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by William Bowles

The toy company, Mattel has had to recall 18 million of its products (2 million of them in the UK), all manufactured in China, for various health and safety safety reasons including high levels of lead in the paint and magnets that come off. Coincidentally, the New York Times ran a puff piece on Mattel, 'Toymaking in China, Mattel’s Way' on 26 Jul 2007[1]. In it they informed (the largely uninformed) reader that,

‘[I]ndependent analysts, and even watchdog groups, say Mattel may be the best role model for how to operate prudently in China... Mattel, and many of the outside analysts, say the key is command and control…’

‘Command and control’ eh. Bad timing by the NYT but then the ‘paper of record’ is not well known for getting its facts straight or, apparently, on time.

And not unconnected, earlier this year the International Center for Corporate Accountability (ICCA) issued a report praising Mattel for its plants in China. It said in part,

“Mattel is the first and only global consumer products company to apply a required standards system to both its own manufacturing facilities and those of its major vendors, and to independently monitor and publicly disclose the results. It is our desire that more companies adopt and uphold such standards in their manufacturing facilities worldwide, as it is an extremely important initiative that can benefit workers everywhere.”[2]

A report that has come back to haunt Mattel and the NYT (See Note 2 below upon which much of the NYT piece is obviously based.)

Mattel Inc. Revenue

$5.179 billion USD (2005)

Operating income

$664.529 million USD (2005)

Net income

$417.019 million USD (2005)

Employees

26,000 (2005)

Mattel is the biggest toy company on the planet with the Barbie doll making up 80% of its profits. Mattel also owns Fisher-Price and a number of other toy ‘manufacturers’.[3] There’s a terrible irony involved here that needs to be explained and one which goes to the very heart of how capitalism maintains itself at the expense of all workers regardless of where they are.

The move to cheap labour markets goes back to the 1970s when corporations, in order to maintain their level of profits started to move production to wherever the costs were the lowest starting with the tax-free havens in Mexico (maquiladoras) and elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean (eg Haiti). Not only did they export production, they also exported the toxic by-products of the production.[4]

These so-called special economic zones were set-up in countries where labour and environmental laws were all but non-existent, employing what often amounts to indentured as well as non-unionised, female labour. Often locked into the plants, working long hours in hazardous conditions and paid wages a tiny fraction of those paid in the developed world.[5]

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