In Response

In November 2019, China Labor Watch along with ActionAid France, Christliche Initiative Romero and Solidar Suisse released a report into five toy factories titled : “The Dark Side of the Glittering World: A Report on Exploitation in Toy Factories in China”. The ICTI Ethical Toy Program subsequently conducted a follow-up investigation, releasing the findings here. Below is the response to the findings from the four organizations.  February 7, 2020 Dear Ms Giblin and Mr Robertson, Thank you for sharing this…

Mr. Tim Cook, CEO AppleOne Apple Park WayCupertino, CA 95014 July 31, 2018 Dear Mr. Tim Cook: In 2013, China Labor Watch launched its first investigation into Jabil Green Point, bringing to light the numerous labor rights violations and other unethical practices occurring at the factory. Since then, China Labor Watch has conducted two more follow up investigations, one in 2014 and another in 2017, to see if working conditions have improved in any way. While there have been some…

Dear  Edena, In previous letter, you mentioned that Dongguan Combine Will was not a Mattel’s supplier. However, in fact, this is incorrect. Please check out the picture I attached below. The toy in this picture is a Mattel’s product, and CLW found it at Combine Will. But, Combine Will is an ICTI certificated factory. I request you to delete the part that Combine Will did not manufacture for Mattel from your letter./report/122 The audit report from Mattel and ICTI CARE…

In Bloomberg journalist Shai Oster’s most recent report on Apple and Pegatron, he mentioned that workers wanted more overtime hours because wages were too low. This is consistent with our investigation into Pegatron and other Apple suppliers. In our interviews with Pegatron workers, many said they would leave the factory if they did not have enough overtime hours. The point we want to make is that low wages are the key reason why workers seek out overtime hours. If Pegatron…

Dear Ms. Giblin, Thank you for your reply. This response is quite an improvement over some of the previous ones from ICTI CARE in that it acknowledges widespread rights violations in the toy industry. However, we still believe that most of the denials of CLW’s allegations are inaccurate or incorrect. Moreover, we think that as ICTI CARE desires to see faster improvements in labor standards, it must more greatly acknowledge the critical role that buyers play in perpetuating poor labor…

After China Labor Watch (CLW) released its latest report “The Other Side of Fairy Tales”, which poor working conditions in five China-based toy factories producing for several top toy brands on November 20, 2015, ICTI CARE, an organization associated with the International Council of Toy Industries, published an official statement on December 4. The statement rejected CLW’s conclusion, responding that “whilst we would agree that key challenges remain in China, we disagree with assertions that working conditions and labor standards…

On December 1, China Labor Watch received an emailed letter from Mattel’s Vice President for EHS, CSR, and Government Affairs, Ms. Edena Low. Below is CLW’s reply to this letter.    To: Ms. Edena Low, Vice President of EHS, CSR & Government Affairs, Mattel December 2, 2015 Dear Ms. Low: Beginning in 2001, Mattel has repeatedly criticized reports written by China Labor Watch (CLW) for being “inaccurate”, “misleading”, or containing “factual errors”. We saw this same sort of biased language in…

To: Edena LowVP EHS, CSR & Regional Government AffairsMattel, Inc.   Dear Edena, I am writing this in response to your letter on December 22 addressing the report published by China Labor Watch (CLW) on working conditions at two of Mattel’s factories. With all due respect, I believe that your response focused on minor problems while avoiding major issues mentioned in the report and was quite misleading. The letter also indirectly acknowledged the veracity of the issues mentioned in our…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW YORK — In response to the report CLW published on HEG, Samsung has stated CLW did not publish information Samsung gave to CLW in earlier emails. However, the emails to which Samsung is referring included a confidentiality clause, so CLW abstained from publishing the information within. After CLW shared the evidence of child and student labor at HEG with Samsung last week, Samsung conducted an inspection beginning last Friday. Samsung responded to CLW on Monday, August…

To :Kathleen A. Shaver, Director of Corporate Responsibility – Mattel333 Continental BoulevardEl Segundo, CA 90245-5012Kathleen.shaver@mattel.com Cc :Bryan StocktonMattel Inc. CEObryan.stockton@mattel.comLisa Klein, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility – Mattellisa.klein@mattel.comRobert Normile, Executive VicePresident, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary – Mattelrobert.normile@mattel.com Dear Ms. Shaver, At the end of January 2013, China Labor Watch (CLW) received your letter in response to our 2012 investigation of labor issues in four Mattel supplier factories. We appreciate that Mattel read the report and investigated some allegations.…

I happened to read former SEIU President Andy Stern’s “China’s Superior Economic Model” (op-ed, Dec. 1) and, as a labor advocate myself, I cannot see how he can think that China’s model of economic development is superior to America’s. I say this because on the day Mr. Stern’s article was published, more than a thousand workers in Shanghai, China participated in a strike to protest an ultimatum they were given by management to move to another city or resign without…