Disney, the kind and gentle giant?

When thinking of Disney, most Americans would probably conjure up a host of friendly images; a corporate image that Disney has actively been promoting for many decades. However the Disney Corporation is far from being the friendly benevolent organization we would think.
Whilst doing research on sweatshops, I came across an article on Niagra Textiles Ltd in Bangladesh. Niagra Textiles produces garments for the Disney corporation. At Niagra workers are expected to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week with at most, a single day off per month. They are paid as little as 11 cent (US) per hour and are often physically assaulted when not working fast enough.

( The article at http://www.nlcnet.org/campaigns/niagra/niagra-bangladesh.pdf goes into more detail as to the plight of the workers at Niagra.)

The most distressing part of the article is that the workers are not asking for consumers to boycott Disney. They desperately need their jobs as they have no real alternatives fro employment. Rather the workers want companies like Disney to put pressure on their employer to improve their working conditions.

Whilst reading the article I was wondering what the underlying ethics were of a company that promotes a family friendly image yet behind the scenes be part of what can be described as a violation of basic human rights. And while the workers ask us not to boycott Disney, is it ethical on my part to buy a baby blanket from a Disney store knowing that it was possibly made by a woman that was denied maternity leave?

Clearly the workers are not even afforded basic liberties. While we do need to consider the right of Disney to be able to be as economically successful as it can, it should not be done by exploiting their workers. Basic human rights and need to be observed and shouldn’t be trampled upon to achieve economic goals.