One small protest

    The New York Times reported on August 29, 2007, that one young mother of four mounted her own protest against the Mattel Company's recent recalls of millions of toys manufactured in China.  The young mom loaded her backseat full of Mattel toys and camped out in the parking lot of the company's headquarters, demanding that executives send someone out to sort through her family's toys and identify those which are safe.  Ultimately the company did that and identified no unsafe toys.  You go, mom.

        In its article discussing this incident, the NYT interviewed company officials at length.  They noted that Mattel closed its last U.S. manufacturing plant in 2002.  It makes about 65 percent of its toys in China.  The remainder of Mattel's toys tend to come from Indonesia and Mexico, with Mexico contracted to build bulkier items that are more expensive to ship.  The lead paint fiasco actually originated with two of Mattel's most trusted manufacturing contractors:  one had supplied toys to Mattel for more than twenty years.  Recently both suppliers had sub-contracted some painting to third-tier suppliers.