Labor activists protest at the headquarters of Apple supplier Foxconn in Hong Kong
As Apple releases the new iPhone 4G, Chinese activists are mourning the deaths of 11 workers who made Apple iPhones and iPods, and are taking to the streets to demand Apple stop the conditions at its supplier factory that led to the deaths: the extreme long hours, poverty wages, humiliation by managers and denial of independent union representation. Apple CEO Steve Jobs refuses to take responsibility, saying last week, “for a factory, it’s pretty nice”. Take action and forward this message!
Take action with Chinese workers and activists: Tell Apple CEO Steve Jobs to stop sweatshop conditions at Apple supplier factories!
Earlier this week, USAS sent a letter to Steve Jobs. In the letter, USAS urged Apple to “address the problems in Shenzhen by ensuring payment of living wages, legal working hours, and democratic union elections in Foxconn supplier factories. ”
Our allies in Hong Kong, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), have staged a number of actions at Foxconn’s Hong Kong headquarters and are demanding a meeting with representatives from Foxconn and Apple to reevaluate their sourcing practices and to hold legal and democratic union elections.
Check out their protest on Youtube:
SACOM Protest outside Foxconn headquarters in Hong Kong
Solidarity Protest by Foxconn workers in Guadalajara, Mexico
Protest in Hong Kong in front of Foxconn headquarters
Protest in New York in front of Apple store
Protest in San Francisco in front of Apple store
Details on the campaign for worker rights in Apple’s supply chain
At Foxconn, a major manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone, iMac, iPad and iPod touch, a disturbing wave of suicides recently caught the media’s attention. But Apple has been on notice for 5 years as the target of a campaign by USAS’ Hong Kong partner Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM). Despite persistent attempts by SACOM to get Apple to stop the abuses at Foxconn, Apple CEO Steve Jobs outrightly denied the problem until just days ago. As recently as June 2, Jobs denied the factory was a sweatshop and dismissed the suicides as insignificant.
Since January, 13 young workers at Apple’s supplier factory in Shenzhen, China have committed suicide, and just a few days ago, a young worker died from exhaustion. The cause? Working as long as 36 hours nonstop without overtime pay, earning poverty wages, facing humiliation by company managers and being denied independent union representation.
While the economic crisis has pushed hundreds of electronics suppliers out of business, Apple has enjoyed record profits on the backs of its young Chinese workers. Under the direct pressure of Apple and other buyers, its supplier Foxconn has not been paying production line workers at its Shenzhen plant enough to even meet basic needs, compelling workers to labor up to 100 hours of overtime a month, close to three times the maximum 36 hours permitted by Chinese labor law. Furthermore, Foxconn, responding to heavy public scrutiny, recently manipulated consumers to believe that it raised the wages of its workers out of its own benevolence, although it was actually in light of an anticipated raise in the government’s minimum wage.
This week, Apple released its newest edition of the iPhone, selling for $200 a piece, but this price doesn’t include the short lives of those lost who were being paid pennies per phone.
We call on Apple to mandate that Foxconn to raise the unit price of their orders to reflect the true cost of labor, to hold democratic union elections, and to halt production for the month of June so that Apple and Foxconn review the company’s management method that has resulted in such tragedies.
In order to demonstrate to Apple and Foxconn that students, one of its target markets, will not stand for sweatshop abuse, United Students Against Sweatshops is asking all its supporters to send a message to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
address the problems in Shenzhen by ensuring payment of living wages, legal working hours, and democratic union elections in Foxconn supplier factories.
