Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News Writer
Oak Brook, IL (AHN) - Two major American multinationals with globally-recognized brands have joint efforts to uplift working conditions in their supply chains, particularly at 10 contractor factories in southern China.
The pilot project sought to address known labor conditions that has been the subject of international criticisms on Walt Disney Company and McDonald's Corporation. These include low salaries, prolonged working hours and lack of days off.
The final report of Project Kaleidoscope was released and posted in the two companies' websites. It showed progress in various areas concerning labor conditions in 10 factories that manufactured footwear, toys and other items.
The six-year project involved not only Disney and McDonald's, but also seven investor groups known for the corporate social responsibility programs.
Adam Kanzer, managing director of Domini Social Investments, one of the seven firms involved in the project, said, quoted by the Los Angeles Times, "We encourage not just McDonald's and Disney but any company that picks up this report to this about this... Particularly companies in the starting blocks. There are companies just starting to monitor their supply chains. Why not learn from the success of others?"
Disney used to have a bad record of violating labor standards and even its own code of conduct since 1999 in 30 factories in China. Project Kaleidoscope gathered the workers and factory supervisors to come up with solutions to their labor-related problems, rather than wait for labor arbiters to fix the problem. The 10 factories with the project had its pilot run had workers ranging from 450 to 17,000.
The report did not indicate if Disney and McDonald's would use the same benchmarks in its other factories around the world.
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