A series of reports since 1999 have highlighted alleged violations of Disney's code of conduct and Chinese labor laws at more than 30 factories. The reports detail forced overtime, mandatory seven-day workweeks, sub-minimum-wage salaries as low as 16 1/2 cents an hour and cramped factory dormitories.
Project Kaleidoscope sought to get laborers and supervisors working together to find and fix problems and prevent recurrences, instead of awaiting the verdict of auditors. The factories ranged in size from 450 to 17,000 employees.
The project included training for factory owners and managers to show them how to collect and analyze data and make fixes, as well as factory-based workshops so that supervisors would be receptive to input from workers.
Over time, the report says, Project Kaleidoscope yielded results. Audits noted significant declines in problems such as substandard wages and excessive working hours. Workplace health and safety issues continued to surface, but they were significantly fewer than at the start of the project.
The report acknowledged that a "serious worker disturbance" occurred at a factory identified only as PK5, in which workers protested the poor-quality, "unsanitary" food served in the cafeteria, where they were forced to pay for meals they had not eaten.
It is believed to reference the July 2006 melee at a plant that produces Happy Meal toys for McDonald's. A clash between guards and a worker triggered what Chinese news accounts described as a riot in which 1,000 workers vandalized the Hengli Factory in China's Guangdong province.
Two independent audits confirmed problems with the quality of the food and the conduct of the security forces during the protests. The report said the factory took corrective measures, including providing health and safety training for food-service workers.
Conrad MacKerron of the As You Sow Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes social responsibility, said a handful of U.S. brands had shouldered the burden of improving worker conditions in places such as China. A recent RiskMetrics Group study found that only 1 in 5 large companies had a code to address their suppliers' compliance with labor standards.
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dawn.chmielewski@latimes.com
