Now it is Jabil’s turn for soul-searching

The Pittsburgh-based worker rights group National Labor Committee has released a report claiming that Jabil's manufacturing facility in Guangzhou (China) is run like a ‘Minimum Security Prison producing for Whirlpool, GE, HP’. The report states that it found illegal or unreasonable working conditions or a police force acting like prison guards. Here is a full list: • Six thousand workers, operating around the clock, with two 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Workers are at the factory 84 hours a week. • Workers are prohibited from sitting down and must stand for their entire 12-hour shift. Their necks, shoulders, arms and legs become stiff and sore, and their feet swell. • Workers are allowed to use the bathroom just once in the regular eight-hour shift. As there are just three "toilet passes" per line, women say they have to wait over an hour to relieve themselves. • Workers paid a base wage of 76 cents an hour through April, when they received a 17 cent increase to 93 cents an hour. No one can survive on the base wage and all are forced to work overtime. • Security guards and managers patrol the shop floor as if they are police overseeing their prisoners. Workers who make a mistake are forced to write a "letter of repentance" begging forgiveness-which they must read aloud in front of all their co-workers. Offending workers can also be made to stay after work, unpaid, to clean toilets. • Six workers share each crowded dorm room, sleeping on double-level bunk beds. 75% of the workers say the factory food is "awful." • Jabil has 18 factories across China, which is more than they have in the U.S. ----- All images copyright: National Labor Committee