Thailand
Barbie Sweatshops
Barbies are a worldwide phenomenon that are extremely popular with children of all ages. Every second, there are two barbies sold somewhere over the world. Mattel, the company selling barbies, make millions of dollars each year. They made over $225.3 million dollars in just a three month period.This is a perfect example of a company that cares so much about their profits, that they do not mind placing their workers in dangerous factory conditions. Most of the people working in the barbie sweatshops in Bangkok Thailand are females, including small children. The 4,500 employees are required to work twelve hours a day, and they make no more than $26 dollars a month. The farming land throughout the country is being sold as more people begin to move into the cities. Working in a factory seemed like a good job and everyone wanted to get a part in it, but this was before they knew the dangers of the factory itself and how it would permanently ruin their health.
Most of the females working in the factory came from extreme poverty, having to choose between a life of sexual and abusive slavery or going to work for the factories. The Barbie factory seemed like a far better option because it would provide them with a steady income to support their families. Some of these girls are as young as eleven or twelve, and most do not have an education higher than a 5th grade level. Some of these young girls are also working long and late hours going into the night. A few girls take a forty minute bike ride to and from work everyday, often times having to ride home in the late night hours. The women had no rights, as they are forced to work long hard hours, with no vacations or sick days. Over three quarters of the worker had respiratory infections that came from inhaling so much dust. Some also suffered from lead poisoning from working with lead and other chemicals. Many of the workers blood was contaminated with lead from the paints and chemicals from the fabrics that are used to make the Barbie clothes. These types of poisons can lead to lung cancer, leukemia, and liver cancer. They are allowed to wear masks, but they have to pay for them, and it was just not a smart investment with the very small salary they earn. They have to choose between not working and not providing for their families, or going to work and getting sick from all the chemicals. If workers get sick, they are thrown out of the factories. At the age of twenty, a young girl named Sunanta has witnessed four of her friends dying from not being able to afford healthcare. She herself suffers from memory loss, hair loss, and difficulties breathing; she will not live much longer.
During the past few decades, fires and industrial accidents have injured and killed thousands of workers in China and Thailand Barbie factories. These accidents are a result of the unsafe working conditions within the factories. The story of a fire in a China Mattel factory describes how thousands of people were killed because there were no sprinkler systems, fire alarms, fire escapes or hoses, and there was heavy mesh covering all the windows that was initially placed there to keep workers from escaping before completing their daily quotas. The number of people killed in that accident could have been significantly smaller if it weren't for all those unsafe conditions.
Third world production makes high profits for companies such as Mattel because of low wages, easy labor, low environment standards, and tax exemptions. The prime minister of Thailand will not doing anything about factory regulations even after hearing about all the dangers. They are concerned that if the workers were to complain to the corporations, they would just move their factories to another country that is just as poor. This would result in several issues for Thailand such as a huge rise in unemployment. The lack of government regulations is what keeps the Mattel factory in Thailand. The GDP has also risen because of the factories, and Thailand does not want that money going to another country. In order to prevent the poverty level from falling to where it used to be, the government has no choice but to allow the Mattel company to continue ruining the health of thousands of factory workers.
