MCD ,,, Vietnamese Happy Meal Toy Strike Over
Thursday May 12, 10:48 pm ET
By Margie Mason, Associated Press Writer
Agreement Reached After Vietnamese Workers Strike at Plant That Makes McDonald's Toys
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Nearly 10,000 Vietnamese workers who make toys for McDonald's Happy Meals staged a two-day strike at a Danang factory this week to protest labor practices.
A settlement was reached Thursday and most of the employees at Keyhinge Toys Vietnam Co. Ltd., based in Hong Kong, returned to work Friday morning, officials said.
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The strike involved about 9,300 laborers who walked off the job Wednesday and gathered outside the factory's office, said Phan Viet Thong, chairman of the Danang City Federation of Labor.
The workers alleged ill treatment, which included being routinely humiliated and cursed by supervisors. The workers also accused factory bosses of blocking their complaints from company leaders, said a man who gave his name only as Dong from the Danang City Industrial Zone Management Board.
The company has agreed to give the workers a 10 percent raise, limit work hours to 10 hours daily, with overtime, and give them Sunday off, Thong said.
In a statement Thursday, Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. said the company "takes these issues very seriously. We have a strict code of conduct for suppliers based on our belief that employees deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."'
McDonald's spokeswoman Anna Rozenich would not comment on specific worker allegations but said, "All the issues have been resolved, whatever they are." She said the Danang facility produces only a portion of McDonald's Happy Meal toys.
The strike was widely reported in state-controlled Vietnamese media where workers alleged they were forced to work 12-hour days with no overtime. They also complained in newspapers that their wages were reduced if they visited the restroom more than twice a day, that they were given only 45 minutes for lunch and that their pay was cut if they spent more than two hours in a clinic for illnesses.
"In the company, there is no water for workers to drink," a worker who gave her name only as Dang Thi Nhan T., was quoted as telling the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper. "Let alone water to wash after the shift ends. Many workers have fainted during working hours."
In a statement from Keyhinge Toys, owner Y.P. Cheng said the dispute had been resolved. It did not address the workers' allegations.
The workers -- mostly young women -- got an increase from 2,500 dong (16 cents) an hour to 2,750 (17.5 cents) an hour, Thong said. The company also agreed to issue more bathroom passes and toilets and to mandate that supervisors improve the overall factory climate, he said.
The strike wasn't the first labor dispute involving the toy company, the largest employer in Danang -- once the site of a large U.S. military base and a popular holiday spot for American soldiers during the Vietnam War.
In 1998, Keyhinge Toys was accused of paying workers less than the government-mandated minimum wage and failing to set up a labor union despite multiple requests from the Danang City Federation of Labor.
At the time, McDonald's said there had been inspections at the plant, which opened in 1996, and that an audit by SGS Switzerland found the factory met Vietnamese safety regulations.
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