News
Press conference round table 'Fair Electronics'
09 May 2012
AMSTERDAM - Philips, HP, Sony, other big electronic brands and telecom providers are meeting in Amsterdam this week with labour organisations and CSOs for a round table on working conditions in the electronics sector. Well known participating CSOs are the Fair Labor Association, the International Metalworkers Federation, SACOM and the Dutch Initiative on Fair Trade. GoodElectronics and makeITfair are organising this unique round table with more than 50 participating organisations. Together they will be discussing several aspects of labour conditions in the electronics sector, like temporary agency work, living wages and the freedom of association.
Labour issues in the Thai electronics industry
04 April 2012
Electronics manufacturers are seeking ways “to diversify risk by investing or relocating to other countries”, warned Gritsada Suptuaychone, secretary of the Electrical, Electronics and Allied Industries club under the Federation of Thai Industries in November 2011. His statement did not come as a surprise. In the previous month, flooding had forced the closure of seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Pathum Tani, causing billions of dollars of damage, disrupting supply chains and putting hundreds of thousands of people temporarily out of work. In December 2011, the first companies announced their permanent closure and plans to move to Cambodia, Vietnam or Indonesia.
Investigation into Apple supplier Foxconn confirms abusive labour conditions
03 April 2012
The FLA report ‘Independent investigation of Apple’s supplier Foxconn’ confirms abusive labour conditions as have been reported over the past years by local and international labour groups. GoodElectronics and makeITfair welcome the FLA efforts but also point out serious flaws in the root cause analysis and the proposed solutions. Since Apple joined FLA in January 2012, makeITfair and GoodElectronics have issued a number of statements commenting upon the new developments.
Apple Concedes Problems in Supply Chain. FLA Report Omits Work Stress and Forced Internship
30 March 2012
January 2012, Apple joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and subsequently opened its suppliers to for factory inspections. After a month-long investigation at Foxconn in Shenzhen and Chengdu, FLA released a report on Thursday in which several pressing issues at Foxconn are pointed out, including, working hours, health and safety, industrial relations, compensation and interns. In a public statement, SACOM comments upon the investigative report. "Foxconn is notorious for its harsh management methods, which is one of the factors triggered the spate of suicides in the company in 2010. Yet the problem of hash management and work pressure has been tactfully omitted in the report. And the gross violation of forced internship has not addressed at all."
Give Apple workers a voice in their future
23 March 2012
In a joint statement issued, dated March 22, unions and NGOs called on Apple to rely on workers themselves to monitor the labour conditions in the manufacture of its products, not a top-down auditing approach. "Give Apple workers a voice in their future", the joint statement from International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Good Electronics, MakeITFair and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) was released in anticipation of the likely publishing of results next week by the Fair Labour Association (FLA) of the audit it is conducting in one of Apple's final assembly suppliers, Foxconn.
