Tech coalition launches sweatshop probe

A tech industry watchdog plans to investigate conditions at a Chinese hardware factory that supplies IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard, following a damning report on conditions there by a human-rights organization.

The National Labor Committee report, "High Tech Misery in China," said these tech giants use Meitai Plastic and Electronics, a keyboard supplier that operates a factory that "dehumanizes young workers."

In response, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a self-regulating body set up by tech companies, will carry out a third-party audit into the working conditions at the factory, IBM told ZDNet UK on Friday.

"Through the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, of which IBM is a founding member, a joint-audit is being conducted to assemble the facts and address this issue with the supplier or suppliers involved," an IBM representative said in an e-mailed statement. Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, and HP are also members of the coalition.

The report by the National Labor Committee, a human-rights group based in Pittsburgh, covers the work environment in the Meitai Plastic and Electronics factory in Dongguan City, Guangdong, China. According to the report, released this month, workers sit on hard wooden stools for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Overtime is mandatory, with workers being given on average two days off per month.

Cover of the National Labor Committee report

(Credit: National Labor Committee)

The report also said that while workers are on the production line, they are not allowed to raise their hands or their heads, and they are given 1.1 seconds to snap each key into place. Workers are prohibited from talking or listening to music and are encouraged "actively monitor each other" to see if any of the multiple company rules are being transgressed. They are also monitored by guards, according to the report.

It also found that workers are fined if they break the rules, that they are locked in the factory for four days per week, and that they sleep in crowded dormitories. The workers' gross wage is 64 cents per hour, which the report claims "does not even come close to meeting subsistence level needs," while their take-home pay is 41 cents per hour.

Report co-author Charles Kernaghan, who is co-director of the National Labor Committee, questioned whether the EICC probe would be effective.

"It's excellent (that there will be an investigation). But the fact that they've announced the date, of February the 23 and 24, guarantees the investigation will be compromised," Kernaghan told ZDNet UK on Friday. "It gives the factory time to threaten the workers, who will be coerced and terrified."

Kernaghan called on Lenovo to put pressure on the Chinese government to improve working conditions. "Lenovo is very important," he said. "As a Chinese company, they have the power and the right to approach the Chinese government and demand that labor laws be enforced."

Lenovo told ZDNet UK that it is involved in the investigation as a member of EICC, but that it does not purchase supplies directly from the Meitai facility.

"Lenovo makes every effort possible to investigate and ensure that our suppliers adhere to and comply with accepted international manufacturing standards and labor practices and takes these matters very seriously," it said in a statement.

In addition, Lenovo said it will call on its intermediate supplier to investigate the facility to verify the findings of the report and "help identify corrective actions." HP said that it will wait until the results of the EICC audit until taking action.

"The factory named in the report is not one of HP's direct suppliers, but is a supplier to two of our suppliers," the company said in a statement. "HP will audit this facility through a validated industry audit. Based on the results of the audit, we will work together with our supplier to develop corrective actions where appropriate."

Microsoft and Dell had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reports from London.

[manualfunky]

wow, people are quick to catch on when there is suspicion of mistreated workers related to their products...

If the companies making the products for the big names are getting such a little amount of money for the products they are supplying then of course their workers are going to be treated like dogs, because every cent counts!

Isnt that why everthing is made in asia...? because its extremely cheap to make items due to the willingness of employees to work for a few cents per hour?

Here's an example... a month ago i was in Thailand and bought (from a western owned Dive Shop) a diving mask, snorkel and fins for approx $100 Australian, which i later found out from an employee that worked in the shop that the wholesale price (from their supplier, not the factory) was 200 Baht, the equivalent of $8 Australian, so you can only imagine what the supplier paid the factory for the items... $2-3 perhaps... surely for that price the factory is unable to afford to maintain reasonable working conditions and needs to force their employee to work these horrible working hours.... all because of western greed.

I am in no way suppotive of the conditions in which things are done in Asia, its just our own fault it is like that

[Penguinisto]

One thing that tempers the whole deal.

Note that I do not condone the conditions listed in the article. At all.

That said, a "living" wage varies from region to region. A good that may cost $10 USD in New York City may cost only $3 (equivalent) in Istanbul, and $0.30 (equivalent) in Thailand.

There is however one ray of hope that is growing over time. As conditions overall improve in third-world nations (and money flows into them), eventually the mega-corps will run out of cheap places to hire cheap labor. I give it about 30-50 years before the last cheap-labor areas (likely in Africa) finally come up to a cost of living and skill pool that demands equitable pay and conditions.

While that seems like a long time, on an historical scale that's pretty rapid, no?

/P

[Nataku4ca]

This is why Capitalism needs to end...

Hell just yesterday I saw a news that had to do with pressurelized(?) chairs that move up and down. The bolt in the chair exploded out in high temperature into the rear of 3 of the guys that were sitting on it, killing 2 of them and heavily injuring one. These things were also made in china.

As it stands I'm terrified by the words "Made in China" on any products on the shelf, hell the list goes on. Don't know if anyone else heard of the poisonous milk powder or whatever u called it a couple month ago. I would stick with some other country's product if I were you guys.

[random truth]

What I dont understand is why a machine is not doing this. A assembly line could snap together something like a keyboard in less than 20 seconds each from start to finish. and in 40 seconds have made 60 or so keyboards.

[John Howell]

Because you can pay 200 unskilled humans a pittance to do the job but a skilled engineer is required to maintain and configure a machine.

[Texmandie]

Cherry (http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/keyboards/index.htm) manufactures at least some of its consumer keyboards in Auerbach, Bavaria, near Nuremberg - I drive by the factory occasionally. I bought one of those keyboards, stamped "Made in Germany", for about 30 Euro ($37) at a local electronics store. So it is possible to manufacture them under good working conditions and a wage that's acceptable to locals (8-10 EUR/hr for unskilled labor, 15 for the more experienced workers, 20-40 for the engineers and management). It's probably very automated, but there are several firms around here that I could imagine being of use in that manufacturing process.

You CAN manufacture good, reasonably-priced keyboards under decent conditions. They just won't be $5.

[mjconver]

@Random - The answer is easy. Because a fancy machine is still 100 time more expensive than overpopulated humans.

[John Howell]

Remember this next time you wonder why Apple charge NZ$120 for a wifi mouse, or $80 for a keyboard and think who might have assemlbed the one you are about to buy for NZ$20.

[Penguinisto]

Apple wasn't listed in there...

[Nataku4ca]

I'm a bit confused by ur comment, are u saying non-apple related product for the NZ$20 or are u saying the NZ$20 product that is made by apple?

[evo_9-3]

I don't think Apple is that different, just check the net and you will find lots of:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=14915 from which states "...workers live in dormitories..."

Is all about the.... But we knew this already, didn't we?

[phdecora]

I keep hearing people say 'things will get better when the economy develops'. But there are factories in the US that are pretty bad too especially since the unions died. It seems like a lot of people have never studied the history of labor in the US, thinking that weekends and child labor laws just magically appeared, after everyone got industrialized.... but without strikes, sit downs, and unions, we would still have those conditions. Just look at non unionized industries in the US, like wal-mart clerks... they cut everyone down to part-time and temp work, to keep from paying health care, so now everyone has to have two jobs, which means no overtime pay... presto, the companies have eliminated weekends and overtime pay, two of the primary victories of the labor movement in the early 1900s. Now go to factories where they hire illegal aliens and threaten them with 'outing' them if they complain about anything.

History does not move forward automatically, and yes, it can even move backwards, if people allow it.

[sanenazok]

To offer a different perspective: I read the article and the expose. Nobody who works in these factories is having a good time, but what's the alternative? Toiling in the family farm out West? The firms that hire the young ladies advertise the wages that they pay. Nobody there was kept at the factory against their wishes. I say the Chinese government should get to decide whether to have minimum wage standards and such. I found one part of the report unintentionally ironic: "Big Brother is Watching." Geez, didn't the authors know that China is a commie dictatorship. "Big Brother" is watching there ALL the FREAKIN' TIME.