So THATS the story ...

[the_future_modernes]

Apple's Chinese workers treated 'inhumanely, like machines'

An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.

The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an "anti-suicide" pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.


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Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs – the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – are claims that:

■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

■ Crowded workers' dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a "confession letter" after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: "It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again."MORE

March 3 2011Silicon Sweatshops: Apple supply chain workers in Asia fall ill again

Jia Jingchuan, a 27-year-old, is one of the 137 workers who fell ill at the Suzhou-based factory nearly two years ago after exposure to the chemical n-hexane, which the factory deployed on the line, without permission or protective gear, to produce touch screens for Apple products. Unlike most of the other sickened workers, Jia hasn’t left his job, staying on the factory line in the hope that his employer will pay for his recurring medical problems.MORE

2010 Foxconn: Why higher pay [alone] won't work


2010 Foxconn faces fresh suicide fears as 14th worker dies
 
2010Silicon Sweatshops: The China Connection



... behind THIS Apple's profits dwarf Microsoft

Apple's Profits Up 90%


It isn't just Apple, though:

2010 Silicon sweatshops:Foxconn still under fire


Special report: Silicon Sweatshops: Despite strict 'codes of conduct,' labor rights violations are the norm at factories making the world's favorite high-tech gadgets.

Silicon Sweatshops: Shattered dreams Migrant workers making gadgets at Taiwan's high-tech parks sign deals that make them modern-day indentured servants.


Silicon Sweatshops: Disposable workers



Luckily for them, the US has just killed bin Laden, and our press corp are notorious for being completely unable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Comments

[nagasvoice]

I kind of suspected this might be the case, same as clothing sweatshops, only more dangerous in the chemicals used. The companies knew things like n-hexane were a problem when they did it, too.