Fair For All

The second-ever post on this blog was about Apple and Foxconn. I haven’t come back to them since, mainly because I figured that the story had been picked up by the mainstream media and an investigation was commenced. Then I came across this:

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations (George Orwell – via @FredrikGertten)

The so-called investigation into Foxconn which took place in 2012 has made me despair of the media who uncritically reported that lots of progress has been made. Anyone with a high school diploma who read the entire report could see that the main issues are not resolved at all, and wage levels are not even mentioned.

In response I have put together my own White Paper, highlighting the shortcomings of Apple and Foxconn’s remediation point by point, which you can download here:

• White Paper on Apple and Foxconn (PDF: 1.7MB)

I spoke with SACOM before publishing this. There is no democratic union at Foxconn so, as the people in touch with the workers, SACOM are probably the next best thing. They say the workers’ priorities are:

1. A better system for scaling of production during peak times, and
2. Worker input into selection of union reps.

As you’ll see in the Paper, neither of these issues have been addressed at all.

See also:

• Polishing Apple: Fair Labor Association gives Apple undue credit for labor rights progress (Economic Policy Institute) 8 November 2012
• New iPhone, Old Abuses: Have working conditions at Foxconn in China improved? (SACOM) 20 September 2012