Labour

Biting the rotten Apple: Taking on Foxconn
Jenny Chan talks about her campaigning with workers in China

Electronics: There is still a long way – Interview with Jenny Chan on employment law training at HP’s suppliers in China.

This chapter argues that participatory training in labour rights is a complementary strategy in relation to supplier auditing in advancing CSR.

In 2010 a startling 18 young migrant workers attempted suicide at Foxconn Technology Group production facilities in China.

Makers of the miracle
New Internationalist looks behind the impressive economic statistics to find the human story – the sweat and the struggle underlying China’s impressive growth record. This is a tale of vast proportions – the largest migration in human history, the ruthless exploitation of the vulnerable, and the awakening of hundreds of thousands to their power and their rights. Analysis mixes with history and the voices of the workers to paint a picture of what is at stake both for China and the world.

(30-second short video statement) http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/foxconn/

At least 18 workers committed suicide at Foxconn in 2010. They were internal migrants from the countryside in the 17 to 25 age group.

In the 21st century China, India, Mexico and other countries, Foxconn workers have “nothing to lose but their chains” (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848, The Communist Manifesto).

Abstract

A startling 13 young workers attempted or committed suicide at the two Foxconn production facilities in southern China between January and May 2010. We can interpret their acts as protest against a global labor regime that is widely practiced in China. Their defiant deaths demand that society reflect upon the costs of a state-promoted development model that sacrifices dignity for corporate profit in the name of economic growth.

On May 28th, under mounting pressure from labor rights group and concerned scholars around the world, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Board of Directors expressed that they were saddened about the loss of life at Foxconn. The 8-member EICC Board, consisting of representatives from IBM, Dell, Jabil, STMicroelectronics, Cisco, Intel, Flextronics, and HP, has established a task force to study factors affecting employee health and welfare in their own facilities as well as in their suppliers in the global supply chains.

USAS – United Students Against Sweatshops

Stand with Chinese workers making Apple iPhones

(created on 14 June 2010; ACTIVE – in English)

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/apple_suicides/

On this day, June 8th, we wish the whole world to remember the Foxconn suicides, and we extend our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and friends. We feel very saddened that public comments from Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, CEO of the 800,000-strong Foxconn “electronics kingdom”, show a tendency to dismiss the suicides of his young employees without considering the contribution of the high-pressure work environment to this phenomenon.