Samsung accused of ‘serious legal violations and labor abuses’ in China

“‘Serious legal violations and labor abuses’ have been found at Samsung factories, according to a U.S.-based labor group,” Charlie Osborne reports for CNET.

“The organization, China Labor Watch, released a report today detailing its investigations into eight factories in China, six of which were directly operated by Samsung [bold emphasis added. – MDN Ed. (Thanks, mossman)], two of which made products for the electronics company but were run by suppliers,” Osborne reports. “Among the abuses found by China Labor Watch (CLW) at the factories were staff being ‘forced’ to work 100 hours of overtime a month, unpaid hours and unsafe conditions.”

Osborne reports, “The report says that workers at the eight factories also have to endure ‘standing for 11 to 12 hours while working, underage workers, severe age and gender discrimination, abuse of student and labor dispatch workers, a lack of worker safety, and verbal and physical abuse.’ ‘This sort of illegal and inhumane treatment is rampant among Samsung’s factories and supply chain. We demand that Samsung immediately begin the process of rectifying these abuses. With profits of over $12 billion in 2011, we are confident that Samsung has the wherewithal to systematically improve labor conditions for its network of factories and supplier factories in China,’ the organization said in its report.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Unfortunately, the one thing Samsung should be copying from Apple – diligent dedication to improving worker conditions at supplier factories – they aren’t copying. Guess Samsung only copies Apple when they think it will generate cash.

Extensive information regarding Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct can be found here.

MacDailyNews Take: We await the Change.org petitions, traveling monologues by morbidly obese liars, other assorted bullshit/faux outrage with bated breath.

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35 Comments

  1. “six of which were directly operated by Samsung”

    Big, bold print. I’m surprised MDN didn’t flag this part. Samsung is DIRECTLY responsible for 6 of the 8 factories they investigated.

    1. While all of the labor outrage was focused on Apple’s supplier factories in China, we were all wondering why Samsung and Dell and HP were getting a free ride.

      Sometimes karma takes a while. People can and should be treated better than this.

        1. I think you don’t get the joke that’s on the American people for having this emperor as president for 4 years, that cannot even formulate a coherent intelligent sentence without his handlers telling him every word thru a teleprompter.

  2. typical of human behavior:
    the biggest ant-anything or naysayers are the biggest hypocrites, the one with most to hide behind the veil.

    be it anti-Clintonian blowjob hypocrites,
    be it Samsung counter-suing Apple & hyping the negative press against Apple for factory abuse when Samsung is worse!

    it’s time iSteve on the iCloud finishes the job to thermonuclearly clear out Samsung.

  3. Good God… Why don’t people realize that Samsung is such a pile of shit. Samsung and Apple are completely opposite in every way. When you really think about it, there should be no comparing the two, in my opinion.

    1. Of course they do, everybody knows that; Foxconn build products for many companies, and again, everybody knows that too.
      The point you are again, deliberately missing, is that these factories are Samsung owned, not independent, like Foxconn.
      But you refuse to acknowledge anything that shows Samsung in a poor light, being their shill, n’all.

  4. My goodness, an American company talking about labour violations in China about a South Korean company, no bounds to American arrogance. Now I don’t know if this is American labour violations (wouldn’t surprise me) or Chinese labour violations (still wouldn’t surprise me) but I would think that the Chinese government should be the ones dealing with this.

    1. Your understanding of the situation seems to be somewhat muddled; it’s a series of factories in China, owned by a Korean company, investigated by a United Nations-based group investigating labour violations in China.
      There, can you get your tiny little brain around that? I saw no American company being mentioned, only China Labour Watch, a UN-based group. Perhaps you would be so good as to point out the American company you’re accusing.

      1. Ah, now I see, it’s because it says New York based in the original headline: of course, it’s asking too much of many commentators on here to be well enough educated to realise that the United Nations just happens to have its headquarters in New York. Silly me…

        1. Thanks for your posts, I am glad you wrapped your tiny little mind about it and finally got where I was coming from about China Labor Watch (CLW) being a New York based company, although I have read that they have offices in mainland China.

          There is nothing in the article, or in the wikipedia entry about CLW being associated with the United Nations. Those sources may not be valid, but hey you might indeed be in the know about that, so feel free to elucidate me. I mean New York city also has the Late Night Show with David Letterman, perhaps they are involved with CLW as well.

          Of course if you are right, and they are working with the UN on this then of course it does become a totally different kettle of fish and perhaps then the effectiveness of cnet’s article could be put into question.

        2. I see nothing at chinalaborwatch.org or in the documents at faqs.org which suggests that the United Nations is in anyway affiliated with China Labor Watch. Mind you, with investigations costing between $1K and $5K per factory, and with their income being shy of $200K, I don’t see how they get by.

    2. Dear oh dear, what is the World coming too. I mean, we’re talking about multinational companies, operating in a global economy. Who is the one with the “little mind” thinking so parochially? If the message doesn’t suit you, start looking for nationalistic bias and conspiracy that better fits your World view. Have you vetted the background of the consultants at CLW that actually wrote the report? What are their nationalities? Their political affiliations? Their religious affiliation? It might be important! Or not.

    3. I find it interesting that RW posts from a non-USA English-speaking country about American arrogance concerning labor (yes, that’s how WE spell it) violations in China by a South Korean company…

      And he apparently has nothing whatsoever to do with the USA, China, or South Korea…

      And then he says that there’s “no bounds to American arrogance.”

      Sounds to me like he could teach us a lot about arrogance.

      1. I am glad that you found my post interesting.From your post you point out the way I spelled labour, as opposed to labor. Well to me it’s not a big deal both are acceptable within the English language, some countries tend to use one over the other. I usually don’t quibble over grammar or spelling at MDN, I certainly have made my share of spelling mistakes, typos and word omissions and as such I usually am tolerant of such errors in other people’s posts.

        For example, I may have used the word labour several times but I did spell the China Labor Watch as per the article, while Rorschach (who may or may not be American) spelled it China Labour Watch. I certainly don’t want to quibble over this sort of stuff as it would have taken away from the good ideas he put forth.

        Next you put forth the idea that apparently I have nothing to do with the USA, China or South Korea. Well for the record I have been to all those countries and met some great people there. Nice try at taking a pot shot in the dark though, keep at it, you might hit something someday.

        You are spot on about teaching you about arrogance, and conversely humility.

        Consider Rorschach’s replies to me. He tossed a few insults and added his ideas. In my reply I tossed a few insults back and validated one of his ideas (his suggestion that CLW is working under the auspices of the UN). I certainly would not mind him continuing on, and I do believe that I made it clear that I was open to changing my opinion in light of this new information (even though the UN was not mentioned in the article, nor at wikipedia or as Jim pointed out at the CLW web site itself). That is the value of exchanging ideas, and sometimes that is a humbling experience that is worthwhile.

        Now your post is about my spelling, my apparent lack of a relationship with the USA, China or South Korea, my comment about America ignorance, basically a bunch of insults without any mention of the article or the ideas brought forth by the article making your post essentially a personal attack without any contribution to the ideas being discussed.

        That, in my books is arrogance. Rorschach may have insulted me but he added some valid ideas in the mix. That I can respect.

  5. I suppose the best thing we can do as a consumer it to try not to purchase anything from them. Of course it’s never quite that simple since Samsung literally has their nasty little meat hook components into everything. However Samsung will get the point eventually even if it takes them awhile to figure it out. ;p

  6. But I thought Apple was the only tech company large enough to have suppliers incorporating bad practices…… Well……at least they’re the only one people chose to burn at the stake.

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