In today’s episode of Healing from Within, your host Sheryl Glick, author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love welcomes Heather White (http://whopaysfilm-org.cadmiumandcotton.com/), the producer and co-director of the film, Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Cheap Electronics (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/who-pays-the-price-the-human-cost-of-electronics--4), which follows the stories of injured and chemically poisoned young Chinese workers in factories that manufacture the world’s leading electronic brands. Their experiences underscore the human cost being paid by workers globally to conserve American consumer’s demand for cheap gadgets and devices.
Heather White, a former network fellow at Harvard University’s Edmund Safra center for Ethics from 2011-2014, has channeled her investigative work on transparency in global supply chains leading to improved industry standards in social auditing and verification practices. Heather, as the founder and former execute director of Verite, a nonprofit organization, has won international recognition for her efforts to reduce labor violations in factories, production for American consumer brands.
Heather and Sheryl will discuss the film Who Pays the Price and will focus on the struggles for justice in unthinkable conditions where worker rights are denied, and a government crackdown has curtailed efforts to organize labor. We will be concerned with understanding that excessive consumerism creates extreme work conditions in countries where young workers fight for their health and their futures, while factories engage in cover-ups that include denying that they ever worked in them. Workers and family members expose these conditions and we are given an opportunity to recognize that it will take a cooperative effort by many to protect these workers in any county as it is a worldwide concern.
Sheryl asks Heather what exactly goes on in the Electronics Manufacturing Industry. The Electronics Manufacturing Industry is far from clean in the areas of environmental sustainability and worker’s rights… the growing risk of worker illness due to exposure to dangerous chemicals. Smart phones and laptops require many chemicals in the manufacturing process for cleaning screens and component parts such as chips, or other purposes. Workers do not always have sufficient protective gear or training for handling toxic substances. Exposure to dangerous chemicals can lead to many diseases such as cancer, leukemia, nerve damage, liver and kidney failure, as well as reproductive health issues.
Some of the people who have been helpful and influential in helping Heather produce this film and bring awareness about this problem to the public was Ming Kunpeng. Ming started working at an Apple chip supplier when he was 19 years old. He was required to handle a harsh chemical known as benzene without proper training and protective gear. In 2009, at age 22 Ming was diagnosed with leukemia. After years of many testing, Ming Kunpeng's illness was determined to be occupational in nature. Requests to the Apple chip supplier to pay for Ming Kunpeng’s treatment were responded to too late and did not cover the care he needed. On December 28th 2013, despite the supportive efforts of his entire family to get him ongoing care and medication, Ming Kunpeng committed suicide by jumping from the roof of his building. His fight is one that is fought by thousands of benzene-poisoned leukemia patients.
In China, an estimated 130 million workers migrate from their homes in the countryside to the special economic zones where factories are situated. This is roughly half the US population. An estimated 12 million of these people end up working in consumer electronics factories. The work is grueling. According to Electronics Watch, workers receive low wages, often work 12-hour days, six to seven days per week, are forced to work overtime, are discriminated against, are unable to organize,
