Disney
2003-09-24 | 9:51 a.m.

I wrote to Disney after hearing about horrible labor practices. This is the response I got today:

Dear Disney Guest,

Thank you for your letter to the DisneyStore.com.

Let us assure you, first of all, that we do understand and share your

concern about labor standards in the world's poorer countries. The

Walt

Disney Company itself is not a manufacturer and does not own any

factories. Many Disney consumer products are manufactured by other

companies that obtain licenses for the use of Disney characters and

images. These licensees, in turn, generally contract with

manufacturing

facilities around the world. And yes, it is a very important concern

for us that any factory associated with Disney-branded merchandise

anywhere in the world should strictly adhere to fair and safe labor

practices.

To this end, we have developed a strict Code of Conduct for licensees

and manufacturers worldwide. We have translated this code into more

than 50 languages and distributed it to each manufacturer engaged in

the

production of Disney-branded merchandise. The code has now been handed

over to more than 25,000 licensees, vendors and factories, and more

than

100,000 "pocket-sized" copies in key languages have been distributed

directly to factory workers during the auditing process. We formed

regional consumer products task forces with specific labor standard

maintenance responsibilities. To make sure all licensees and

manufacturers are in compliance with our code at all times, we put in

place an extensive ongoing monitoring effort and have completed to date

more than 10,000 manufacturer audits (including follow-up audits)

around

the world. These audits have been conducted by our own compliance

experts as well as by independent professional monitoring firms. We do

believe that, in the area of monitoring, we have developed a program

that is among the most comprehensive and sophisticated among all

multinational companies.

When we identify violations in a factory, we ensure that the factory

has

an appropriate remediation plan in place. If, however, the factory is

not willing to remedy the problems and continues to violate the local

labor law and the Disney code, we make sure that any Disney production

ceases at that facility.

We are fully aware of the need for continuous monitoring. Promoting

safe and fair labor practices remains a very important focus in our

work

with licensees and manufacturers around the world.

We hope this letter has been helpful in addressing your very

understandable concerns.

Sincerely,

DisneyStore.com

Jan

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