Professor Cornell says even Apple's own reports noted issues at some of its factories. These included involuntary labor and underage labor.
ANGELA CORNELL: "These are important issues. The involuntary laborer(s) are indentured migrant workers. And that is a crucially important issue. I mean that's basically slave labor." More than two hundred thousand people have joined Mark Shields' campaign for better working conditions. The American admits he loves his Apple products. But, he says, he wants them to be made without human suffering.
The company announced last week it had asked the Fair Labor Association to investigate the conditions at its Foxconn factories. The FLA was established in nineteen ninety-nine to investigate working conditions around the world. Apple joined the not-for-profit group earlier this year.
Last Friday, the Times reported that the president of the FLA has begun praising the factories. But the group's second-in-command suggested delaying judgment until a report on the investigation is finished.
Also on Friday, Foxconn said it was raising the pay of its workers in China. It was the company's third pay raise since twenty-ten.
