Apple’s Profit Skyrockets, Workers Die at Its Factories
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Hours after Apple released its first quarter earnings, which showed a mind-blowing 44.7 percent profit, the New York Times published another in a series of articles illustrating some of the reasons behind Apple’s profit margin. Describing the conditions in which Chinese workers assemble iPhones, iPads and a panoply of Apple products, the report states:
Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors.
More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.
A separate article details a New York Times survey that found Apple consumers are less likely to worry about the conditions in which products are made. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Time for Protection Against Deadly Silica Dust
More than 300 scientists, doctors and workplace safety experts are asking President Obama to step in to speed much-needed protections against worker exposure to crystalline silica.
They signed a letter to the president today, urging him to direct the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete its review of a proposed rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on silica dust.
Some 1.7 million workers are exposed to crystalline silica, which kills some 200 workers each year and causes new cases of silicosis in as many as 7,300 workers, mostly in the construction field. Silicosis is incurable but preventable.
Says Leonard Serafin, a former railroad worker from California:
Every day I struggle to do activities because of my condition. I want to see that other people are protected from this dust—it’s not fair to expose people to something this dangerous when they can be protected. Read the rest of this entry »
Steelworkers Tell Congress: We Need Safe Refineries
Members of Congress got an earful today about the dangerous and often life-threatening conditions workers face at oil refineries and in other oil processing facilities. At a briefing sponsored by the United Steelworkers (USW), Kim Nibarger, a USW health and safety specialist, laid out the issue in stark terms:
When things go bad in a refinery, they go really bad and people die.
Since the last round of talks in the National Oil Bargaining program, the Read the rest of this entry »
More Regulation the Solution, Not the Problem
The governors of the Gulf Coast states, all Republicans, asked the federal government for help dealing with the BP oil spill—yeah, the government, the very organization that their hero and mentor Ronald Reagan described as “the problem,” not the solution. “The problem” must deal with our oil problem, those Republicans told President Obama.
The president sent the help they requested, but at the same time, Republican mouthpieces like House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) accused the administration of responding too slowly to the spill. Republicans believe government should be shrunk so small it can be downed in a bathtub, that government should get out of the way and allow private enterprise to work. But, simultaneously, they want government to clean up a catastrophe created by private industry.
Lasting Memorial for Slaughtered Miners: Criminal Liability for Reckless Owners
As at Upper Big Branch, a coal dust and methane explosion ripped through the Westray mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, early in the morning. As at Upper Big Branch, rescuers discovered bodies, but toxic air forced them out before they could account for all missing miners. After five days, dangerous conditions permanently ended the search for the missing 11 at Westray. They’re entombed in the hazardous workplace that took their lives, a mine like Upper Big Branch that had been cited for dust and methane violations.
Nova Scotia erected a memorial over the spot where the bodies of the 11 are believed to be, with plaques bearing the names of the miners killed. West Virginia, no doubt, will commemorate those killed at Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch.
But Canada did something more. It criminalized corporate disregard for worker safety. It’s called the Westray Law.
Solis Meets with Workers, Pledges to Fight Alongside Them
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After her inspiring speech at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis joined with workers in a private meeting to discuss their struggles in forming a union, struggles faced by workers across the country.
Shawn Williams, Xiaohong Colluci, Angel Rangel, Debbie Kaliff and Billie Jean Huggins got a chance to speak personally about the intimidation, harassment and mistreatment they’ve faced as they’ve struggled for fairness on the job. In her compassionate conversation with these workers, Solis proved she gets it—she understands what workers are going through. She promised to fight for good jobs, for workplace safety and for the freedom to form a union. She said she appreciated what all of the workers had to offer:
These are the stories we have to tell.
Thank you so much for your courage and leadership—this means a lot to all of us. We’re with you, the president is with you, and believe me, we’re going to change this country.
