A strike was staged earlier this week at a Jingmo Electronics Corporation factory where keyboards for Apple computers are produced, according to China Labor Watch.
The strike consisted of 1,000 employees frustrated with harsh working conditions at a factory that is owned by Jingyuan Computer Group, a company that is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of keyboards supplying parts for LG, IBM, Apple and other electronic makers.
The Chinese Labor Watch organization is urging Apple to take responsibility over the matter.
“China Labor Watch calls upon Apple, IBM and the other clients of this factory to assume responsibility for these workers’ dissatisfaction and work with the factory to improve the working conditions in the factory,” wrote the organization. “We particularly urge Apple to take responsibility, as there are more than 300 workers working on the Apple keyboard assembly line.”
The strike began when management decided to implement and enforce a nightly overtime shift that took place from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. on top of the workers' regular hours of 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
This allowed them to accumulate 120 hours of overtime per month; however, the workers were denied the ability to work on the weekends because the factory would have to pay them double time under Chinese Labor Law.
The Chinese Labor Watch explained other concerns in more detail.
“Apart from the overtime issue, the workers said that they also had other grievances with the factory. They include the high rate of workplace injuries, mass layoffs of older workers and the lack of any benefits,” the organization explained.
The atrocities do not end there.
“Apart from these more tangible hardships, factory managers often verbally abuse and bully the workers, causing them emotional stress,” the Chinese Labor Watch added.
