Labor Rights & Occupational Health in the Electronics IndustryA closer look at the dangers and risks of the global occupational environment

Overview

I. Introduction to Labor Rights and Occupational HealthI. Definition II. Importance

II. Labor Justice in the Electronics FieldI. Global Supply ChainII. Case Studies

III. Worker Health and Injury I. StatisticsII. Psychological StressIII. Chemical Exposure

IV. Recent NewsV. What You Can Do

True or False?

___ 30% of ICT products are produced in the United States___ The most common workplace injury is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.___ The average Chinese electronics worker’s wage is $.60 per hour.___ Overtime hours are especially desired because these wages are very high.

What are Labor Rights?

Labor rights are legal rights that pertain to the labor relationship between workers and employers.

Labor rights aim to improve and establish suitable and fair work conditions, wages, benefits, for all workers .

The International Labor Organization (ILO), founded in 1919, is a sector of the United Nations that seeks to establish international legal rights for all workers throughout the world.

Labor Rights Continued

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights delineates that everyone, without discrimination, has the right to work, free choice of employment, equal pay for equal work and just and favorable conditions at work.

Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions and the right to rest and leisure.

Occupational Health

Cross-disciplinary field concerned with the health, welfare and safety of working people.

The goal of occupational health programs is to: encourage and maintain the highest level of social,

physical, and mental well-being of people in their working environments

to protect and prevent workers from employment-related risks that adversely affect health

to place workers in an occupational environment that is suitable and adapted for their physiological and psychological capabilities.

Why Should We Be Concerned?

• Labor rights are basic human rights.

• People of color, immigrants and women most often work in the lowest-paying and dangerous jobs around the world.

• An estimated 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working around the world.

• In the US alone, 5,657 workers were killed by traumatic injuries and more than 60,000 died from occupational diseases in 2007.

• Approximately 4% of the world’s GDP is lost to the cost of medical treatment, work absence and survivor benefits that result from work-related injuries and death.

• Worldwide, toxic substances kill about 438,000 workers annually, and 10% of all skin cancers may be attributed to work-related exposures with hazardous chemicals.

• Most of the everyday products we buy, wear, use and eat are produced with labor from the developing world.

Labor Justice and the Global Electronics Industry

The Truth Behind Electronics

As one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, the electronics industry must meet high consumer demand while simultaneously maximize profits through low-cost manufacturing.

“…I assemble five computer cards per minute. More than 3,000 cards in my 11-hour daily shift. But I have never used a computer

myself, I don’t know how to; what’s

more, I don’t even know what the

computers I make look like when

finished”.Mexican worker

“When you are due for holidays, they never give

you the days you are entitled …The agency always gives

you only 4 days per year, no

matter how long you have

been working there”.

Solectron Worker

The Global Supply Chain Process

Responsible Factors for Outsourcing and Worker Exploitation

• Falling prices• Quick turnover• Advances in

technology• Lack of organized

trading unions• Accessibility of

outsourcing

• Competitive job market • Limited

employment opportunities

• Overpopulation• Poverty • Poor education

Industry Worker

The Result

• Wages below the legal minimum • Compulsory overtime with no pay• Child labor• Inhumane working conditions• Gender, age, racial, physical

discrimination • Non-union policies • Forced short-term contracting

Case Studies: Mexico

• Job stability• Sexual

harassment• Discriminatio

n• Toxic

exposure• Work-related

accidents• Freedom of

association

“In this area we have passes to go to

the bathroom, two passes for 70

workers. This becomes problematic

because when you have to go to the

bathroom, you have to wait until one

of the passes is free. Otherwise, we

can’t go to the bathroom.”On another occasion, someone knocked me down and my crutches broke, I went to the infirmary and the security guard told me: “I think you did this yourself to avoid working”, but, as on other occasions, minutes later I was at my place working again.

Case Studies: China

• Excessive Overtime

• Low Wages• Psychological

and Physical Stress

• Poor Dormitories

• Non-Union Policies

Dormitory conditions are oftentimes cramped and dirty, and residents only have a small locker with which to store a few personal items.

Large manufacturesrs like Foxconn may house up to 400,000 workers on a daily basis. The company also constructs restaurants, recreational buildings, post offices, and shops to sustain the employees’ living needs.

Migrant workers at a job fair in Hangzhou, China

Military-like organization at a Chinese factory

Toxic Technology: The Cost to Human Health

Work Injuries and Illnesses amongst Semiconductor Workers

Click icon to add picture

…the highest income I have

ever got is a little more than

500 renminbi ($60).That was

earned after having worked more than 100

OT[overtime] hours. … How can that

money be enough for us?

-Chinese worker, 20 years old

“Our two hands keep onworking every minute.Our brains keep onworking as well. Yourhands have to move asquickly as your brain. Ifyou lose concentration forone second, you will makea faulty product. Pointswill be deducted and forsure the production bonuswill shrink at the end ofthe month.”-Male worker in computerassembly plant

Psychological Stress

Foxconn’s “Cherish Your Life” pledge prohibits workers from committing suicide.

Secrecy, propaganda and the truth behind hazardous substance exposure in the electronics sector

Toxic Chemical Exposure

Click icon to add picture

Routes of Entry & Health Effects

• inhalation through the lungs• absorption through the skin• ingestion through the mouth

Toxic chemicals have various routes into the body, and upon entry, they can cause a multitude of acute or chronic effects which may not show up until many years after initial exposure. They may act as respiratory irritants, allergens, carcinogens, mutagens, and more.

Common Chemical Exposures

• Brominated flame retardants • Mercury, lead, and other toxic metals• Perflorinated compounds• Acids (i.e., hydrochloric acid) • Ionizing radiation • Volatile organic compounds (solvents,

cleaners)

The Semiconductor Industry

Spontaneous Abortions (per 100 women)• 31.3 for photolithographic workers• 38.9 for diffusion workers• 17.8 for unexposed women

• Arsenic• Asbestos• Beryllium• Chromium• Carbon

tetrachloride

• Glycol ethers

• Benzene• Cholorofor

m • Formaldeh

yde• And

more….

Example: Glycol Ether

• Used as solvents in the photoresist step of the chip-etching process

• Overexposure causes anemia, irritation to eyes, nose and skin

• Pregnancy loss, subfertility and birth defects

• Associated with decrease in sperm count and testicular size

• No regulation in U.S. • Continued use in developing

countries

Recent News

• Wintek and n-Hexane Poisoning • Spate of Cancer Outbreaks amongst

South Korean Samsung Workers• Foxconn and Worker Suicides

What’s Happening Now

• ANSI Z10• Not actively implemented or encouraged by OSHA

• OHSAS 18000

• SA 8000

• EICC Code of Conduct • Open membership • Does not guarantee compliance • “….Samsung Electronics supports EICC Code of Conduct

and seeks to conform to the Code and its implementation methods across the company and its suppliers”

What You Can Do

• Fair-Trade Certified Non-Electronic Products

• Do your research! Be knowledgeable about where your electronics are made

Ranking Criteria: • Chemical

Toxins• E-Waste• Energy

Labor practices and worker health and safety are NOT considered in this ranking.

Helpful Organizations

• CEREAL (Mexico; Center for Reflection and Action on Labor Rights)

• SHARPS (South Korea; Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry)

• China Labor Watch (China)

• IRLF (International; International Labor Rights Forum)

• SACOM (International; Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior)

Reach Out

• Sign a petition to hold Samsung accountable for the deaths of leukemia victims working in South Korea: http://www.petitiononline.com/s4m5ung/petition.html

• Send a message to Apple to take a stand against Foxconn’s worker abuse: http://makeitfair.org/take-action/flashgame/take-action/message-to-apple

• Join and follow the MakeITFair Campaign: http://makeitfair.org/

True or False Revisited

• 30% of ITC products are produced in the United States. False

• The most common workplace injury is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. False

• The average Chinese electronics worker’s wage is $.60 per hour. True

• Overtime hours are especially desired because these wages are very high. False

References

Books:

Smith, Ted, David Allan. Sonnenfeld, and David N. Pellow. Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights

and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2006. Print.

Grossman, Elizabeth. High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health. Washington: Island, 2006. Print.

Websites: • http://makeitfair.org/• http://

www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/upload/wmdfsheet_2009.pdf

• http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/jobsafetyandhealth-factsheet.pdf

• http://www.ilocarib.org.tt/portal/images/stories/contenido/pdf/Fact%20Sheets/Fact%20Sheet%20OSH.pdf

• http://www.cafod.org.uk/content/download/8506/84449/version/4/file/Cereal+report.pdf

• http://www.ewhn.eu/attachments/article/150/asian_electronic.pdf

• http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/pro/proshow-136.html

• http://www.ilo.org/safework_bookshelf/english?content&nd=857171014

• http://www.ilo.org/safework_bookshelf/english?content&nd=857171014

• http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/osh/kemi/ciwmain.htm

• http://www.familypracticenews.com/index.php?id=2934&type=98&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=43554&cHash=da03e20e36

• http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/osh/kemi/ciwmain.htm

• http://www.neoseeker.com/news/13976-foxconn-orders-massive-nets-to-catch-jumping-factory-workers/

• http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2011/05/reducing_occupational_chemical.php

• http://www.semiconductorlitigation.com/practiceareas/semiconductor.aspx

• http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7295214.html

• http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7295214.html

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576163663992661764.html

• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/technology/23apple.html?_r=1

• http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/china-and-its-neighbors/100312/apple-news-iPhone-asia-illness

• http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4217202/Samsung-leukemia-deaths

• http://stopsamsung.wordpress.com/

• http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/484347.html

• http://goodelectronics.org/news-en/samsung-to-take-responsibility-for-lethal-hazards-of-semiconductor-manufacturing/?searchterm=samsung

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3YFGixp9Jw&feature=player_embedded

• http://goodelectronics.org/news-en/the-truth-of-the-apple-ipad-behind-foxconn2019s-lies/

• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/business/global/07suicide.html

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/foxconn-explosion-china_n_864738.html

• http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/foxconn-rallies-workers-installs-suicide-nets/

• http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/foxconn-rallies-employees-pledge-to-cherish-their-lives.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+chinaSMACK+%28chinaSMACK%29

• http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/Guide-to-Greener-Electronics/