Canadians support the right of working people to earn a decent wage and work in conditions that are safe, healthy and free from discrimination. Increasingly, if given the choice, they are backing their ethics up as consumers with real spending power. A 2003 Leger Marketing survey found that two-thirds of Canadians were prepared to avoid buying products from places known to violate the basic rights of their workers. The same survey found that 63 per cent of Canadians wanted to know more about the products they buy, presumably so they could shop according to their conscience.

Unfortunately, when it comes to toys, the range of choice for ethical shoppers is rather thin. In Canada, more than 60 per cent of all toys on the market are manufactured in factories located in Asia, often under sweatshop conditions and beyond the reach of any kind of independent inspection to ensure workers are not being abused. For example, in China, during the peak season in too many factories, workers are forced to stay on the job for 15 to 16 hours, seven days a week. Their wages range from 12 to 14 cents, or between $8 to $10 (US) for 72 hours of work. Workers are often abused and simply tossed aside if an accident or injury prevents them from keeping up with the pace of production.

Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, has witnessed these working conditions first-hand. “Imagine that just down the street there were 500 children working in a factory sewing baseballs or making toys, in the most abject, horrible conditions. You and I wouldn’t stand for it. But we somehow do tolerate it when it happens over there, when we can’t see it and pretend we don’t have to live with the results,” says Georgetti. In places where this happens, workers have never heard of, let alone seen, the so-called “codes of conduct” that many brand-name toy companies wave in front of concerned investors and consumers at home.

According to Georgetti, if the toy industry wants consumers to take them seriously,  then the ethical standards they claim to have must include the very basic, internationally-recognized workers’ rights established by the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO’s core work rights include freedom from abuse, freedom from discrimination, and freedom of association as well as the right to join a union and the right to bargain collectively.

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