News

iPod Factory Forms Labor Union

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 9:05 AM - by

Foxconn's Longhua iPod factory that was the focus of working condition complaints has officially formed a government sanctioned labor union. The factory formed the union on December 31, according to Forbes.

The labor union was formed in response to an order from China's government after reports surfaced claiming that plant employees were subjected to sub-standard working conditions. The reports spurred Apple into conducting its own plant investigation that revealed some employees were working in violation of overtime rules, but that they were otherwise treated well.

Foxconn management ultimately agreed to improve factory working conditions and to cooperate with China's government in forming the labor union for employees.

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1917 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:52 am

So this will be the lead story on those other news outlets that ran the screaming headline "Apple Sweatshop" stories, right?

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jpfreeman said:

member since 12 Jan 2005 with 48 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:01 pm

I don't understand: the Chinese government and the company got together and formed a labor union *for* employees? It is a company union or is it a real union?

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:27 pm

There are no real unions in China, sadly. Neither the government nor the company should be forming a union for the employees, it's a complete perversion of the idea of union, but that's the way it is for the time being. Tame cat union is marginally better than no union and exploitation I suppose. I'm sure that the slowly increasing living standards and confidence of Chinese workers will see the emergence of genuinely free trade unions in time.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:45 am

This is the only way to create union over there. China is not exactly free country. Creating independent organization is punishable, w/ death in some cases.

And yes, this is perversion. The "new rules" will be "approved" by the union and all complaint will be silenced, even if they are worse than the old ones.

Why? The Chinese leadership is corrupted on all levels.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:07 pm

I've seen information similar to the last two Guests' posts many times. It seems that China uses unions primarily to address complaints from western customers (probably more from Europe than the US). The union MAY do some good, but it's certainly not like unions in western countries.

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