10 Scandals Disney REALLY Wants You To Forget
2. That Time It Was Named Sweatshop Retailer Of The Year
Sorry to break it to all the Disney merch fans out there but
it’s more than likely that those plush Mickey Mouse stuffed toys you’ve been
collecting have some rather morally suspect origins.
Back in 2001, Disney was named Sweatshop Retailer of the Year by Oxfam Canada and the Maquila Solidarity Network as part of its Sweatshop Retailer awards – aka ‘the Sweaties’ – which was kind of like the Razzies but for terrible corporations instead of terrible films.
Pipping both Wal-Mart and Nike to the post, Disney nabbed the title based on awful working conditions in several of its Chinese supply factories that including employees working 90+ hour weeks for ridiculously low pay, exposing workers to dangerous chemicals and having workers live in hazardously overcrowded sweatshop dormitories.
Of course, that was almost two decades ago so you’d assume a wholesome, family-oriented company like Disney would’ve cleaned up their act by now. Nope, they’re still at it with reports from a recent as 2016 describing many of the same issues in its supply factories are still going on today.