Global electronics production is undergoing unprecedented expansion, creating many thousands of jobs in developing countries, and especially in China. Yet the industry’s hi-tech image contrasts sharply with the working lives of the many thousands of mainly young women workers in the supply chains of major electronics companies. It is these women, employed on substandard wages and conditions, who manufacture at the lowest cost possible the components that go into our PCs, laptops and mobile phones.
In many ways the situation in electronics is similar to that in the garment industry
before the abuses in the supply chains of major brand names such as Nike were
brought to the public’s attention: a workforce of mainly young women workers
employed under sweatshop conditions. Such conditions include below subsistence
wages, up to 72 hour weeks, forced overtime, temporary contracts, no job security,
unsafe working conditions, degrading treatment, compulsory pregnancy testing – and
no union protection.

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