Technological sweatshops

Picture the modern ICT industry - innovative, cutting edge, constantly churning out new products at ever lower prices to make our lives easier and more productive. 

Now contrast this picture of modernity and innovation with the working lives of the many thousands of women workers labouring night and day to manufacture, at the lowest cost possible, the components that go into our PCs, laptops, mobile phones and the myriad of other available products.

The worst labour abuses are endemic in electronics manufacturing -- below subsistence wages, up to 72 hour weeks, forced overtime, temporary contracts, no job security, unsafe working conditions, degrading treatment, compulsory pregnancy testing, the list goes on. In this industry, fuelled by the labour of young women workers, union rights are suppressed and these workers remain unorganised.

There are, without a doubt, many barriers to organising women workers in the electronics industry, among them the lack of government enforcement of workers' right to organise, worker's fear of losing their jobs, aggressive management tactics and the absence of a union culture. But we must not allow these obstacles to deter us from the necessary and urgent duty we have to these workers to help them improve their working lives.

Later this year IMF will be bringing together affiliates to discuss what can be done to improve conditions for women working in global supply chains in the electronics industry. This will include mapping the major companies' supply chains, developing strategies to engage with MNCs on conditions in their supply chains, and finding ways to overcome barriers to organising in this difficult but important sector.

Thanks largely to the efforts of various NGOs active in the area, MNCs in the electronics industry are starting to be exposed to public scrutiny, as companies in the textiles industry have been, for the horrendous working conditions they prefer to ignore.

But if we are to bring real pressure on these companies to clean up the abuses for which they are responsible, unions and NGOs must combine their efforts both at exposing the abuses to the public and organising workers to fight for improved working conditions. This International Women's Day, let's make that commitment.