>From: "Jon Corlett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > >http://www.rwor.org/a/v22/1052-059/1055/silic.htm > > >Silicon Nightmares > > >What it's like to work in the hightech sweatshops of Silicon Valley > >Revolutionary Worker #1055, May 21, 2000 > >In last week's RW, the article "Living on the Bottom of Silicon Valley" >described how the tremendous wealth on display in California's world-famous >high-tech zone is based on intense exploitation of workers--around the world >and in Silicon Valley itself. > >Recently the RW had a chance to sit down with a young South Asian brother >who worked in a large electronics assembly plant in the Silicon Valley. He >described the dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, the way workers >try to survive on their low pay, and the kind of scene that developed among >workers from all over the world. > > >***** >RW: Tell us about the people who worked at the assembly plant where you >worked. > >A: The people that I worked with were mainly immigrant workers. I think the >most highly represented were from the Latino [immigrant] community. The >second most represented would be the Filipinos. The third and fourth were >the South Asians. And there were also some Africans, like Ethiopian and >Somalian refugees. That was pretty much everyone that was at the plant, >except for some of the local working community that have been here for some >time--like the Chicano community. Very, very few white people. > >I think our line pretty much typified the demographics of the whole >workplace. There was about 35 people on a line on one shift. And of that, I >would say something like 70% were women, if not more, say 70 to 80%. There >was one white person that was there, too, who was not a worker but >management. Mainly women, majority women, very much immigrant workers. And >the ages ranged from just out of high school to people who were grandmothers >and grandfathers. > >The young workers were actually more of a shock to me, because when people >talk about high-tech sweatshops, it's starting to become more of an >immigrant working community. What I saw, though, is that the industry is >very much targeting young workers of color who may not necessarily be >tracked into the college program. These are folks who are already >marginalized by the educational system. They weren't told that they were >going to be going to college. They weren't told that they were going to be >professionals. So when you get out of school, if you didn't graduate, or if >you graduated without a lot of opportunities, or if you have a record, you >go to a temp agency, because that's where they don't do a lot of background >checks. They don't care too much if you don't have certain skills or >education. And that's how they place you in the plants. > > >Low Pay and High Living Costs > >RW: There were about 900 workers at this plant? > >A: Yeah, there were two back-to-back plants, and there were 900 workers >there. > >RW: You said the wages were about $8 an hour. Could you talk some about the >cost of living in the Silicon Valley? > >A: It's sort of a phenomenal thing that wages could be $8 an hour. Housing >costs and all the other costs of living have skyrocketed. A one-bedroom >apartment is something like $1,200 a month to rent. So $8 an hour becomes >extremely sub-living wages given that context. A friend of mine--a Chicana >sister--has done assembly work since the industry kind of took off in the >mid- '70s. She worked for Hewlett Packard when they were making calculators. >I asked, "What's changed since then?" And she said, "Definitely the people. >There's a lot more races than before. Before it was just the Chicano >community, maybe some Black folk. Now there's all these Asian immigrants." > >But she was making pretty much the same hourly wage 20 years back! Back then >$8 an hour could afford you a decent place to live. Now she's making the >same exact wages in the Valley, where it's $1,200 to rent a room. She's a >grandmother living with her daughter and her daughter's children all in one >bedroom. That's the only way you can do it. > >RW: So basically the way people are dealing with it is they're living in the >area fairly close to where they work, living with lots of people in the same >one- bedroom apartment. > >A: Some people are staying local and just sardineing--living with the >extended family or other families. And there's also people that are moving >out to places like Gilroy and Stockton where the Silicon Valley boom hasn't >affected housing costs too much yet, but still working here. Our shift was >from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There were folks like this brother that lived in >Stockton, something like 90, 100 miles away. He would leave his house at >3:30 in the morning, because there's already a 4 a.m. rush hour of people >who were forced out of this area. > >So it's really like a de facto segregation kind of set-up, you know what I >mean? There's folks who have physically constructed all this wealth but >can't afford to live in it. It's wild. > > >Part of a Global Assembly Line > >RW: What is the work like? You talked about your line having a quota. What >kind of work does it take to produce that quantity per day? > >A: We were actually sort of the last leg of a global assembly line. Some >parts were created in Japan, and some of the plastic stuff was put together >in Idaho, and all those things would come together at our plant. We were the >last leg before it went off to the consumer. We were doing final assembly >work. So we would get these kind of half-made stuff on a conveyer belt--like >an old-school, Ford-type conveyer belt, where each person has his or her own >piece that they gotta put in. You know, screw it, set it up, check it, all >that stuff. So, moving that fast, it was basically an ergonomic nightmare. >`Cause you're doing this motion, whatever the motion is, but it was usually >an awkward motion, at an incredibly fast pace. > >Like I said, it was majority women, and so the men were supposed to be doing >more of the lifting that happened at the beginning and the end. At the >beginning of the line you'd be lifting stuff on, doing some assembly, and >shipping it down the conveyer belt. Then, when it was finished and everyone >had put in their parts, you were lifting it off and packaging it. It >required, one, a lot of lifting, two, a lot of twisting, and three, being >able to do it at an incredibly fast pace. > >Almost everyone there that I saw had some sort of injury. I was 24 years >old, and there was folks there that were 20, 21 years old who had thrown-out >backs because they're twisting at an awkward motion several times. So, it >was very hard physically for that reason, because it was this ergonomic >nightmare. > > >Taking Work Home > >RW: Were you aware of other kinds of assembly happening in that kind of >large-scale, assembly line method, for high-tech? > >A: Yeah, definitely. Like, chip assembly was something that was really big. >That means putting together the little chips, which requires a lot of >soldering. There are a lot of chemicals involved in the chip production. >That's a place where there's a lot of workers, mainly the same immigrants, >working on those assembly-line shop floors. There's also the packaging end, >which is happening more in Fremont. A lot of South Asians in Fremont are >doing things like final packaging of the product. And on the chip assembly >type stuff, like I said, it was very chemically intensive. This industry has >three times the occupational illness rate than any other industry in the >country because it's so chemically intensive. > >There's a lot of home work being done in the Valley by these temporary >contract companies. What will happen is Hewlett Packard will need to put out >a new product, and they'll need some new circuit chips. They'll subcontract >to a company like Solectron, which is one of the major sub-contracting firms >in the Valley. > >What happens in putting together these assembly chips or motherboards and so >on is that they'll have a rush on an order. They'll have a deadline. And so >they'll tell some of the workers, "Well, why don't you take this home, get >it back to me over the weekend, you can earn about 50." And the sister >that's known for being a fast worker will be assigned the task of taking >home these motherboards, inserting chips over the weekend. And she knows she >can't say no--because in the Valley everyone's a temporary worker, and you >know your job can disappear. You can't say, "No, I don't want to," because >you may be gone by Monday. > >So she takes that home. And then, because it was probably so much work, more >than there's hours in the day, she'll have her mother and her children also >doing the work--in the kitchen sink or something, using all these chemicals, >exposing themselves and the entire household to all these chemicals. That's >something that's very prevalent in the Valley. Mainly the Vietnamese do this >work. > > >>From Steady Job to Temp Work > >RW: You worked for a company that was subcontracting to produce for a bigger >company (XXX), right? > >A: XXX used to be known, and still is known, as a "good employer." There's >this one sister that worked next to me who's like of grandmother age, and >she had worked for XXX doing assembly work. She was making over $16 an hour, >which was pretty good. She had benefits, and she was on her way to getting a >retirement package for XXX employees at that time--I think it was the late >'80s. All the employees would get the retirement package at the end of 10 >years. And at 9 1/2 years is when XXX made their shift. They decided it was >more economically feasible to subcontract, use temporary work. They cut out >all their workers, and they took her retirement package with them. > >She was not that old, but you're considered old if you're over 35 here. She >didn't know where she was going to find work, and she ended up doing >temporary work. She found temporary work through Manpower, which placed her >back at XXX. So she found herself doing the same exact work, doing the same >exact assembly; except now she's making less than half what she was >originally making--$8 an hour, with no benefits and no job security. Folks >just get recycled like that. That's what's happening to people. > >Dangers to Health > >RW: You mentioned how the temp agency would make medical benefits available >if you paid the premium, but the premium was >unaffordable. What did it actually cost? > >A: I think for a family it was something like $400 a month. > >RW: So you're making $8 an hour and you're going to pay $400? > >A: Yeah, there wasn't anyone getting the medical insurance. I made it a >point to ask, "Is anyone buying this benefits program?" And no one was. No >one could afford that. It was useless, really useless. > >RW: You talked a bit about the ergonomic injuries. What other kinds of >health problems did workers developed where you worked? > >A: Our company had double the occupational injury rate in that industry. We >knew that because under OSHA regulations, they have to put up a printout >every February of how many injuries they've had. At that time I was already >starting to feel sick. I had trouble inhaling deeply. I had this pain >running down the side of my chest. I coughed a lot. And about that time, >too, I was asking a lot of other people, at lunch and breaks, if they were >feeling anything. And there were very similar problems--a lot of nose >bleeds, a really unusually high rate of irritated asthma. A lot of people >had really severely irritated asthma--much more than what would be usual out >of a group of 30. Something like at least a third had irritated asthma. > >A lot of people had repeating bronchitis-type symptoms. We got the material >safety data sheets (which every company is required to have through OSHA) as >to what are the materials that we're dealing with. We got them for the >products we worked on. It turned out the substance is carcinogenic, and it >also causes respiratory illnesses. This was a big deal. And the company kept >denying it, saying they're "scientific probabilities" and not necessarily >true. Their line to all the workers was, "Oh no, it's because it's the >pollen in the air, it has nothing to do with work, it's just the high pollen >season. That's why you're all getting sick." > >Everyone knew that they couldn't say shit about it, either, because they >would lose their jobs. A typical line that they would use to someone who >would complain--like this one sister (she was pregnant at the time) who >asked, "My back hurts because I'm doing this repetitive motion all the time. >Can I get moved to somewhere else?" And the supervisor said, "Oh well, this > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
