{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/with-holidays-approaching-brown-holds-hearing-to-examine-working-conditions-in-chinese-toy-industry", "With Holidays Approaching, Brown Holds Hearing to Examine Working Conditions in Chinese Toy Industry", "2014-12-11", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "OH", "Sherrod Brown", "B000944", "www.brown.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Brown \u2013 Chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China \u2013 to Examine Efforts to Improve Working Conditions at Factories in China, Where Most Toys Sold in the U.S. Are Manufactured\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tThursday, December 11, 2014\n            \n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 With the Holidays approaching, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC), held a hearing today to examine working conditions at toy factories in China. The vast majority of toys bought and sold in the United States are made in China.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this story repeated over and over again \u2013 American companies moving production to China to take advantage of cheap labor and poor labor enforcement and then reselling these goods back to the U.S.,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSomething must be done. We need to be able to tell our children that the person who made theirs toys\u2014perhaps the mother of another child\u2014worked in a good place where she made a decent living.\u201d\r\nLast month, the labor rights NGO, China Labor Watch, issued a report alleging poor working conditions at four Chinese factories that manufacture toys for several major toy companies and retailers, including Mattel, Fisher-Price, Disney, Hasbro, and Crayola. The hearing examined these allegations, what the toy industry is doing to audit factories in China and address reports of poor working conditions, and the effectiveness of private-sector auditing and business codes of conduct in China.\r\nThe witnesses included:\r\n \r\nLi Qiang, Executive Director and Founder, China Labor Watch\r\n \r\n \r\nWilliam S. Reese, President and CEO, International Youth Foundation, Member of the ICTI CARE Foundation Governance Board\r\n \r\n \r\nEarl Brown, Labor and Employment Law Counsel and China Program Director, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO\r\n \r\n \r\nBrian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs, International Labor Rights Forum\r\n \r\nBrown\u2019s statement, as prepared for delivery, is below.\r\nToday is the last hearing for this Congress. It has been an honor to chair this Commission with my counterpart Congressman Chris Smith, over these last three and a half years. I want to thank our other Commissioners for their participation and support. Finally, the great work of this Commission would not have been possible without our incredible staff.\r\nIt is fitting that we end this year on an issue that hits so close to home this holiday season.\r\nAs parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, we care deeply about the toys we buy our children.\r\nWe care about their safety. And we should care about who makes these toys.\r\nIt used to be the case that toys were made in America, in proud towns across this country.\r\nTowns like Bryan, Ohio, where for 40 years, workers at the Ohio Art Company made Etch A Sketch, a toy many of us played with as kids.\r\nIn Bryan, the company was a family. Etch A Sketch was the town mascot.\r\nBut then Walmart told the company that in order keep its business they would need to sell the product for less than $10. And so what did Ohio Art do? In 2001, they moved production of Etch A Sketch to Shenzhen, China. A hundred people lost their jobs. A community lost its pride.\r\nToday, some 75 percent of our toys come from China.\r\nThey will be made by factory workers like the ones investigated in China Labor Watch\u2019s most recent report.\r\nSome of them are temp workers or students, making as little as $1.23 an hour and working more than 100 hours of overtime a month, in blatant violation of China\u2019s overtime laws.\r\nThey live in crowded dorms, as many as 18 people to a room. They stand for long hours at work. Emergency exit doors are locked.\r\nAt the base monthly wage they are making, it would take nearly two months for one of these workers to afford the Thomas the Train mountain set that sells for $400 and is made in China.\r\nWe\u2019ve seen this story repeated over and over again \u2013 American companies moving production to China to take advantage of cheap labor and poor labor enforcement and then resell these goods back to the United States. This business model is unprecedented in human history.\r\nSeven years ago I co-sponsored legislation to expand the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit the importation of goods made with sweatshop labor. But private industry said it didn\u2019t need a law, that members could deal with the problem on their own through codes of conduct, certifications, and audits. But seven years later, the problem hasn\u2019t gone away.\r\nWhat I want to know today is, are corporate codes and self-policing sufficient, or do we need a new approach?\r\nDoes the toy industry in China need something like the legally-binding Bangladesh Accord, which I urged companies like Walmart and Target to join last year, or an anti-sweatshop law like the one I helped introduce seven years ago?\r\nSomething must be done. We need to be able to tell our children that the person who made theirs toys\u2014perhaps the\u00a0 mother or father of another child\u2014worked in a good place where she made a decent living.\r\nWe can\u2019t say that now.\r\nI look forward to hearing from our witnesses and turn it over to my co-chair Congressman Smith for his statement.\r\n\u00a0\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPress Contact\n\t\t\t\t\tContact: Meghan Dubyak/Lauren Kulik\r\n(202) 224-3978", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/with-holidays-approaching-brown-holds-hearing-to-examine-working-conditions-in-chinese-toy-industry"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8608730752021074, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}