Inspections Open at Apple Manufacturers in China

19 February 2012

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

A labor group has begun investigating working conditions at the Chinese factories where many Apple products are made. Apple officials ordered the investigation after The New York Times newspaper described poor working conditions at the factories.

The Foxconn Technology Group owns the manufacturing centers in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Zhengzhou.

Angela Cornell is a professor at the Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York. She says many issues were raised last year after a number of suicides at the Foxconn factories.

One issue is the number of hours that employees are required to work. Other concerns are pay, living conditions and even reports of violence against workers.

The New York Times reported that employees sometimes worked seven days a week. The newspaper said some stood so long that they had trouble walking. Widespread criticism of Apple followed publication of the report. Mark Shields organized a campaign calling for better working conditions.

MARK SHIELDS: “Workers lives are really hard and really severe, and there’s terrible stories about people losing the use of their hands because of horrible repetitive motion injuries, and suicide rates that are so high that they have got to hang nets off the sides of the buildings to prevent workers from killing themselves.”