Harsh reality behind Apple scandal | China Watch: "Employees of United Win Technology suffered muscular atrophy and damage to their nervous system after using a chemical, n-hexane, to clean touch panels from August 2008 to July 2009. The company is owned by Taiwan-based Wintek Corp, which produces iPhone components for Apple.
Apple Inc acknowledged the scandal for the first time on Feb 15, in its Apple Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report. The company said 137 workers at the Suzhou facility had suffered adverse health effects following exposure to n-hexane. The factory has 16,000 employees.
As of Monday, 100 of the 137 had left the factory with compensation of 80,000 to 140,000 yuan ($12,166 to $21,291), according to Liu Jie, press officer for the industrial park where the plant is situated. All signed agreements with United Win Technology that exempt it from responsibility if their health worsens, Liu said."
What else do we expect from private corporations in China? First, let me thank Richard Nixon for opening diplomatic relationships with China and moving all the jobs away from our nation (sarcasm). The main idea I'm trying to point out is that since there are no unions that represent people in China, companies don't give a... about who their employees are. Their demands are so high that sometimes if things get out of control, it just leads to causalities. The problem should not only be blamed on these private corporations, we, as the consumers, tend to point all of these facts out; however, we're the ones to blame too for demanding things that we don't need, but want. We don't need an ipad when we got an iphone, we just want to have it because others have it. I guess this is a topic we have discussed in class already: Want vs. need. In the end, this cycle always comes back to the consumer.
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