Organising in Global Electronics Supply Chains

GLOBAL: The International Metalworkers Federation held a meeting in Singapore to develop new strategies for organizing electronics supply chain workers and share ideas for strengthening networks with NGOs who are active in the field. As fast as new technologies have been developed, so has the process of electronics manufacturing changed. Today, very few manufacturing workers are employed directly by well-known brand-name companies such as IBM, Hewlett Packard and Ericsson. These companies have divested manufacturing of their products to less familiar contract manufacturers like Celestica, Solectron and Flextronics, major multi-nationals in their own right. Unionisation rates in these companies are extremely low and many thousands of workers, the majority of them women, are labouring under sub-standard pay and conditions without the protection of a union. The meeting was held in Singapore where most of the major contract manufacturers have facilities. IMF affiliates from Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, Sweden and Finland discussed the challenges to organising posed by this rapidly developing industry. The meeting aimed to pool information on working conditions, to develop strategies to organise workers and improve labour standards, to develop networks within electronics supply chains and to develop alternative methods of putting pressure on brand-name companies to clean up their supply chains. The meeting determined that the development of networks both within CM companies and along the supply chain is critical, so that workers can share information among themselves about their working conditions and build collective strength to push for improvements. The technology produced by the workers offers the means to do this via websites, blogs or other types of electronic fora. Consumers must also be informed about the conditions under which their electronic devices are produced. This can be done by IMF working together with NGOs that are already active in the field via a newly created international electronics network.Nov 07, 2006 – Kristyne Peter