Apple’s own data reveal 120,000 supply-chain employees worked excessive hours in November To its credit, Apple is now posting monthly information tracking the extent to which employees in its supply chain are working less than its standard of 60 hours per week. The introductory language to this information states: “Ending the industry practice of excessive overtime is a top priority for Apple in 2012.” The accompanying graph itself, however, contains data from Jan. 2012 through Nov. 2012 and suggests otherwise. Not only has Apple failed to end this practice, but progress has significantly reversed in recent months. Apple’s code of supplier conduct sets a maximum work week of 60 hours, with an exception clause, discussed below. In Jan. 2012, about 16 percent of the workers in Apple’s supply chain worked more hours than Apple’s maximum standard. This evidence is consistent with independent reports on production at Apple. Apple may very well respond that compliance has fallen recently, but that it is a peak period in which workers have chosen to work more hours voluntarily.
Child Labor in the Middle East - Modern Day Slavery Your are absolutely going to be stunned. We are making a huge amount of children work for long hours under terrible condition for little payment or no payment. It's hard to believe but those beautiful carpets that we have at home, are made by poor children in Western countries; such as, Pakistan and India. Hundreds of children are forced to work in carpet industy for taking care of their parents or some of them were kidnapped and thrown into this horrific place. They work for long hours in gloomy and dirty factories everyday with no choice. Their ages are between five to fourteen, and they are chosen to work for the countries because of their outstanding eyesight; they can see clearly in places with little light which is beneficial to factories. HOW are they caught??? WHAT's going on??? The caught children would be locked in a room and given no food until they agree to weave on the looms. Emancipation Proclamation: By the most powerful president of India: Takaka Inadia
Child labour: the tobacco industry's smoking gun | Global development At the height of the tobacco harvest season, Malawi's lush, flowing fields are filled with young children picking the big green-yellow leaves. Some can count their age on one hand. One of them is five-year-old Olofala, who works every day with his parents in rural Kasungu, one of Malawi's key tobacco growing districts. When asked if he will go to school next year, he shrugs his shoulders. One thing is clear to Olofala already: work comes first, education second. His sister, Ethel, 12, is only in year three. Such complaints are not uncommon. Since the handling of the leaves is done largely without protective clothing, workers absorb up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine daily through their skin, equal to the amount of 50 cigarettes, according to 2005 research by Prof Robert McKnight, of the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. At the consumer end of the chain, smokers are constantly reminded of the associated health risks. The tobacco giants disagree.
Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find In "Chocolate's Child Slaves," CNN's David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields. (More information and air times on CNN International.) By David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN Daloa, Ivory Coast (CNN) - Chocolate’s billion-dollar industry starts with workers like Abdul. Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick cracks, snapping it open to reveal milky white cocoa beans. Abdul is 10 years old, a three-year veteran of the job. He has never tasted chocolate. During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands. It was not supposed to be this way. “We felt like the public ought to know about it, and we ought to take some action to try to stop it,” said Iowa Sen.
Free2Work: End Human Trafficking and Slavery Frontend Ratings A company's risk levels indicate the prevalence of child and forced labor in the particular production process and countries in which it is operating. A company can still receive an A if it is operating in HIGH RISK situations. A company operating in HIGH RISK areas must take more precautions to ensure against abuses than one operating in LOW RISK areas; thus, Free2Work grades such a company on a more rigorous scale. Free2Work draws country and industry risk data from the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced With Child Labor or Forced Labor and from the Trafficking in Persons Report "Tier Placements" put out by the U.S. Free2Work draws country and industry risk data primarily from the U.S.
'Intergalactic Nemesis': From Radio To Page To Stage hide captionA Multimedia Production: The performance of The Intergalactic Nemesis involves (from left to right) three voice actors, a foley artist, a keyboardist and, overhead, art from the graphic novel on screen. Intergalactic Nemesis/The Robot Planet What began in the 1990s as a traditional radio play at a coffee shop in Austin, Texas, has morphed from a radio play, to a graphic novel, to a live performance. To set the stage: It's 1933, there's a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, an evil hypnotist, a time-traveling librarian and alien sludge monsters. YouTube Recorded at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas, in July 2011 "There was literally a sound for everything," Neulander says — for example, the sound of hypnotism, which the foley artist creates by whirling around two toy plastic tubes. Eventually the Intergalactic Nemesis crew teamed up with a graphic artist. Chris Gibson plays nine characters in the show.
Community This guest post comes to us from Anne-Marie Hardie, Canada-based writer and lover of all things coffee and tea. Photographer James Rodríguez shares insights and experiences from his Fair Trade journey Today, we are honored to share a Q&A with one of our very talented friends, photojournalist James Rodríguez. James is an independent U.S.-Mexican documentary photographer based in Guatemala since 2004. Today's guest blog post is brought to us by Operation Groundswell, a travel organization that has generated a movement of socially conscious and globally aware activists, better known as 'backpacktivists.' Oliberté supports Africa’s growing middle class through Fair Trade footwear Today, we are honored to share a Q&A with one of our valued Fair Trade partners, Oliberté. At its core Fair Trade is about sustainability, in every sense of the word.