Report claims harsh conditions persist at Apple’s China factories

A labor advocacy group claims Apple has done little to alleviate harsh working conditions at its manufacturing facilities in China.

Apple contracts Foxconn Technology Group to run the massive plants, which employs more than 1 million workers who produce the company’s iPhones, iPods and other gadgets. Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), an independent nonprofit labor advocacy organization, released a report that claims to document continuing worker abuses at the plants despite commitments from Apple and Foxconn executives to address them. SACOM said it interviewed 170 workers at several different research sites for the investigation and found that workers were warned during their employee orientation not to speak to journalists or researchers without permission from management. The workers were also ordered to join a company-controlled union, according to SACOM.