Trocaire voices concerns for Far East toy makers

Ø 1) Do you happen to know anything about the toys made in China? Do you have small children in your family? What toys do you buy for your children? When buying toys do you try to find out more about them (what they are made of, if the material, they are made of, is dangerous for health, etc.) or you look at their appearance only?

The top-selling toys this Ch­ristmas, according to a survey of Dublin retailers, are fig­ures from the film Toy Story. What few Irish shoppers think of, however, is that the Baby Born and Baby Lou dolls from the film, as well as Bar­bie, Action Man, Barnie, V-Tech learning aids, Sega games and Power Rangers, are all made in the Far East.

Trocaire, which on Tuesday launched its campaign, “Play Fair”, to highlight conditions in Far East factories, said the multinational companies (MNCs) which market the toys must take responsibility for the conditions in which the toys are made.

Trocaire is calling on toy companies to initiate their own monitoring process and to agree to independent monitoring.

China is the biggest manu­facturer of toys in the world, with 1.3 million people, mostly women, employed in the industry. As in China, workers in Thailand, the sec­ond leading manufacturer, are “top often” employed in “sweatshop, ” and even in fatally dangerous, conditions.

A case documented by Tro­caire is that of Zhou Weizh. He worked in a factory in Sanshui, China, and his fingers were amputated when a machine went out of control. Compensated 200 renminbi (£ 15), he had to pay his own medical fees.

According to Trocaire, MNCs, with head offices in the US and Europe, will relocate their manufacturing bases where labor costs are low­est. Wages in China are one-twentieth of those in Ger­many. The Asia Monitor Re­source Center (AMRC) in Hong Kong has detailed dang­ers in the Far East toy indus­try - fire hazards, collapsing buildings, machinery acci­dents and chronic diseases from the industrial plastics, glues and paints. Then there are the working conditions – low wages, up to 16-hour work­ing days, seven-day weeks, insecure employment, no holidays and short or non­existent breaks. There are also concerns about child lab­or.

“If multinational companies find factories with even worse conditions and even lower costs, they move their contracts, ” said Apo Leong of the AMRC. Whatever legislation there exists is not enforced. A blind eye is turned by the authorities, such is the competition for the investment.

In 2009, according to of­ficial statistics, there were 28, 000 factory fires, killing 1, 480 people in China. Industrial officers with the monitoring centers acknowledge the Irish Government’s support, ex­plaining that it is the offending countries themselves which are most vociferous in opposing international legislation on workplace rights.

“It is the toy retailers that wield the real power in this, ” said Annette Honan of Trocaire. “They are the ones that can dictate that the toys be safe for our children. They must ensure that those making them are in safe conditions also.”

Ø 2) Answer the questions:

a) What are the results of the Dublin retailers survey of the toys sold at Irish shops?

b) What are the conditions of production of the toys?

c) What country is the biggest manufacturer of toys in the world?

d) What is the second leading manufacturer?

e) Why are manufacturing bases relocated from Europe and the US to the Far East?

f) What are the conditions of life in general and manufacturing of toys in particular in China?

Ø 3) Write a summary of the text.