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Article

19 Dec 2011

Author:
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights

New Report: Hasbro Transformer toys made in miserable sweatshop conditions

Today, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights is releasing an explosive 40 page report "Holidays by Hasbro, Transformers from Hell," including scores of photographs and documents smuggled out of the Jet Fair toy factory in China...Workers housed in filthy, over-crowded dorms, infested with rats and bed bugs...Workers allowed less than 9 minutes to assemble each Hasbro Transformer, for which they are paid 17 cents...Factory temperatures soar to 104 degrees F in summer. During peak season, workers toil 12-hour shifts, seven days a week...Workers undergo three body-searches each day, are not permitted to talk or lift their heads to look around...Hasbro is open to the hiring of 14 and 15-year-olds on a "case-by-case basis." Workers in the spray paint department fear they are being exposed to dangerous solvents..."While Hasbro demands all sorts of enforceable laws backed up by sanctions to protect their Transformers and other toys," said Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, "when it comes to the workers in China, Hasbro is happy to offer them useless voluntary codes of conduct which are designed to fail. Nothing will change until Hasbro and the other toy companies are held legally accountable to comply with internationally recognized workers' rights standards."