APPLE iPhone 3G S ... what about workers behind it?

 

 

 

Industry news suggests that APPLE chose the WINTEK GROUP to supply components for its next netbook product in 2010. If true, Apple and Wintek will no doubt profit nicely from the collaboration. Despite the promise of new business, however, Wintek is ruthlessly cutting costs even where it is against the law. Laying off more than 600 employees in Taiwan in December 2008, Wintek then shifted attention in April 2009 to suppress a strike by workers in mainland China at its subsidiary, Dongguan Masstop, where 7000 workers went on strike for the simple right to hygienic food and respect for Chinese laws on overtime. Wintek supplies brands including APPLE, MOTOROLA, NOKIA, SAMSUNG, LENOVO and HUAWEI, all of whom tell the public that they enforce supplier codes of conduct. Yet protests in China suggest that behind the scenes, Wintek’s customers turn a blind eye to conditions on the shop floor.

 

 

APPLE, MOTOROLA, NOKIA, SAMSUNG, LENOVO and HUAWEI—members of the industry association Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) or Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI)—respond promptly to problems with the quality of Wintek products. But when the problem is with the rights of Wintek workers, the response is silence. According to workers, brands sometimes conduct on-site audits. But if audits were conducted at all during the past 6 months, they did not respond to Dongguan Masstop’s unlawful practices.

 

It is simple to draw the conclusion that despite telling the public that they enforce codes of conduct, these brands were either ignorant of or willfully ignored the problems at Wintek. Their codes of conduct utterly fail to protect workers’ rights.

 

 

 

Jenny Chan

Chief Coordinator

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), Hong Kong/China,

Email: wlchan@sacom.hk

Telephone: +(852) 9859 7680 / +(86) 131 4391 7906

 

Weili Chu

Secretary General

National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NAFITU), Taiwan,

Email: wei-li-1210@yahoo.com.tw

Telephone: +(886) 981 238 732

 

Asia Monitor Resource Center

Globalization Monitor

Labor Action China

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM)

 

National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NAFITU)

Wintek Bargaining Team

Taiwan Labor Information and Education Association

Youth Labor Union 95

Confederation of Trade Unions (Taipei City, Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County, Tainan County, Kaohsiung County)