 Thank you. It's my great honor to be invited by the Economic Policy Institute and also Workers' Rights Consortium. And I'm very happy to share the lives of the box-con workers with you because everyone, consumers of electronic products, and we can never accept that our products are produced from scratch. So SACOM was founded in 2005 and from our very long name, Students and Scholars Against Copyrights Misbehavior, you can immerse in that. Yeah, we are comprised of students and teachers from universities in Hong Kong and our mission is to improve the working conditions at the brand suppliers in mainland China. And we try to achieve the aim by doing investigations and campaigning work. So in the past few years we've investigated a number of brands, manufacturers, including Foxconn, Classatronics, Wintek, etc. But we put most of our efforts on Foxconn in the past two years directly because of the spades of suicides in the factory. Foxconn is the world's largest IT manufacturer and it was a Taiwanese-owned company. It was founded in 1974 and it operates its first factory in China in 1988. And since then it has been expanding its workforce and until now it has estimated that it has a workforce of 1.2 million and its production facilities in China, Brazil, Czech Republic, India, Mexico, etc. And it's produced for IT products for multiple brands like Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft, etc. And in China it has more than one million workers and it has production facilities in more than 20 cities. So of which Shenzhen, Zhengzhou and Chengdu are the major suppliers to Apple. And because of the spades of suicides at Foxconn in 2010, there were lots of media attention at the factory. Within one year there were at least 18 suicide attempts in the factory. I say at least because we really don't know the real figure. Foxconn never told the public any scandal happened in the factory. And there are 14 workers died and four of them survived and of them were young just between 11 and 25 years old. So there are lots of media reports about the crisis at Foxconn. And because of that Foxconn organized a media tour for the journalist. And on one hand the CEO, Terry Gore, apologized that he could not prevent the suicides happened in his factory. But on the other hand the management contributed the suicides to personal problems only like the relationship problems with their boyfriends or girlfriends, family problems, financial problems and normally less so the hidden messages is not work related at all. So how Foxconn was wanted to do the suicides. It's asked the workers to sign a no suicide pact. Promise that they would not commit suicides. And in case they do, then their family members will not be eligible to claim further compensation from the companies. And then it operates care centers, workers online to provide counseling services to the workers. It's a sort of safety match under the viewings inside and outside Foxconn. And it's also increased the wage, the basic salary and increased their overtime work. And it ceased recruiting new workers during the summertime of 2010 and replaced the workforce with student workers. Also since the space of suicides, Foxconn asked all the new workers to go through a psychological test and some questions like do you always feel nervous or do you suspect that someone is going to kill you. So they just imagine that the workers they commit suicide because they have mental illness. And prior to the suicide, Foxconn only offered a basic salary to workers at $143 per month which is the same as the minimum wage in China. And in the press conference of Foxconn in June 2010, it's announced that it would have a wage increase and the basic salary would be $1,900 per month. But in fact at that time the local governments also raised the minimum wage so it's just 9% more than the minimum standard. And in terms of overtime work in the past, Foxconn workers they regularly have overtime 2100 and 120 hours per month while the legal limit is 36 hours per month so three times more than the legal limit. And then it said it would control the overtime work to not more than 80 hours. So it is the picture of the safety net to save lives of the Foxconn workers and the picture does not show clearly that on every window there is also installation of the wire net in addition to the safety match. Although lots of journalists have questioned what is the real cause of the workers to commit suicide, at that time the late policy comment that Foxconn is not a sweatshop. He said the factory was pretty nice because there are restaurants, internet cafes, movie theaters, swimming pools so it is not the sweatshop. But we think that it is very irresponsible to say that because we hope that the companies will do impartial and serious investigation to find out the problems at their suppliers but it is not just this kind of simple statement saying that it is not a sweatshop. So Suckcom has done lots of research in a number of Foxconn factories and Chengdu is one of them. There are two plants or chemises of Foxconn in Chengdu. I just simply call it the Southern Plants and the Northern Plants. The Northern Plants is a temporary site which was built within 76 days. And the CEO of Foxconn is so proud of it and regarded as the Foxconn speed and a few months later an explosion happened in that factory. And all the workers at Foxconn in Chengdu exclusively produce iPad so the buying relationship between Apple and Foxconn is very clear. And when we look at the wage at Foxconn in Chengdu is very very low although on one hand seems that the workers in Foxconn in Chengdu they have a high salary up to 300 US dollars if they have passed their pre-show period after 10 months but most of the workers in the inner province they still have a bigger wage. So in February 2011 the workers they can only earn 146 US dollars a space salary and after one month Foxconn announced that oh we have wage increase. Yeah we provide workers 206 US dollars as basic salary but then it cuts the housing benefits and food allowance of the workers and so in fact Foxconn was not willing to pay more money to the workers and recently the new wage level is 246 US dollars but at the same time it is also because of high inflation rates in China and the food price has increased by 13% in that city so it's disproportionately affects the working class. So adding up with the overtime premiums usually the workers they can earn 317 US dollars to 400 US dollars per month and they still have to pay for dumb tree and food and at the same time Foxconn decreased the overtime work of the workers so some workers they complain that they although their so-called wage increase but their overall salary is almost the same or even less than before and when we look at the issues of overtime work I've mentioned that the working hours at Foxconn is excessive and sometimes most of the time the workers they have 10 hours workshops per day and in fact they stay in the factories for 12 to 14 hours and they usually have 60 work per week but if there's influx of order they only have one day off every two weeks and they also have to attend the workers only which is unpaid although on the latest fair labor association reports it's mentioned that Foxconn will decrease the overtime work to 36 hour per month which means that it will comply with the legal standard but in fact Foxconn has promised that they will meet their legal requirements last year but they haven't do it so we are really interested to see if the new promise of Foxconn could be realized so it is a typical day of a Foxconn workers getting up before 7.00 o'clock in the morning and then they cure for the company bus because their dormitory is far away from the factory and they have to arrive the factory earlier to attend the work meeting and swipe work up that's their time concern is not paid at all and then the workshops begin at 8.30 and then ends at 8.30 at night and then they have to cure for bus and go back to dormitory again so most of the workers they described that they need routine as work eats and sleep and many workers they told us that Foxconn adopted military management military-style management in a battery but when I went to Chengdu it's really short to me as there is really so-called military training for all the new workers so from pictures yeah those are the new workers they have to line up and form a square and listen to the commands of the supervisors to turn right left and turn some slogan and some workers they regard as a strategy to indoctrinate absolute obedience this kind of culture in the factory that's Foxconn denying their so-called military training although we show the picture to the journalist and at the same time and the workers they told us the life at Foxconn is depressing because they cannot talk to each other they cannot bring a cell phone on the shop floor and they just keep repeating the same on tonerous tasks for a thousand times a day and they also say they resemble machines or sometimes they mock themselves as they are faster than machines and although on one hand Foxconn decreased overtime work it is a good sign that on the other hand Foxconn also adjust the production targets regularly so last month when I interviewed workers who examined the service of an iPad she said the hourly production targets was 120 pieces per hour but one month later it is 130 pieces so it's keep increasing and many workers say they experience inhumane treatments like when they made some mistake they have to write confessions letters to me it's that though it is my fault I promise that I would not repeat the same once again and scouting in the shop floor is almost unknown and one worker in Shenzhen she told me that she wants to decline overtime work on Saturday and that's that is not allowed by her supervisor and then she was punished because she take a live without the permission which is regarded as so-called work stoppage and she was punished to load 3,000 boxes per day and it's lasted for 10 days and then another group of workers they produced iPhones in Zhengzhou on one night the supervisors yelled at them that oh there are so many defective products yeah from our departments then all the workers there asked to copy the quotations of the CEO so these are some of the examples yeah the CEO of Foxconn he's so proud of his philosophy and wisdom of work and then he develops something called the Terry Gore's quotation and it may not be very clear on the staircase of the battery it's show some of his quotations and some of the examples is a hash and almonds is a good thing hungry people have especially clay mines outside the laboratory there's no high technology only execution of discipline so the workers have to copy the quotations for two hours as kind of punishments and some workers they describe that now the frontline management they are more CFO they no longer scold us with our language but yeah the words are still insulting yeah not just insults the workers but their whole families like the other pigs can only give birth to the brainless and yeah if you're smart you can find a career work in the office but because you're a thou you're a student so you have to work on production lines and so you have to do your job well and another area circumcised special attention at Foxconn as the occupational health and safety when the workers we interview they do not know what kind of campus that they're using they can only tell us the nicknames they do not know the potential harm of those camcodes and they do not have pre-post training and they do not have on post have examination and some workers who in that state polish the iPad case they recollect how the aluminum dust yeah it could be poisoning and we documents this issue in our reports and send them to Apple and Foxconn and um Foxconn responded to the journalist regarding the occupational health and safety problems two weeks later and on the statements they say yeah we have no problems with occupational health and safety we strictly comply with all the local laws that's two days later there was an explosion happened at Chengdu factory which we investigated which killed all workers and injured 18 and yeah and Foxconn just just said a capitalized from the charity when we point out these issues have been ongoing in the factories for months but they didn't take care of the seriousness of the problems so this is the iPad factories Foxconn factory in Chengdu although it is still under construction but still workers they're already working in this kind of environment the road is really rough and in many days is terrible and the construction materials pile up yeah just road size and yeah in the factory buildings maybe the first second floor has been furnished so the workers have been already keep working in this kind of environment while the third fourth floor is still going on construction yeah so it can be very dangerous for the workers as well that's yeah we know that's this kind of issues has been fixed after one year that's where well they surprise that iPad and iPhone to produce under this kind of conditions and we also aware that's Foxconn higher loss of student workers the main rationale to do so because the student workers they are kind of flexible workers because in the electronics industry as seasonal so when there is influx of order then the factory they need slots of temporary workers so student workers is an answer for them and many workers who in view they study generalism pharmacy tourism which is not related to the work of Foxconn at all but they end up working as de facto workers in factory and according to law the student workers they should not work on overtime shifts and shifts that's all the student workers they experience the same as the work of the workers and there's the union at Foxconn they're holding rally anti-suicide rally at Foxconn two years ago and they hold up big posters saying that's I love Terry Gore the CEO of the factory yeah many other workers they wear I love Foxconn T-shirt so yeah from our perspective the union at Foxconn they mainly defend their the interest and email at Foxconn instead of ascribing for the interest of the workers and it is also dominated by the management so one of our team on this to reform the union which I will talk about it later yeah so above the basic findings that we found at Foxconn and this woolly woolly alarming and I would like to share a story from a survivor of suicide home to view her name is 10 years she was 17 years old when she worked at Foxconn it was her first job and as a new worker she was always berated by the management for being slow or being not efficient enough and after one run she should claim her salary that's because of the mismanagement of Foxconn she could not do that and she walked through one the campus to another campus and yeah walk through buildings to buildings that no one could help her so when she go back to the dormitory it was a very isolating environment she did not have friends in the dormitory she was so angry and no one could help her then she jumped from the dormitory and she survived that her lower body was paralyzed and her father also explained that yeah there's a close relationship between the military style management the factory and the suicide and in fact Foxconn paid some compensation to the victim that's the condition the condition as she should not talk about the case in the public so in the past year she is very reluctant to talk about her case in the public yeah and Foxconn produced for Apple and other well-known IT brands and most of the time the workers they told us they observed the inspector from the clients so the brand names companies they know well about the working conditions in the battery that's all they concern is the quality of the products and the product activities that's not workers rights and is also very critical that on one hand the brand names companies they have their own co-conduct that they do not really strictly enforce those standards and when there are some scandal at suppliers then they will blame yeah it is the problems at suppliers not their problems and thirdly Apple and other brand names companies they have money shares because when they place order at Foxconn the units price is very low it's impossible or it's not really encouraging the factories to pay the decent wage for the workers and to strictly comply with the safety standard and the limits of the overtime work so I supply as a market research firm which has been tracing the production cost of Apple products and from this research is suggested that the production cost range from less than seven years dollar to ten years dollar for producing iPad and iPhone so the labor cost is very insignificant so it just like one two percent of the selling price of Apple products and when we look at the profits margin Bloomberg did some research on that the profits margin of Apple keep rising up to 30% that's when we look at Foxconn the manufacturer the profits margin is only 1.5% so Apple definitely has the capacity to increase the units price to improve the working conditions at suppliers and recently Apple has joined the value of our association and the reports by FLA documented some of the rights violations which has been repeatedly mentioned by NGOs and media like underpayments, excessive time, negligence in work safety and company controlled union but it's down placed some issues like harsh management methodology actually on one of the appendix of the FLA reports it's mentioned that over 61% of Foxconn workers they regularly experienced work pressure that's on the tax of the FLA reports it does not mention it and Foxconn is notorious for its harsh management methodology so we are very disappointed that this issue is not being highlighted and the use of student workers although it is also mentioned in the reports but it does not mention the elements of forced internship yet we can also regard it as a form of forced labor because some students if they do not work in a factory as intern they may have some punishments imposed by the schools like they need to drop off or they cannot receive their graduates certificate and another point where disappointed is through that FLA reports it does not mention the role of Foxconn that was sorry does not mention the role of Apple yeah we regard it as one of the roots cause because of the unethical by-practice of Apple so it creates the reference violations at Foxconn that it is not adequately addressed and lastly we are not that optimistic that the FLA can enforce all this recommendation because at the end of the day yeah it's on the hands of Apple and without the continuous pressure from the public and from the consumers I doubt Apple will strictly follow their recommendations yeah so yeah to sum up Sakam has several demands to Foxconn and Apple firstly we hope that it will reform the management methodology and secondly provide a living wage for the workers so that they do not have to toy on the production lines yeah for hours and we hope that student workers would be abolished and then on work safety Foxconn and Apple should work with experts to fix the problems and also although there's co-conducts of Apple that's if there's any violations of the code there's no consequence on the Apple at all so we hope that Apple can remedy for the workers in case there is gross violations happened at suppliers and yeah we are very disappointed that whenever there's an explosion that's poisoning there's no apology or public account from Apple and lastly we hope that there can be a genuine trade union at Foxconn yeah we think that this process is the most important because sometimes the media they can investigate the problems at Foxconn angels like us can do so as well but there are thousands of them union workers yeah at Foxconn and we cannot monitor the daily violations of labor rights in factory so the workers they should have the rights to speak about the problems themselves we hope for the best that's yeah there can be genuine trade union through democratic elections at Foxconn because the trade union law in Simon and China also require that the union should be produced through elections yeah so yeah thank you so much for your patience and yeah the last message I would like to say is yeah all the corporations they only aim to maximize their profits and minimize their responsibilities so they place all their extra suppliers instead of having their own factories so with that suppression from the public there's no incentive for the companies to improve the working standards at state suppliers so it's very important to have your presence here to spread the message around and yeah thank you so much yeah