iSlaves: Forced Labor Key to Apple Profits

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2012/02/09/islaves-forced-labor-key-to-apple-profits/

by Tula Connell, Feb 9, 2012

More horrors out now from the Chinese serf-labor system involved in creating Apple products like iPads and iPhones. It turns out many of the workers churning out millions of the devices in unendurable conditions at Foxconn and other factories are also forced laborers as young as 16.

The Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) says, “Legions of vocational and university students, some as young as 16, are forced to take months-long “internships” in Foxconn’s mainland China factories assembling Apple products,” according to Alternet. One study found in some Foxconn factories, which employ 1.3 million people in China, up to 50 percent of the workforce were students.

SACOM and others report that schools teaching journalism, hotel management and nursing threatened students with failure if they did not take a factory position. The Chinese government-owned Global Times noted that “automotive majors at a vocational school in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, were also forced to serve as interns for Foxconn before they were given their diplomas.

Apple’s formula for mammoth profits, which topped $13 billion last quarter, depends upon a steady supply of forced laborers who are put through a torturous training to accustom them to the factory working conditions.

FULL story at link.

[FredisDead]

1. Mike Daisey visits Foxconn factory

Mike Daisey on Real Time with Bill Maher
http://www.sockshare.com/file/99B9262D3A2E1B50


Apple Faces Outcry over Labor Practices at Chinese Factories