This report uses 1.16 million social media posts relating to 32 manufacturers to identify labour and human rights violations in Apple’s supply chain in China. We looked at eight different supplier groups: smelters and refineries, components, final assembly, printed circuit boards (PCB), semiconductors (SMC), metals, batteries, and plastics.
Our analysis identifies salient human rights issues, depicts long-term trends, and finds cyclical patterns of rights violations. We reviewed more than one thousand job advertisements and workers’ accounts to find out what unskilled workers earn and how much overtime they need to earn a living. We reference hundreds of workers’ voices bearing witness to deception, repression, theft, coercion, violence, discrimination, depression, pain, injuries, and suicides. We also report on how the Covid-19 Outbreak changed the lives of workers.
The report is packed with detailed information on unlawful and unfair practices as workers experience them. We use focus cases to illustrate neglected problems such as ‘hidden recruitment fees’, the negative impact of Covid-19 on fair resignation practices, working and living conditions of security guards, the perils of labour dispatch supply chains, the ‘invisible’ crowd of outsourcing workers, and the vexing beast of financial penalties. The report also features a series of pictures taken by workers documenting working and living conditions.