High-tech products = sweatshops + well-known brand
What’s your impression of Apple? Fashion? The milestone of technology? Or artwork-like products? There are too many beautiful words to describe Apple’s products. However, all these wonderful products come from sweatshops, come from the hands of exploited workers. Isn’t that nowadays with mechanization and automation, there is no need to exploit workers? In fact, the cost of hiring a bunch of workers is far less than buying a bunch of machines. Thus, exploiting workers become the shortcut to earn huge profit. Workers are forced to do tedious, repetitive works and are required to do overtime. Just like the labors depicted in Modern Times by Charles Chaplin, but situation of the workers in Taiwan are worse than that: sometimes they even can’t get a reasonable pay.
Dead Workers and Corporation Social Responsibility (CSR)
Some workers can’t bear this kind of working environment, choose to end their own lives; some have no choice but to finish their jobs at cost of their health, simply because they are “responsible” to it. Most labors choose to be silent because they have to support their own family while some of them organize unions and fight against corporations. Apple claims that the casualties of its supplier, Wintex, have nothing to do with them. Isn’t that all these workers are exploited because of the huge amount of order from Apple? Is Apple really innocent when it is standing on the other end of the production line?
Humane products, Inhumane production line
IT products bring us convenience, but we simply can’t ignore the victims during the production. We refuse low-quality products, how about sweatshop products? We need to rethink about humane and HUMAN. Just like economic growth is not against environment protection, the development of technology is not against better working environments. Apple is a internationally well-known brand, shouldn’t it stand up as a great model—pay more attention to working environments and conditions? On May 7, there is an international event “Time to bite into a fair Apple.” On that day, there will be more than 30 cities take action to make this issue be heard. This Friday (May 6) in Taipei city, we want to gather people to show our love, care and concern on overtime workers and the bloody production line.
Initiators: High-Tech Cold-Blooded Youth, Youth Labor Union 95, Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries, ……
Initiators: High-Tech Cold-Blooded Youth, Youth Labor Union 95, Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries, ……
Time: 2011/05/06 pm 7.00
Place: The square at Bade Rd. and Xinsheng South Rd intersection, Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City
Contacts：Catta 0920-133-712
