Santa's Workshop - Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories

Sometimes we have no choice, we work till dawn. When you work all night you become dizzy and your eyes hurt because you can't take any breaks. SANTA'S WORKSHOP takes you to the real world of China's toy factories. Workers tell us about long working hours, low wages, and dangerous work places. Those who protest or try to organize trade unions risk imprisonment. Low labor costs attract more and more companies to China. Today more than 75% of our toys are made in China. But this industry takes its toll on the workers and on the environment.

The European (and American) buyers blame bad conditions on the Chinese suppliers. But they say that increasingly hard competition gives them no option. Who should we believe? And what can you do to bring about a fairer and more humane toy trade?

How many days a week do you work?

Seven days.

We start half past six in the morning and work till midnight.

Then we do overtime work until two or four am.

What toys are produced at the factory?

Dolls and dogs for Disney.

TITLE: Santa's workshop

When you buy a toy, what do you think about?

It should be funny… and nice.

Where do you think the toys are produced?

In other countries…

In Santa's workshop.

In some Asian country, by far too young… children perhaps, I don't know.

Halloween has, as you know, come from the USA and it's here to stay.

It's more popular than anything else.

Masks are one item.

Here the Chinese have given it som extra thought

and put some LED lights in it to light it up.

What wages do those working in the production get?

TEXT: Stefan Risberg. Managing Director, Toyman

In China it is… The labour is cheap

otherwise the production would never be located there.

So of course it's like that.

If it is something to save and live from when you get old? I don't think so.

How much of these toys are produced in China?

In the autumn range 95% comes from China.

In Europe we spend more than 20,000 billion dollars on toys and games every year.

A large part of these toys are bought at christmas time.

But who makes these toys?

When I was younger I found out that McDonald's toys where made by children.

After that I didn't want them any more, since other children made them.

I thought it was adults, or a machine, that made them.

So I don't want McDonalds toys. Otherwise I'd keep buying them.

In August 2000 it was revealed that one of the factories making toys for McDonalds employed child labour.

The factory was situated in China, where most of the worlds toys are made.

We decided to go there and investigate the current conditions in the toy factories.

Here in Hong Kong we met one of those who exposed

the poor working conditions at the McDonalds supplier.

His name is Perry, and he has studied conditions in the toy industry for several years.

This is Hong Kong, and what you can see here is the Victoria Harbor.

And opposite side of here is the central business district of Hong Kong.

All the big toy companies all have their offices here.

Formerly a British colony, Hong Kong was reunited with China in 1997.

Hong Kong still retains a degree of autonomy,

enjoying more freedom and democracy than the rest of China.

Here toys are sold to buyers from all over the world.

The pirate ship is very popular in Sweden.

In what shops can you find it?

Is there any BR shop in Sweden?

Yes

Or ICA? I C A, yeah?

TEXT: Charles Cheng. Sales Manager.

And Åhléns as well.

What sort of things are the buyers interested in?

Buyers are interested in pricing.

The deals are done in Hong Kong but production is contracted out to factories employing millions of people on mainland China

We have to understand what is the impact for the worker

The first impressions may be that the workers can get a job

It's is better than to be unemployed

But we have to ask what kind of job they can have

Is it a decent one? Will it help their life or help their family?

Or the kind of job that can make their life even worse?

An hour's drive from Hong Kong takes us to Shenzhen, the nearest town on mainland China

We are traveling as tourists because the Chinese authorities would never

give us permission to film as we intend to

Development has progressed very quickly here

25 years ago there were only fields and small villages in this region

This is where most of what we buy is manufactured

From clothes and shoes to games, computers and toys

We took good time in preparing our visit here

and we were able to obtain permission

from some Scandinavian toy companies to film in some factories

The companies themselves chose the factories

in which we were permitted to film

In this factory, they make plastic toys and toy vehicles for many companies

across Europe including the Scandivanian companies

Inca, Top-Toy and Orleans

How hot is the material?

The plastic material is around 200 degrees Celsius

So that's why it's so hot in here?

The environment is very hot.

But in the summertime the temperature of this workshop is higher

It becomes even hotter when we enter the departments

where the toy vehicle parts are cast.

The air is stifling and it is difficult to breathe.

A note posted on a wall warns of our visit

and workers are told to remove any scrap

that may block the walkways before our arrival

It's mostly women workers. How many percent?

Women workers - more than 90% in our factory.

- Why? - Because they are easy to manage.

Mostly the workers come from far away provinces of China.

- Why? - Because in these provinces

people are poor.

Therefore they have no choice but to come here to get better wages.

How many of your 2000 workers are migrant workers from the North?

Mostly they come from the far away provinces.

No local residents.

We cannot interview workers

because it may cause problems for them.

Instead, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee which exposed Mcdonald's

conducts covert interviews with anonymous workers

from a number of factories

Are you gauranteed minimum wages?

No, we get paid for how fact we work - no minimum wage.

Those who work the slowest earn about 300 yuan.

If you work fast you can earn 400-500 yuan.

What do you earn per month when you do a lot of overtime work?

Most often 700-800 yuan if you work a lot of overtime.

- Do you work late? - Often till 10 or 11 pm.

What this worker describes violates both Chinese law

and the ethical codes of the Scandinavian companies.

TEXT: AKE NATT OCH DAG, Quality Control Manager, Coop

We have written in our policy

that one should be entitled to one free day a week.

And one cannot exceed local...

... local regulations on maximum working hours.

It will become more obvious that these rules are not applied.

Here, the Swedish and Chinese flags

are flown side by side as the Swedish company Brio

is one of the factory's biggest customers.

TEXT: TOMAS PERSON - Managing Director, Brio

Now that we are trading with China

we must activate vigorous control systems.

Otherwise it may damage the image.

We question how Brio check

the working conditions here.

Have Brio been here?

Yeah, they have been here quite a few times.

What are they interested in when they come to the factory?

Well, basically they are looking for new products and making some new sets.

Just telling what's the market situation.

Through covert interviews we learn that they are often forced to work

14 hours a day 7 days a week.

This is illegal and in breach of Brio's rules.

Just like in the garment industries or in the footware industries sometimes

during the peak season workers have to work overtime.

We check in some factories in the peak season when

demand in the United States or in Europe is bad.

And then they suddenly place an order to the factories with a short lead time.

In this case the workers are asked to do overtime continuously for several days.

And sometimes they even cannot sleep at night.

- Do you ever work all night?

Yes, sometimes. We have no choice. We work till dawn.

When you work all night you become dizzy and your eyes hurt -

- because you cannot take any breaks.

During the lunch break at Mr. Li's factory

two women support another woman who has just fainted.

Some of the workers want to save money so they don't eat breakfast.

After a long at work they get very tired and then feel uncon...

... some sickness only.

No big deal. They recover very quickly.

So they want to save.

You said that breakfast was 1 yuan.

Not expensive. But some of them want to save more money.

They prefer no holiday. They prefer to continue working.

Maybe actually they prefer better wages. They don't prefer to work all the time.

Oh, this is not a reasonable request.

This is not good thinking to work less get more money.

Through an underground organization in China

we at last get the chance to interview some workers.

We meet them one evening in a windowless room.

We may film them but we cannot show their faces fully.

They work in the electronics industry where working conditions are similar to those in the toy industry.

How much overtime do you work per month?

130-140 hours.

We must also rest.

We cannot work overtime every day.

Not even those who want to can do that.

If you got higher wages, would you still want to work overtime?

No, I wouldn't!

TEXT: LARS GJOERUP, Managing Director, Top Toy Hong Kong

To be very honest, the general complaint we get is

when we talk of the makeup of some workers is that they are not very happy about

the limit on overtime during the peak season.

Top Toy, a Danish company that runs BR-Legetøj and Toys R Us in Scandinavia

they seem to be unable to see any connection between the low wages and the workers' willingness to work overtime

So, why do you think they want to work overtime?

Because they can earn more money.

So do you think they make a living wage

on their normal 8-hours day?

You know the living cost in the factories are covered by dormitories, by food, by health care.

So if a worker really want, they can probably stay in the factory and feel safe.

In the factories there are dormatories and the canteens

where almost all migrant workers sleep and eat.

The low wages render other options impossible.

Workers have a choice to stay inside the factories or outside the factories.

??? This should be their choice.

The workers live in cramped quarters

often twelve to twenty in a room.

The only storage for private possessions is in their beds.

Wages have, in principle, remained unchanged for several years

while prices in this region have gone up by several hundred per cent.

As a result, workers are forced to live their lives inside the factories.

Their wages wouldn't last long outside the factory walls.

In some of the factories we visited the working environment is very poor.

Often the noise level is very high

and only a few workers have ear muffs.

Protective equipment is inadequate or even nonexistent.

Workers tell us that they burn and cut themselves

and their arms are marked with scars

The more serious problem is that they damage their health very much.

Sometimes it's not about a problem with the machine

but it's because workers have to work for long hours

and they cannot concentrate on their work and they make mistakes

and they hurt themselves.

What accidents can happen?

Sometimes the workers get very tired and forgetful -

- and when there is a manual operation they may neglect to

pull away the arm and then the door closes suddenly

This is the problem.

- What injuries does that cause?

Hurting the fingers or something similar

Sometimes they burn their skin also due to the very hot plastic materials.

Amongst the most serious accidents that occur are fires.

The worst factory fire to date occurred in a toy factory in Thailand.

On the 10th of May 1993 hundreds of young workers were trapped in a fire

because emergency exits were blocked.

Although the factory was several stories high there were no fire escapes.

188 people died and 469 were injured, most of them young women.

The fire broke out at night when everyone was leaving.

When the smoke started everyone ran and trampled one another

because they could not get out through the doors.

I could not see the ground

- but I thought I have to jump if I'm going to survive.

One of my friends was pregnant.

She could not get out and she was buried in the flames.

If the factory had escape ladders and good fire alarms -

- a tragedy like this would not have happened.

In November that year a similar accident occurred in Scenzhen in China.

The fires attracted worldwide attention

and the pressure on companies to show their responsibility for health, safety and working conditions mounted.

The companies must think of the employee's life and their rights.

Not just make big profits and then leave

As a consequence of these incidents the toy companies began to impose ethical demands on their suppliers: so-called codes of conduct.

The introduction of codes of conduct has led to improvements in the working environment in many factories.

But what about working hours and wages?

This is a leading supplier to the Swedish toy market.

We ask if it is difficult to follow the codes of the Swedish companies.

TEXT: GINNY MOK, Sales Manager

We have passed different kinds of controls like quality control on ethical issues.

We have different audits.

So, you have no problems of following them.

Yeah, no problems. No problem.

Do you always know when they will come?

Normally they will set up a certain date.

Not a particular time but the day they are coming...

- Working 8 hours a day...

We are shown contracts setting out factory regulations

and we see wage lists and time cards.

- Overtime work cannot be over 36 hours

All seems to be well and in accordance with Chinese law

and the companies codes of conduct.

Where is the overtime? No overtime?

However, workers from the factory tell us that there is a system of false wage lists and time cards.

The false lists that are shown when code controllers from the buyers call show much higher wages than are paid out.

Prior to visits from the controllers, management warns workers not to talk about real wages and working hours.

Workers are paid to give appropriate answers to the controllers.

Do a lot of customers check the factory?

Yes, pretty often.

But they don't discover anything.

Why not?

Because we have prepared ourselves.

They know what the buyers are looking for and have prepared for it.

- so it is pointless to inspect

Does the factory tell you what to answer?

Yes, always.

Do you get paid if you answer as you have been told to?

Yes, if we give the correct answers we get 50 yuan.

If it is like that, it is very disturbing.

But I have not received any reports and never seen anything like that.

But again, I have not asked if there are any false reports -

- so it isn't very strange that I have not seen any.

It shouldn't be like that.

Now you are saying it is so, and all I can just say is that

- it shouldn't be like that.

Tell me what factories they are and we will deal with them.

An investigation by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee

shows that 7 out of 9 suppliers cheat in this way.

What do you think it is like?

I think it is because they want to make money.

It takes money to follow the buyers codes of conduct.

But the suppliers say the buyers will not pay these extra costs.

If the selling price is too low, the profit of the factory will also be low

in which case the factory cannot afford to pay the workers their wages

It is the very worst situation.

This soft toy manufacturer who is a supplier to the Swedish market agrees.

Sometimes I joke with our customers...

"Okay, I agree to everything you want, if you raise the price to 20 percent."

You know, they are not going to do that. They don't care.

"You give me a lead time of 90 days instead of 30 days"

-"then I don't want to do the overtime."

Nobody wants to do the overtime, right?

But if you have to ship this order within 30 days -

- then overtime is obviously necessary

We also have to look at the consumers, how much are they willing to pay for the product

You cannot go and increase the price by 30 percent

You need time to make sure the customers actually understand that there is a link

between the price you pay and what you get

With an increasingly tough global competition

prices are kept low at the expense of the workers

Why then don't the workers complain, why don't they protest?

Han Dongfang was one of the leaders of the student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989

where he and thousands of other students demonstrated for democracy in China

The army crushed the protests which ended in a bloodbath.

Han Dongfang was imprisoned and eventually deported to Hong Kong.

According to the trade union law in China only one union is allowed

which is the official Communist Party controlled union

and this organization is basically a Communist party branch

in charge of controlling workers to make sure that

workers don't know anything about the union.

Han Dongfang is now working for the cause of Chinese workers

in his radio program on Radio Free Asia

and by writing for the China Labour Bulletin

As it is impossible to organize free trade unions in China

he gives workers advice by telephone

on how to organize their grievences within the framework of the law

and bring their cases to court.

One day it is hoped that Chinese workers

will be allowed to form trade unions

A trade union is a prominent way of protecting workers' rights

not only in this country but anywhere else

If you are a few people fighting for this you're scared

but if you are 300 people or 700 people then you are not scared anymore.

In Hong Kong, there is an independent trade federation - The Hong Kong Confederation of Workers.

They claim to be the only free trade union in China.

TEXT: ELIZABETH TANG, Chief Executive, HKCTU

Since the 80's when everbody in the world was thinking that China had changed

and that China was becoming more and more open

and connecting with the West more and more

but almost all the workers who have tried to organize

independent organizations have been arrested.

They have a union and they can join if they want.

What are the complaints?

They have the channel but so far they didn't use it.

What did the union do then?

Isn't the union without a purpose then?

Yes, but the state demands that we have one.

Actually the workers can complain through these unions

but so far they are not quite used to voicing their complaints through these unions.

We are able to meet a union representative from one of the factories.

TEXT: SAU SANA, Trade Union Representative

The workers think that they are treated fairly.

They haven't raised any issues.

These are the prizes that we have received for our efforts

on behalf of the workers.

I believe they think we have done a good job.

If you formed an independent union at the factory

what do you think would happen?

If we did that we would be fired.

They would never allow an independent union at the factory.

Well, the worker's demand is even greater than that of the buyer.

They always have endless demands.

Are we going to fight?

Fight!

In Thailand, workers are able to organize unions

and this has led to certain improvements.

When our union was formed, we started demanding improvements.

The union has had meetings and negotiations.

So all improvements... everything we have received

is thanks to our union.

We meet .. and his workmates who work in a factory

making toys for export to Europe.

Conditions are better thanks to the union.

But it is difficult to live on their wages.

They live in a poor area. Three of them share one small room.

They show us a packet of toy motorcycles from their factory.

As soon as the union demands anything the company says it will be bankrupt

and they threaten with relocation.

If they move to China we lose our jobs.

They threaten us so that we won't demand anything more.

All Asiatic countries feel the tough competition from China.

Many Asian manufacturers have already relocated their production there.

Because of its enormous population and repressive trade union laws

China can offer companies unbeatable low production costs.

Employees in Thailand use the threat of Chinese competition

when negotiating wages and working conditions.

Thai workers are afraid to demand better wages because of the threat

and in China employees cannot voice their demands.

The environment is another victim of the huge expansion of the export industry in Southern China

There are thousands of factories located along the Dongjiang river.

Some of them are toy factories which we have visited.

Most of them release waste untreated.

TEXT: APPLE CHAN, Greenpeace, Hong Kong

Testing on Chromium, Lead, Mercury, Phosphorus, Ammonium...

Mercury is the one we find most problematic because

it tests 280 times higher than the national state requirements or regulations.

We are worried because people are drinking the polluted water

and also eating contaminated fish.

Research on mercury shows it brings damage to the brain.

We use water from the factories.

From the factory over there.

You use it for irrigation?

Yes.

Where else can we get water?

There is no fresh, clean water.

There is nothing else. We have to use the water from the factory.

The pollution is a disaster for the poor who used to live by fishing this river.

You cannot drink or use the water and we can't fish.

It comes from upstream from all the factories in Shenzhen.

It is their waste that comes here.

You used to be able to see all the way to the bottom.

Now you cannot see anything because of all the waste.

We used to bathe here. The water was very clean.

But now you cannot do that. See for yourself how dirty it is.

It stinks of death.

Who is responsible for the environmental devastation

and the poor working conditions that make possible

the cheap production of the things we buy?

We are having more and more industries in the developing countries where there is cheap labour

and environmental rules are not that strict in the big companies who are trying to take advantage of that

and they are not trying to take full responsibility to ensure that they don't pollute the area.

The main solution is that the companies think of their corporate responsibility to make sure that they don't pollute.

Many people are ready to take responsibility for the environment

and that toys are not produced by child workers.

But our customers and we noticed this when we were manufacturing in Sweden -

- the customers are not willing to pay the extra cost.

If we sell the products in our shops, we are responsible for those products.

I want the consumers to be aware

that the workers have a hard time.

We pay for this with blood and sweat.

We toil and we sweat.

And at the same time the companies never make a loss.

I do not want you to stop buying

but you should know about our difficult situation.

Do you have any suggestion for the factory?

We would like the management to be a bit more humane.

We would like better wages and shorter working hours.

And when we work at night, we should not have to work so late.