INTEL SOURCE LINK: www.takepart.com
by Oliver Lee (photo:Getty Images)
What can American consumers do to help protect workers’ rights in China?
On Wednesday, The New York Times ran yet another story on the unsafe working conditions at Foxconn’s factories in China. In addition to the most recent threats of mass suicide, the article describes a preventable explosion last May in a building that polished iPads, leaving four workers dead and 18 seriously injured from exposure to aluminum dust in their eyes and lungs.
Why does Apple continue to use the human rights disaster otherwise known as Foxconn? Simple: the Chinese workforce is plentiful and cheap. Less than a decade ago, most of Apple’s manufacturing was based in the United States. As American workers began to demand higher pay, benefits, and shorter hours, Apple, along with other American multinationals, began outsourcing their manufacturing overseas.
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