|
Cartoons of
Dan McConnell
featuring
Tiny the Worm
Cartoons of
David Logan
The People's Comic
Cartoons of
John Jonik
Inking Truth to Power
|
Support the WA Free Press. Community journalism needs your readership and support. Please subscribe and/or donate.
Exhausted workers are slumped over their desks during breaktime.
Teenage Microsoft Sweatshop
15-hour shifts and poor conditions in Chinese factory
from the National Labor Committee
Producing computer mice & webcams for Redmond-based Microsoft, HP and other companies, the KYE factory in China is the subject of a recently released in-depth report, “China’s Youth Meet Microsoft” (see www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0034).
Over the course of a three-year investigation of the KYE factory in Dongguan, China, unprecedented photos were smuggled out of the factory of exhausted teenagers, seen slumping over asleep on their assembly line during break time.
“We are like prisoners… We do not have a life. Only work." according to one teenage worker making products for Microsoft.
KYE recruits hundreds (up to 1,000) “work-study” students 16 and 17 years of age, who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week making webcams, mice and other computer peripherals. Some of the workers appear to be just 14 or 15 years old. A typical shift is from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m. Most of the students work for three months, but some stay longer.
This Microsoft webcam is produced by the KYE factory.
Along with the students, KYE prefers to hire women 18 to 25 years old, who are considered easier to discipline and control. Here are some of their working conditions:
• Workers report that before the recession, they were at the factory 97 hours a week, while working 80.5 hours. In 2009, workers were at the factory 83 hours a week, while toiling 68 hours.
• Workers are paid 65 cents an hour, which falls to a take-home wage of 52 cents an hour after deductions for factory food.
• Workers have to report early for unpaid military-like drills. Management controls every second of their lives.
• The work pace is grueling as workers race to complete their mandatory goal of 2000 Microsoft mice per shift. During the long summer, factory temperatures reach 86 degrees and the workers are drenched in sweat.
• Security guards sexually harass the young women. Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music or going to the bathroom during working hours. Freedom of movement is restricted and workers can only leave the factory compound during regulated hours.
• Fourteen workers share each primitive, dirty dorm room, sleeping on narrow bunk beds. To “shower” workers fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket for a sponge bath. Workers report that the food is awful.
Some of the workers appear to be only in their early teens.
“KYE management claims factory conditions are excellent, and that they are in full compliance with China’s labor laws,” says NLC director Charles Kernaghan. “But the young women describe the factory as a prison, where everyone who can flees within six months. It is almost impossible to find a worker who has been at the factory for more than a year or two. As usual, the codes of conduct for Microsoft, HP and the Electronics Industry Council have zero impact.”
Catching up on sleep during breaktime.
◆