Silicon Sweatshops is a five-part investigation of the supply chains that produce many of the world’s most popular technology products, from Apple iPhones, to Nokia cell phones, Dell keyboards and more. The series examines the scope of the problem, including its effects on workers from the Philippines, Taiwan and China. It also looks at a novel factory program that may be a blueprint for solving this perennial industry problem.
posted by Joe Beese
on Nov 19, 2009 -
9 comments
The 2005
Trafficking in Persons Report by the US State Department has been released. It reviews 150 countries.
The introduction provides a broad overview of the report with anecdotal stories, legislation imperatives, methodology, definitions, specific country reviews and suggested remedies. It is a commendable document and well worth perusing.
UN page. via
posted by peacay
on Jun 7, 2005 -
2 comments
Suburban sweatshops. Jorge Bonilla is hospitalized with pneumonia from sleeping at the restaurant where he works, unable to afford rent on wages of thirty cents an hour. Domestic worker Yanira Juarez discovers she has labored for six months with no wages at all; her employer lied about establishing a savings account for her.
In 1992, Fordham law professor
Jennifer Gordon founded the
Workplace Project to help immigrant workers in the underground suburban economy of Long Island, New York. She has written a
book ,"Suburban Sweatshops", to describe
the experiences of these immigrants. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Mar 15, 2005 -
14 comments
Commondreams.org story on a California court decision that Nike's PR blitz about its subcontractors' sweatshops violates a law against deliberate deception (via
Blogdex).
"Corporations are non-living, non-breathing, legal fictions. They feel no pain. They don't need clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, or healthy food to consume. They can live forever. They can't be put in prison. They can change their identity or appearance in a day, change their citizenship in an hour, rip off parts of themselves and create entirely new entities. Some have compared corporations with robots, in that they are human creations that can outlive individual humans, performing their assigned tasks forever."
Reminds me of this:
REESE
(slow, but intense)
Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.
posted by palancik
on Jan 4, 2003 -
33 comments
"For the last 8 years, young women at the Shah Makdhum factory in Bangladesh have been forced to work over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, denied maternity benefits, beaten and paid just 15 cents for every $17.99 Disney shirts they sewed."
"Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, pays himself $133 million a year, or about $63,000 and hour. It would take a worker in Bangladesh sewing Disney garments for 12 cents an hour 210 years to earn what Eisner does in an hour."
posted by headlemur
on Jun 20, 2002 -
55 comments
Alice in Monsterland. "Certainly it's more pleasant for a 7 year old boy or girl to learn to be
a boss in Denver, than spend 60 hours a week in a Peshawar sweatshop. The
problem is, one implies the other. The moral critique will never realize
the world is one."
posted by Paul Dunne
on Oct 23, 2001 -
6 comments
Vote for Sweatshop Retailer of the Year As the Retail Council of Canada is poised to present its annual Retailer of the Year Award to another of their favourite corporations, the Maquila Solidarity Network is ready to follow suit with our second annual "Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Awards." Categories include Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Award, Sweatshop Smokesceen Award and Sweatshop Transparency Award. Voting is open until June 17th.
posted by elgoose
on Jun 9, 2001 -
4 comments
