“Public prosecutors in Brazil have begun legal action against South Korean electronics giant Samsung, alleging that it has been violating labour laws at its factory in the Amazon region,” BBC News reports.
“Prosecutors accuse the company of making its employees work long, tiring shifts without sufficient breaks,” The Beeb reports. “The plant, located at the Manaus Free Trade zone, employs some 6,000 people. A worker at the Amazonas state factory has only 32 seconds to fully assemble a mobile phone and 65 seconds to put together a television set, prosecutors allege.”
The Beeb reports, “In evidence given to prosecutors, employees say shifts can last 15 hours and some say they suffer from back ache and cramps as they are forced to stand for up to 10 hours a day.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We await the outcry from the mainstream media with bated breath.
Mike Daisy is booking his flight now…
It’s spelled Daisey, but I have a feeling he’s looking for other fish to fry outside of labour exploitation these days …
Mike Daisey would never stop at fish. Evidently there’s no end to what he’ll eat.
MDN- Don’t hold your breath…
For the media, it will be the equivalent of a tree falling with no one to witness it.
Again, a $108M for SS barely amounts to a goose feather falling in a palm, let alone a punitive slap on the wrist… Legal systems the world over are samsung-hamstrung as they can’t or are not bold enough to effect a lasting bruise on its complexion. I’m sure other competitors have cottoned-on and we will soon witness abuses of all colors en-masse.
Just as this other petition asking Samsung to stop hiring child workers got so much attention:
http://www.change.org/petitions/samsung-stop-exploiting-child-laborers
(yes that’s not a error in your browser, it’s really _zero_ signatures)
I guess spending all your ill-gotten gains in huge advertising campaigns buys you a lot of tolerance.
Turns out it was indeed my adblocker extension messing with the number of signatures. It does a good amount, just a little over 300 to go before it’s official.
Still it took 8 months to get to this point.
So we all should expect the NY Times to carry this story in the Business Section or Tech Section Tomorrow; right? 🙂
The Post will be all over it.
MDN is right. I hardly heard any news outlet mention it.
All main stream America wants to do is tear down successful American companies!!
Inside American Media Company
“So here we have a convicted thief of intellectual property that treats it’s workers like indentured slaves. What should we do?
Front Page, nah thats for Ichan’s attack on Apple, Middle Page, nah, we’ve got to print stories about how well Obama is doing in his second term, back page, nah we’ve got to run our latest story about A-Rod and steroids abuse for the tenth day in a row.
I’ve got it!!, lets sell some more Samsung advertising, that will make us feel better.”
Whores.
I hope no kettle is going to be calling the pot black.
“MacDailyNews Take: We await the outcry from the mainstream media with bated breath.”
Too late; too bad.
This is not an Apple or Samsung issue rather corporations creating modern day slavery and those that support them all the while holding the bible.
The Brazilian government is most definitely a flawed beast, but I hope they put Samsung through the proverbial grinder.
Wow… In sur this will be all over TV like Apple problems… NOT…