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Tag: labor rights

  • Foxconn Raises Age Limit For Hiring

    Foxconn Raises Age Limit For Hiring

    Ever since Foxconn became Apple’s main manufacturer of the iPhone, the Chinese company has become the focus of many human rights and worker’s rights organizations around the world. Through Apple, the company has become one of the most closely watched manufacturing operations in the world.

    Largely due to poor past inspections of its working conditions, Foxconn has raised worker pay and cut mandatory hours on multiple occasions. The company still battles employee rights issues, such as riots and the widely reported suicides at its sprawling, city-like manufacturing facilities.

    The most well-known and damning allegations against the company, however, involve the hiring of underage workers. In late 2012, the organization China Labor Watch released a report showing that a “small number” of 14 to 16 year olds interned at Foxconn during the summer. The company admitted to hiring these workers, though it claims this was a mistake, as many young Chinese workers are desperate enough for work to falsify their age.

    Now, Foxconn has raised the age requirements for hiring at its Zhengzhou manufacturing facility, where many past violations have been found. According to a DigiTimes report, the age requirements for recruitment have been raised from 18-40 to 23-40.

    The report cites two possible reasons for the shift in policy. One is that the move brings the company’s hiring in-line with local government labor policies. The other is that the shift could be part of Foxconn’s plan to move toward greater automation in its manufacturing.

    (via DigiTimes)

  • Cesar Chavez: Civil Rights Leader Celebrated Today

    Cesar Chavez, the famed civil rights and labor leader who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (now called United Farm Workers), is being honored this week all across the country. Schools and public offices in several states were closed today in recognition of Chavez and his activism for laborers everywhere.

    There is also an annual Cesar Chavez March For Justice in San Antonio, which takes place on Saturday and will, for the first time, begin on a street named after the activist.

    The name change caused quite a stir when the San Antonio Conservation Society sued the city over it, claiming it infringed on their mission to preserve certain historic elements of the city.

    Chavez’s son, Paul F. Chavez, will act as grand marshall in the march; he’s currently president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which provides affordable housing in the Southwest. When asked what his father’s legacy means to him, he replied, “That the lessons learned in the rural parts of the country apply to people of all walks of life. He went and rallied and got people to believe they were important, that the poorest among us could take on and beat the most powerful industry in California. My father’s work transcends the farm workers’ movement.”

    People are encouraged to celebrate his day by volunteering and learning about his work.

    (image)@HandsOnNetwork
    HandsOn Network    Tomorrow is Cesar Chavez Day, how are you #volunteering in his honor?(image) 3 hours ago via Spredfast ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@azdemparty
    AZ Dem Party    REMINDER: Tomorrow is Caucus Day! We will be collecting canned food in honor of Cesar Chavez Day. Find your site here: http://t.co/UwNryzjw(image) 2 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@mark_yudof
    Mark G. Yudof    http://t.co/2r8echOh Today we engage in service and learning in honor of Cesar E. Chavez, who incites hope within American communities.(image) 4 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Foxconn Hid Underage Workers, Improved Conditions To Pull Wool On FLA Inspectors [REPORT]

    You remember those audits of Foxconn facilities that took place last week? According to one labor rights activist, we should really take the initial reviews with a grain of salt.

    Of course, many were already skeptical of any report that labeled working conditions inside a Foxconn factory as “satisfactory” after all of the stuff we’ve heard about them in the past few months. But Student’s & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM)’s Debby Sze Wan Chan, Foxconn deliberately manipulated factory practices in order to sway the inspections.

    She told Apple Insider that Foxconn workers told her that “All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments.” Another worker went on to say that around the time of the audit, she was allowed three breaks a day – triple her usual one per day.

    Sixteen to Seventeen-year-old workers aren’t illegal, according to Apple’s policies, but there are strict guidelines about overtime and breaks.

    On February 13th, Apple release a statement outlining their partnership with the Fair Labor Association. They said that they would be conducting special audits of final assembly suppliers – including Foxconn plants in Chengdu and Shenzhen. The FLA team set out to interview workers, inspect conditions on the floor & the dormitories, and review procedural documents.

    A couple of days later, FLA president Auret van Heerden shocked some when he said that the initial review of the Foxconn plant proved the facilities to be “first class.” He went on to say that “physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.” But he did also recognize that Foxconn might put on a show for the inspectors. According to SACOM, that was definitely the case.

    Chan talked about the typical day of a Foxconn worker:

    The workers always tell us they resemble machines. Their regular day at Foxconn is waking up, queuing up for baths and work, work and go back to the dormitory and sleep. They do not have a social life and they are doing the same monotonous task in the factory for thousands of times a day. If they are not efficient enough or they make some mistakes, they will be yelled at by their supervisor or punished.

    Late last week we reported that Foxconn had raised worker wages anywhere from 16% to 25%. This means that a junior level worker is making around $290 a month – definitely not what most people would call a living wage. Chan told Apple Insider that this was not even close to enough:

    “In Zhengzhou, the basic salary of new workers is CNY 1350 ($214),” Chan said. “And there is a deduction of CNY 150 ($24) for the dorm. If a worker eats inside the factory, there is another CNY 200-300 ($32-48) to pay. It is far from the living wage standard. Without overtime premiums, a worker can hardly support his/herself.”