SF Vigil in Remembrance of Suicide Victims-International Call for Solidarity for Foxconn

A SF remembrance of the Foxconn workers who have committed suicide in Chinese factories will be held on June 17, 2010 at 5:30 PM in front of the San Francisco Apple store

6/17 SF Vigil in Remembrance of Suicide Victims-International Call for Solidarity for Foxconn Workers

Community Members Hold Vigil While Apple Consumers Wait in Line For Their "Deathpad"

Thurs, June 17 @ 5:30 pm
Apple Store in Union Square (Market and Stockton)

Background: CPA will organize a vigil for China workers at Foxconn, the Apple manufacturer where 13 young migrant workers have attempted suicide, 10 have died while 3 remain in critical condition. A worker has also died of extreme exhaustion after working a 34 hrs shift. This exploitation is a global worker struggles and we want to draw attention for US consumers and workers to show how vicious corporate globalization and exploitation is to workers and poor people across the world. We invite all our worker center, labor and community allies to come and show support and solidarity.

What is the true cost of an iPad? Foxconn workers face horrible conditions where employees are expected to work for 10 hours/day for 28 days straight. Since the base salary of $132 per month is insufficient to cover basic living expenses, workers have no choice but to work massive amounts of overtime to support themselves and their families.

Apple's solution? As Apple is about to release their new iPhone, Steve Jobs has responded that Foxconn is not a sweatshop and that workers “have it good” and claim that workers had individual mental issues. They have installed nets under the windows so that people cannot commit suicide and they have hired security guards to monitor workers. With the recent international pressure, they have doubled wages BUT have not seriously reconsidered their business model of massive production under unrealistic deadlines, forcing workers to work overtime, some up to 34 hour shifts!

Fonconn has over 800,000 workers in China and manufacture products for Apple, Dell, Windows, PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, Motorola, Intel and Hewlett Packard users. Apple is one of the largest electronics manufacturers located in China.

Please come out Thursday in solidarity with the Foxconn workers!

Click here for more info on the International Campaign

Click here for the Open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Click here to Sign the Petition to Stand with Foxconn workers

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Alex T. Tom
Executive Director
Chinese Progressive Association
1042 Grant Avenue, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA, 94133
Phone: 415-391-6986 x 310
Fax: 415-391-6987
http://www.cpasf.org
Appeal by concerned international scholars: Create humane labor standards at Foxconn
http://sacom.hk/archives/649
APPEAL BY CONCERNED INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS: CREATE HUMANE LABOR STANDARDS AT FOXCONN

Appeal by concerned international scholars:
Create humane labor standards at Foxconn
and end “stealth manufacturing” in Information Technology!
June 8, 2010
The tragic series of suicides among young workers of the “Foxconn City” factory compound in Shenzhen, China, has alarmed the world. Until now, only few people knew that this is the largest electronics factory in the world, employing more than 300,000 workers. The factory is run by a large multinational company from Taiwan, Foxconn (a subsidiary of Hon Hai group), which is one of the largest electronics manufacturing companies in the world. It produces for the most famous brand names in the global IT industry such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Nokia or Sony. Since contract manufacturers like Foxconn and their global customers try to keep their manufacturing operations hidden, this system has correctly been labelled “stealth manufacturing”.

Most of the workers in electronics contract manufacturing and its preferred “low-cost locations” in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Hungary and other countries in Eastern Europe earn wages below the prevailing national standards. They work in clean and modern factories, but their work is reminiscent of the assembly lines of the early ages of mass production. The workforce of the new factories is made up of rural migrants, most of them women. As global contract manufacturing has grown, labor standards have collapsed and trade unions have been marginalized.

In reaction to the tragic events at Foxconn, a group of nine Chinese sociologists from leading universities in the country have taken the unusual step of issuing a collective appeal. According to their opinion, the crisis at Foxconn reveals deep-ranging problems in China’s current model of economic development, based on low wages, long working hours, and discrimination against rural migrant workers. They challenge the factory regime at Foxconn and call on the Chinese national and local government and the concerned enterprises to allow migrant workers to become “true citizens of the enterprise”.

From an international point of view, we have to call for rigorous action from multiple parties to establish labor standards, occupational and environmental health, and workers’ dignity in manufacturing world-wide, particularly in supplier manufacturing factories. The noted British business journal The Economist is aptly stating that “a firm and an industry that has become accustomed to obscurity will have to get used to the limelight” (May 29, 2010).

Changes in the labor policies of the contract manufacturing sector must be based on a comprehensive effort to restore transparency and public scrutiny over the contract relations between brand name and contract manufacturing companies. Meticulous attention needs to be devoted to labor, health and environmental standards, as well as to democratic participation of workers at the workplace. The so-called “Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)” – a code of conduct and mechanism of consultation established by major IT companies – has failed completely to secure basic standards of work, environmental justice and social responsibility throughout the electronics industry and its “supply chains”.
Workers must have a right to:


Representation and collective bargaining by trade unions to defend their interests and rights.
Information about, and protection from, hazardous materials used in manufacturing.
Guarantees of working hours and work intensity that will not threaten physical or mental health.

Communities, government agencies, and the public have a right to know:
What are the working conditions in contract factories and whether the basic rights of workers are respected?
What hazardous materials are used in manufacturing and whether the manufacturing process complies with internationally accepted standards of occupational safety and health?
Where, by whom, and under which conditions brand name products are manufactured?
What are the financial and economic conditions of manufacturing contracts between brand names and their suppliers, and whether suppliers and manufacturers are squeezed?
What impact corporate decisions on the allocation of manufacturing contracts, downsizing and closings of factories, and the establishment of new manufacturing facilities have on communities?

In the light of these urgent questions, we call on the relevant companies and government agencies in China and internationally to support an independent international investigation of the economic, financial and social backgrounds of the tragic events at Foxconn. Such an investigation should be led by the International Labour Organization with participation from independent academic experts, trade unions, labor and environmental NGOs, and other organizations with relevant expertise in the field, excluding those who are linked to corporate interests or have received substantial funding from the affected corporations in recent years.

SIGNATORS: (list in formation)
Amanda Bell, Columbia University - USA
Andre Laliberte, University of Ottawa – Canada
Andrew Ross, New York University - USA
Andrew Watterson, University of Stirling - Scotland
Andy Danford, University of Bristol - UK
Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney - Australia
Anthony Spires, Chinese University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
Barbary Schulte, Lund University – Sweden
Barry Sautman, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Hong Kong
Boy Luethje, University of Frankfurt - Germany
Brendan Smith, University of California, Los Angeles - USA
Carolyn Cartier, University of Technology, Sydney - Australia
Catia Gregoratti, Lund University, Sweden
Chad Raphael, Santa Clara University - USA
Chi-Kwan Ho, Hong Kong Polytechnic University – Hong Kong
Ching-Kwan Lee, University of California, Los Angeles – US
Chris Smith, Royal Holloway, University of London – UK
Chris Tilly, University of Caluifornia Los Angeles - USA
Christine Cooper, University of Strathclyde, Scotland – UK
Christoph Scherrer, Univ of Kassel - Germany
Daniel You-Ren Yang, Tung Hai University – Taiwan
Dara O’Rourke, University of California, Berkeley – USA
David Bensman, Rutgers University – USA
David Foust Rodríguez, Universidad de Guadalajara - Mexico
David Harvey, City University of New York – USA
David Kotz, University of Massachusetts Amherst – USA
Dorothy J. Solinger-University of California, Irvine – USA
Edna Bonacich, University of California, Riverside – USA
Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara - USA
Elaine Bernard, Harvard University - USA
Eli Friedman, University of California, Berkeley - USA
Ellen David Friedman, Sun Yat-Sen University - PRC
Francesca Degiuli, City University of New York - US
Fred Y. L. Chiu, Academia Sinica - Taiwan
Greg King (emeritus), Tokai Gakuen, Nagoya – Japan
Gregor Benton, University of Malaya – Malaysia
Gregor Gall, University of Hertfordshire – UK
Gregory Mantsios, City University of New York - USA
Gyoergy Szell, Univ of Osnabrück - Germany

Hai-Rong Yan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Hong Kong
Hong-Zen Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University - Taiwan
Horen Voskeritsian, Athens University of Economics and Business - Greece
Hsin-Hsing Chen, Shih-Hsin University - Taiwan
Ian Fitzgerald, Northumbria University – UK
Jenny Wai-Ling Chan, Royal Holloway, University of London – UK
Jinn-Yuh Hsu, National Taiwan University – Taiwan
Joce Jesson, University of Auckland – New Zealand
John Trumpbour, Harvard University - USA
Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University – USA
Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley - USA
Ken Jacobs, University of California, Berkeley – USA
Kent Wong, UCLA Labor Center – USA
Kim Moody, University of Hertfordshire – UK
King-Chi Chan, City University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
Kitty Krupat, City University of New York – USA
Lina Isacs, Stockholm University – Sweden
Loong Wong, University of Canberra – Australia
Marc Blecher, Oberlin College – USA
Marcos Ancelovici, McGill University – Canada
María Guadalupe López Pedroza- Universidade de Guadalajara - Mexico
Martina Sproll, University of Marburg – Germany
Meei-Shia Chen, National Cheng Kung University - Taiwan
Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley – USA
Michael Fichter, Free University Berlin - Germany
Michael Gillan, University of Western Australia - Australia
Michael H. Belzer, Wayne State University - USA
Michael Rafferty, University of Technology, Sydney - Australia
Mobo Gao, University of Adelaide - Australia
Nancy MacLean, Northwestern University - USA
Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara - USA
Ngai Pun, Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Hong Kong
Nicola Phillips, University of Manchester – UK
Parry Pak-Nang Leung, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Hong Kong
Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley - USA
Phil Taylor, University of Strathclyde - UK
Ralph Litzinger, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University – USA
Rasmus Larsen, Stockholm University – Sweden
Richard Appelbaum, University of California, Santa Barbara - USA
Richard Walker, University of California, Berkeley - USA
Robert Ross, Clark University - USA
Rosemary Webb, Southern Cross University, Australia
Russell C. Leong, University of California, Los Angeles - USA
Ruth Milkman, University of California, Los Angeles – USA
Sandra Sturdevant, University of California, Santa Cruz - USA
Saul Thomas, University of Chicago – USA
Saundra Sturdevant, Documentary Photographer & Historian – USA
Simon Clarke, University of Warwick - UK
Stephanie Luce, City University of New York - USA
Stephen Philion, St. Cloud State University - USA
Steve Davies, Cardiff University – UK
Steve French, Keele University – UK
Sun Wook Chung, Cornell University - UN
Tim Pringle, University of Warwick – UK
Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia – Canada
Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside – USA
Tze-Ken Yau, City University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
Wan-Wen Chu, Academia Sinica – Taiwan
Wilhelm Schumm, University of Frankfurt - Germany
Xiao-Dan Zhang, City University of New York – USA
Yi Xu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University - Hong Kong
Yu Zheng, Royal Holloway, University of London – UK
Yun-Chung Chen, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Hong Kong