On anti-Disney

One of my fellow classmates gave a presentation about the grand opening of HK Disneyland yesterday. In her presentation the working condition of factory workers who make Disney products in mainland China was given special consideration. It was followed by a series of discussion about the factory workers not being treated fairly, how the situation could be improved so on and so forth.

I’m not trying to do any justice to this particular corporation ‘cause their factories in mainland China where low-skilled, cheap labor- especially young women who are considered to be more compliant and reliable- are really plentiful. I don’t think I need to mention how those pitiful young women working more than 18 hours in sweatshops to get you to have a clue of how it’s like.

But why Disney?

We have sportswear giants like Nike and Adidas which constantly make trendy and cool sport shoes to add more colors to our collection of sneakers at home. Any given minute in a Nike outlet in Hong Kong, a mom is probably buying her 10-year-old son a new pair of running shoes—made by a 9-year-old boy with bare feet in a factory in Pakistan or Bangladesh. And then we have GM putting down their factories in Michigan, leaving the entire town unemployed, while setting up 11 factories in Mexico. And … and don’t forget our worldwide success McDonald’s, which is a perfect model to those in a variety of leadership positions. McDonald’s is playing the key role in the ever-expanding process of “McDonaldization,” which put numerous employees to work in dehumanizing jobs.

Below-subsistence wages, hazardous and stressful working conditions, forced overtime, long working hours, and abusive management—all these are not rare in developing countries where western transnational corporations set up factories for their business. When we talk about how Disney mistreat their employees in mainland China, it’s wiser to see it as a tip of a larger iceberg—one that is created as transnational corporations extend and enlarge in the global market—than just pick it out to criticize.