Foxconn and unions

Foxconn is the largest private employer in China with 1.4 million employees. With over a million members, Foxconn Trade Union is the world's largest trade union and also a company union dominated by management. It was established in 2006 in Shenzhen, China.

Similar to the situation in China, Foxconn has signed collective agreements with managerial friendly trade unions in India. In contrast, Foxconn has signed collective agreements with democratic trade unions in Brazil; in the Czech Republic, it inherited an existing union when it took over a former Tesla plant.

China

[edit]
Foxconn Trade Union
富士康科技集团工会联合会
Formation2006
Founded atFoxconn City
HeadquartersShenzhen
Location
Membership1,000,000+
OwnerFoxconn
LeaderCheng Peng
AffiliationsACFTU
Websitehttp://hhfox.com/portal.php

In the summer of 2006, British, Chinese and US press reported poor working conditions in an iPod factory operated by Foxconn.[1] Apple promised to investigate, while Foxconn responded by suing two of the mainland journalists involved. Foxconn later dropped their lawsuit.[2] In response to media pressure and local interventions by Shenzhen municipal state officials, Foxconn promised to form a union.[3] However, nothing materialized by November 2006. On the last day of that year, the Shenzhen branch of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions took the unusual step of establishing Foxconn's first union, initially with 118 members from the 240,000 workers at the Longhua Science and Technology Park facility. In March 2007, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou's special personal assistant, Chen Peng,[a] was elected as its first chair.[3][4] Despite being the largest 'unionized' company in the world, with 90% of Foxconn's 1.4 million workforce registered; the Foxconn Federation of Labour Unions (Chinese: 富士康科技集团工会联合会), more commonly known as the Foxconn Trade Union (Chinese: 富士康工会) is a company union dominated by management rather than workers.[3][5]

Main article: Foxconn suicides

Foxconn again made global headlines in 2010, when over a dozen workers committed suicide due to strenuous working conditions. Apple responded by bringing in the Fair Labor Association, a US based NGO as external auditor from 2012 to 2016.[6] One of the Association's findings was that the Foxconn Trade Union failed to adequately represent workers.[5] The Economic Policy Institute criticized the FLA report for giving Apple and Foxconn 'undue' credit, despite ongoing issues including forced overtime and the continued use of underage labour.[7] Foxconn promised in 2013 with the help of the Fair Labor Association to prepare genuine representative union elections through an anonymous voting process to elect up to 18,000 new union committees.[5]

In a 2017 Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) report, Jenny Chan criticized the limited worker participation inside the Foxconn Trade Union and the lack of awareness or involvement of workers in the first democratic union elections held in early 2015.[6]

Brazil

[edit]

Foxconn do Brasil (Foxconn Brazil) opened its first plant in 2007 in Jundiaí, Brazil to manufacture parts for Dell, HP and Motorola. Workers are represented by the Brazilian Metalworkers' Union (Brazilian Portuguese: Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos; CNTM), an affiliate of IndustriALL.[8]

In contrast to China, at the start of the 2010s workers in Brazil had higher wages, stronger labour protection and nearly double the minimum wage. In 2012, by the time Foxconn Brazil opened a second plant, also in Jundiaí, which focused exclusively on Apple products, CNTM already had experience organizing Foxconn workers at the first plant.[8] After a 5-day strike in 2014 involving 3,700 workers, Foxconn made a collective agreement with the union to match their salaries with the higher paid, non-Apple contracted Foxconn workers. A prior strike happened in 2013 for similar demands.[9]

Czech Republic

[edit]

Foxconn CZ s.r.o. (Foxconn Czech Republic) acquired what remained of the former state owned Tesla plants in both Pardubice and Kutná Hora, Czech Republic. As a result, it also inherited the prior existing trade union of OS KOVO,[10] the metal workers affiliate of ČMKOS.[11] Foxconn Czech Republic currently pays the salary of one trade union representative, while the union, using funds from property it inherited, pays for an economist.[10]

The trade union and Foxconn Czech Republic negotiated their first collective agreement in 2000, with its first wage increase in 2002, with all future collective agreements including wage increases.[10]

India

[edit]

Foxconn India Ltd (Foxconn India) opened in Sriperumbudur, 50 kilometers from Chennai, Tamil Nadu in 2006, primarily to provide parts for Nokia India. The factory was located inside the Nokia Special Economic Zone. Between 2010 and 2013, there was a dispute between three competing trade unions to represent the 2,000 Foxconn workers. Foxconn India initially recognized Foxconn India Thozhilalar Munnetra Sangam (FITMS) affiliated to Labour Progressive Federation of the ruling DMK party, signing a wage pact with them. In October 2010, some 1,200 workers belong to the Foxconn India Employees Union Foxconn (Tamil: India Thozhilalar Sangam; FIST), affiliated to CITU of CPM. FIST started mobilizing in 2010, after a gas leak affected some 200 workers. According to FIST, most DMK workers transferred to FIST as a result. When AIADMK party came into power in 2013, Foxconn India made a wage pact with their respective union Panchalai Anna Thozhilalar Sangam, which was valid until 2016.[12]

None of the Apple contract facilities are unionized as of 2023, but there was an unsuccessful attempt in 2021 by 30 workers in Chennai who were subsequently fired.[13]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Sources use conflicting pronouns/titles for Chen Peng. Chen Peng is a woman according to the Financial Times and researcher Jenny Chan. She also goes by Peggy in the English language.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Apple works to resolve dispute over iPod factory - Technology - International Herald Tribune". The New York Times. 2006-08-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  2. ^ "Foxconn Defamation Lawsuit Withdrawn". China Internet Information Center. 17 September 2006. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  3. ^ a b c Chan, Jenny (2013). "A Suicide Survivor: The Life of a Chinese Worker". New Technology, Work and Employment. 28 (2): 84–99. doi:10.1111/NTWE.12007. S2CID 154463838.
  4. ^ "Foxconn Holds First Union Meeting". China Internet Information Center. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  5. ^ a b c Hille, Kathrin; Jacob, Rahul (3 February 2013). "Foxconn plans Chinese union vote". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  6. ^ a b Chan, Jenny (September 2017). "Betrayed: NO Democratic, Representative Trade Union for Foxconn Workers in China" (PDF). Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
  7. ^ "Polishing Apple: Fair Labor Association gives Foxconn and Apple undue credit for labor rights progress". Economic Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  8. ^ a b Chen, Michelle (April 17, 2012). "Apple's Two Faces: Power Gaps Between Brazil and China Foxconn Workers". In These Times. Archived from the original on 2021-08-29. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  9. ^ "Victory for Foxconn workers in Brazil". IndustriALL. 2014-09-29. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
  10. ^ a b c Čaněk, Marek (2016). "Building the European centre in Czechia: Foxconn's local integration in regional and global labour markets" (PDF). In Drahokoupil, Jan; Andrijasevic, Rutvica; Sacchetto, Davi (eds.). Flexible workforces and low profit margins : electronics assembly between Europe and China. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute. ISBN 978-2-87452-400-4. OCLC 952668624.
  11. ^ "Czechia Trade Unions". Worker Participation. European Trade Union Institute. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  12. ^ Sivaramakrishnan, Vidhya. "Foxconn moves Supreme Court over multi-way fight for trade union recognition". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-05-20.
  13. ^ Christopher, Nilesh (2023-06-01). "Apple and Foxconn lobbied India to relax its labor laws. Unions are fighting back". Rest of World. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foxconn_and_unions&oldid=1263850259"