In an ongoing campaign to make Disney's operations in China more accountable to workers' rights, "Disneyland Hong Kong opened on September 12th, 2005 and drew many tourists from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Asia. The Hong Kong government projects that Disneyland HK will generate a profit of HK$148 billion in the coming 40 years. It expects that 30,000 people will visit Disneyland HK everyday and projects that each of them may spend an average of HK$680. This amount implies the notion that Disneyland Hong Kong’s source of profit is not confined to the sale of tickets amounting to around HK$200 to $300 per person, but in fact relies heavily on the sale of consumer products such as toys, clothes, figurines, stationeries and other accessories.
With the new trend of “conscience consumption”, consumers are beginning to request that the workers who make Disney products are at least fairly treated and granted basic human rights. Consumers with a conscience, especially the fans of Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh do not want their intimate toys, clothes and books to come from exploitative sweatshop working conditions. Hence, SACOM’s Disney Project insists on monitoring the corporate behavior of Disney, and see to it that Disney assumes its corporate citizenship responsibilities to improve the working conditions in its supplier factories in China. SACOM looks forward to working with Disney to help its social responsibility grow alongside its profits.
Therefore, SACOM’s “Disney Project” will persist in monitoring and disclosing any violations of labor laws in Disney’s supplier factories in China, which include endless overtime work, countless occupational injury cases, persistent below legal minimum wage levels and other violations of workers rights. Students, scholars, consumers, and media workers are joining forces to awaken the conscience of Disney. SACOM hopes that Disney can stop the exploitative operations of its suppliers and urge them to accept the continuous monitoring by NGO’s, students, and the public.
