did just this. Disney pulled its work from the Shah Makhdum plant in
Bangladesh when young women who had been sewing Disney garments for seven years asked
for one day off a week, that the beatings stop, and that they no longer be cheated of their proper
overtime pay and maternity benefits. What makes this even worse is that in response to pressure
from the workers and an international campaign, the owners of Shah Makhdum had instituted
many significant reforms. Today, Shah Makhdum is a better than average factory. The
workers report that conditions are better than they have ever been and their rights are now
respected. Conditions at Shah Makhdum are now very likely far better than in the tens of
thousands of other factories Disney uses around the world. Yet, to date, Disney has not
returned its production to the Shah Makhdum factory. Why?
The owners of Shah Makhdum have even committed to open their plant to independent
inspection by widely respected local human and labor rights organizations—if Disney
returns its work—to guarantee continued compliance and respect for the rights of the
workers.
This has never happened before and could set a new human rights precedent for the entire
garment industry in Bangladesh. It is a win-win situation waiting to happen, which could
improve the lives of tens of thousands of workers.
Yet Disney refuses to do the right thing. We should not let them get away with it.
4
Niagra Textiles Ltd.
Chandra Circle, Union-Atabah
Kaliakar, Gazipur
This is a large factory, with seven floors, and is relatively new, since it's been in operation for
just the last two years. It’s located 55 km from Dhaka City.
Number of workers: approximately 1,500 / sixty percent women / eighty-five percent of the
workers are 16 to 25 years old.
Production: Infants', childrens' and adult t-shirts, sportswear and short and long pants.
Labels: Disney is the major label being sewn in the factory, accounting for 40 to 50 percent of
total production. Disney’s work has been in the factory for at least a last year and a half. One
Disney line currently being sewn is 100 percent cotton t-shirts with images of animals on them.
Two other labels produced at the factory include George (Wal-Mart / Asada) and Sorbino.
According to the workers, one of the buyers appears to be Boston Sportswear.
Hours
•
•
•
•
•
Forced overtime.
Daily 14-hour shifts.
Mandatory 19-hour shifts at least once a week.
Seven day workweek with, at most, one day off per month.
Workers at the factory up to 100 hours a week.
The typical shift at the Niagra factory is 14 hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a
week.
Typical Shift
8.00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(work, 5 hours)
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
(lunch, 1 hour)
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
(work, 3 hours)
5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (overtime, 5 hours)
The sewers also report being forced to work grueling all-night 19-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m.
straight through to 3:00 a.m., on average five or six times each month. Typically such shifts are
required before shipments must go out. After such all-night shifts the workers sleep on the
factory floor, curled up next to their sewing machines.
The Niagra factory operates on a seven-day-a-week-schedule, with no regular weekly holiday.
In fact, in the last four months, from October through January, the workers received just one
Friday off, January 2. (Friday is the Muslim holiday) The last time we spoke with the workers
was on Friday, February 20, and they were kept until 8:00 p.m. that night as well.
5
Some months when the work is “slow,” as in January, the sewing operators will still work seven
days a week, but will be let out at 8:00 p.m. rather than 10:00 p.m.- approximately 13 nights
during the month. All other nights they work until 10:00 p.m.
The sewing operators report being forced to work on average 35 to 42 hours of overtime each
week. This means that the workers are often at the factory for up to 100 hours a week. (At
the extreme, the workers would be at the factory 101 hours while working approximately 90
hours—48 regular hours and 42 hours of overtime.)
Wages
•
•
•
•
Below-subsistence wages;
Sewers earn 11 cents to 20 cents an hour, as little as $5.28 a week;
Helpers earn just seven to eight cents an hour, and $3.16 a week;
Workers cheated of one half of their overtime pay and routinely paid late.
At the Niagra factory, sewers earn between 11 and 20 cents an hour. Junior sewing operators,
with less than five years of experience, earn as little as 11 cents an hour, 88 cents a day, and
$5.28 a week. The average wage for junior operators is just 12 cents an hour.
Junior Operator’s Wage
(1,300 taka a month)
11 cents an hour
88 cents a day (8 hours)
$5.28 a week (6 days / 48 hours)
$22.26 a month
$267.12 a year
Senior operators earn between 1,800 to 2,375 taka per month, or 15 cents to 20 cents an hour,
with an average wage of 17 cents.
Senior Operator’s Wage
(2,375 taka – this is the highest sewer’s wage we encountered in the factory.)
20 cents an hour
$1.60 a day (8 hours)
$9.60 a week (6 days / 48 hours)
$40.67 a month
$488.01 a year
Helpers, who are the youngest workers supplying the assembly line with the cut fabric and
cleaning the finished garment by cutting off the loose threads, are paid just seven to eight cents
an hour, and $3.16 to $3.68 a week.
6
For the first six months the helpers are paid:
7 cents an hour ($.065)
56 cents a day (8 hours)
$3.16 a week (6 days, 48 hours)
$13.70 a month
$164.38 a year
After six months, the helpers get a one-cent-an-hour raise.
The workers report that it is standard practice at the Niagra factory to be cheated of at least 50
percent of legally due overtime pay. Management shortchanges the workers in two ways, by
forcing the sewers to work for free until they reach their excessively high production target, and
also by paying straight time rather than the 50 to 100 percent legal overtime premium. Given
that the operators are forced to work an average of 35 to 42 hours of overtime a week, this means
they are being shortchanged of approximately $7.50 a week which is due them. While this might
not seem like a lot of money to us, when you are earning – at the most – a regular wage of just
$9.60 a week, this means the workers are being cheated of nearly five and a half days' regular
pay. This is an enormous amount of money for people living in absolute misery.
Niagra also illegally routinely pays the workers late. Rather than pay the workers in the first
week of the following month, Niagra pays the workers one to two weeks late. For example, the
workers were not paid their October wages until November 18; their November wages until
December 23; their December wages until January 20; and their January wages until February
20. Again, it is clear what an enormous hardship this practice is to workers already paid belowsubsistence wages, who are trapped in utter poverty, and who must borrow money each month in
order to survive. The owner no doubt holds back the pay so as to gain the seven to eight percent
bank interest, which over the course of a year could considerably lower his overall payroll
costs—of course, at the workers' expense.
Nor do the Niagra workers receive any legal annual wage increase, despite a compounded
inflation rate of 26.5 percent over the last three years. This means the real purchasing power of
the Niagra workers’ wages is actually going backwards.
Nor are there pay stubs or any breakdown of the workers’ wages. They receive only a lump sum
cash payment.
Also, for the very important national Eid religious festival in February, the workers received a
bonus of just one-half their base wage, rather than a full month’s wage as is honored by tradition
across Bangladesh.
7
Abusive Working Conditions
It is important to clarify that the Niagra factory does not on the surface strike one as a sweatshop.
It is a new clean factory, with adequate space, lighting, fans and ventilation, and with 10
bathrooms on each floor. However, it is very much a sweatshop with respect to the workers are
treated and the below-subsistence wages they are paid.
•
Physical punishment: workers report being beaten, slapped and punched for not reaching
their quotas, or for making the slightest mistake.
•
Constant pressure- Workers paid 5 cents for each Disney garment they sew:
Supervisors stand over the workers, sometimes violently grabbing them and shouting “why
are you going so slow, why can’t you make the target you bitch?” As mentioned earlier,
workers failing to meet their daily production goal must remain working for free until they
do so. The workers are given excessively high production goals. An assembly line of 25
sewing operators must complete 110 to 200 garments per hour, depending upon their
complexity and size. This means that even under the best circumstances the workers are
paid just five cents for every Disney garment they sew.
•
In the ironing section, a worker ironing the pant legs on a children’s garment must complete
100 pieces per hour. (Another worker irons the waist area.) This means a worker must iron
one pair of children’s pants every 36 seconds, and 1,300 pairs in the typical 13-hour
workday.
•
Docking the workers’ pay: If anyone dares to question or talk back to a supervisor or
manager, as punishment they will be marked absent and docked two full days’ pay. Arriving
at work late three times in a month will result in one day’s wages being docked.
•
Denied maternity benefits: Women are routinFely denied their maternity leave with
benefits, or full pay.
•
There is no health insurance, no sick days, no day care center, and no doctor in the
plant, though there are some minimal first aid kits.
•
There is no annual vacation and the workers are frequently forced to work on national
holidays.
•
Speaking during working hours is prohibited. If caught, the workers could be docked a
full day’s wages.
•
The workers drink unfiltered tap water, which is filthy and unsafe.
•
There is no canteen or sheltered place to eat, so the workers must take their lunch on the
roof, exposed to the glaring sun or rain.
•
Absolutely no Freedom of Association: Every worker we spoke with stated with absolute
certainty that the Niagra factory would never allow a union, and any attempt to exercise their
legal right to organize would immediately be met with beatings and mass firings.
8
•
Disney Code of Conduct unknown: No worker we had spoken with had ever heard of
Disney’s Code of Conduct, let alone seen it. No worker had any idea of what we were even
speaking about.
•
Corporate monitoring farce: Some “monitors” had actually visited the plant on January 29
and 30th. The workers said, pointing to us, “they looked just like you, white people.” The
visits are known in advance, and the factory is cleaned with the help of the workers.
Sometimes the buyers speak with the workers, but it is always inside the plant, if not actually
in the manager’s office, than within hearing range of supervisors on the shop floor. Every
worker explains that if they ever dared speak the truth in the factory, they would be
fired the minute the so-called monitors left the plant. The workers are unanimous on this.
Disney and Disney Licensee Contact Information:
Arnetta SRL
Via Pompei 20052
Monza (MI) ITALY
Tel: +39 039 834 101
Fax +39 039 833 684
Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
Phone: (818) 560-1000
Fax: (818) 560-1930
9