The GoodElectronics Network convened its 2025 Annual Meeting to underscore achievements in due diligence advocacy, strengthen solidarity, and advance collective strategies across electronics supply chains. Gathering 50 representatives from trade unions, grassroots organizations, research institutions and campaigning partners, the 2-day meeting combined plenary discussion, parallel sessions, and member consultations to identify most urgent labor and environmental issues across the life cycle of electronic products.
Key themes and findings
- Geopolitical supply shifts (the “chip war”) — Reshoring trends are intensifying production pressures and creating new hotspots for precarious work; these deepen the race-to-the-bottom on wages, working conditions and environmental safeguards.
- Freedom of Association — Assembly and ATP (assembly, testing, packaging) sectors remain highly precarious, with low union density, forced overtime and poverty wages despite nominal wage growth in some regions. Young women make up a large share of the workforce and face gender-specific vulnerabilities.
- Gender and violence at work — Ratification and implementation gaps for ILO C190 were highlighted: legal adoption is only the first step; effective implementation, workplace protocols, and training remain uneven for women workers and members of the LGBTQI+ community.
- Environmental and chemical harms — Case studies on mining (nickel) and HPAL processing exposed water contamination, community health risks and alarming trends toward deep-sea and expanded extraction tied to battery supply chains. Chemical hazards and the right-to-know remain central organizing points.
- Technology, complicity and the future of work — Major tech firms and global supply chain monopoly underscores the need for stronger worker protections, solidarity, accountability mechanisms, and democratic oversight in the electronics industry.
Outcomes and next steps
Members validated a set of action points, committed to coordinated campaigning on due diligence, freedom of association, chemical transparency, mining accountability and gendered protections in supply chains. Additionally, members also agreed on network priorities for 2026–2027. The GE Network will produce targeted policy briefs, and deepen regional coordination to strengthen membership and solidarity.
The 2025 GoodElectronics Network Public Forum and Members’ Meeting, as well as the 2025 Annual Report, captured collective analysis, practical tools, and advocacy roadmap to power a just future for workers and communities.
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