Of Mice and Men and Women
The National Labor Committee last week released a report on working conditions in a Taiwan-based electronic manufacturer in Dongguan: China’s Youth Meet Microsoft: KYE Factory in China Produces for Microsoft and other U.S. Companies. The factory make webcams, x-box controllers and mice for Microsoft and other companies.
The findings are all too familiar: extremely long working hours, low wages, poor food, overcrowded dorms, extreme control on the shop floor, and a life so squeezed by work that nothing is left.
The report apparently spurred the Dongguan officials to take notice, and they’ve ruled that the plants violated overtime rules and didn’t properly register the almost 400 workers between the ages of 16 and 18. Seems they might get a slap on the wrist, not much more.
Update: ESWN translates a story from Southern Weekend in the wake of the NLC report: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20100422_1.htm