As consumers worldwide flood Apple Stores to buy the new iPhone 5, we
look at why thousands of Chinese workers at a key Apple manufacturing
plant walked off the job last week. The group China Labor Watch says up
to 4,000 Foxconn workers walked off the job in protest of new employee
demands on hours and product quality. Foxconn initially denied that a
strike was taking place, but later said a small number of workers had
participated in a dispute that was quickly resolved. We’re joined by Li
Qiang, the founder and executive director of China Labor Watch.
An explosive report sheds new light on Republican presidential nominee
Mitt Romney’s time at Bain & Company, describing how the firm made
millions on big tobacco by helping Philip Morris increase its revenues
in the United States, and aiding two other tobacco titans to dominate
the Russian market. According to the Huffington Post, "Romney’s
consultants helped foreign firms and aspiring oligarchs decide how to
corral Russia’s riches — including writing a official manual that
outlined how best to navigate the process. At the same time, Bain
leveraged its contacts with senior Russian officials to arrange
sweetheart deals for its tobacco clients." We’re joined by Zach Carter,
senior political economy reporter at the Huffington Post.
Police have arrested three people for blocking the removal of equipment
from the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Illinois, to protest a
plan by Bain Capital to close the factory and ship their jobs to China.
Workers at Sensata have set up an encampment called "Bainport" across
the street from the facility to protest plans to close the plant and
move operations to China, taking 170 jobs with it. Sensata is owned by
Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Republican
presidential nominee Mitt Romney. We hear from two of the detained
protesters: Karri Penniston, 16, whose mother works at Sensata; and Debi
Kempel, a Bainport supporter from nearby Pearl City.
Wal-Mart workers have launched historic labor protests and strikes
across 28 stores in 12 states, the first retail worker strike in the
company’s 50-year history. According to organizers, employees are
protesting company attempts to "silence and retaliate against workers
for speaking out for improvements on the job." We go to Bentonville,
Arkansas, to speak with Mike Compton, a Wal-Mart worker protesting
outside the company headquarters today just days after taking part in a
successful strike at a Wal-Mart supply warehouse in Elwood, Illinois.
We’re also joined by Josh Eidelson, a contributing writer for Salon and
In These Times who broke the story of the Wal-Mart store strikes last
week.
