"Challenging the Chip" is the first comprehensive examination of the impacts of electronics manufacturing on workers and local environments around the world. The essays in this volume contribute to a collaborative international discourse of citizens, workers, health professionals, academics, labour leaders, environmental activists, and others with the common goal of developing alternative visions for the regulation and sustainable development of manufacturing, assembly/disassembly, and waste disposal in the global electronics industry. Contributors from Asia, North America, Europe, and Latin America provide multidimensional perspectives on the science and the politics of environmental and social justice, documenting the efforts of community and labour activists, government agencies, and others in introducing more sustainable systems of production to one of the world's largest manufacturing industries.
Author(s): Jim Hightower, Ted Smith, David A. Sonnenfeld, David Naguib Pellow
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 376
1592133290......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Foreword: Technology Happens......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 14
1 The Quest for Sustainability and Justice in a High-Tech World......Page 16
I. GLOBAL ELECTRONICS......Page 28
2 The Changing Map of Global Electronics: Networks of Mass Production in the New Economy......Page 32
3 Occupational Health in the Semiconductor Industry......Page 46
4 Double Jeopardy: Gender and Migration in Electronics Manufacturing......Page 58
5 “Made in China”: Electronics Workers in the World’s Fastest
Growing Economy......Page 70
6 Corporate Social Responsibility in Thailand’s Electronics Industry......Page 85
7 Electronics Workers in India......Page 98
8 Out of the Shadows and into the Gloom? Worker and Community Health in and around Central
and Eastern Europe’s Semiconductor Plants......Page 111
II. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND LABOR RIGHTS......Page 122
9 From Grassroots to Global: The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s Milestones in
Building a Movement for Corporate Accountability
and Sustainability in the High-Tech Industry......Page 126
10 The Struggle for Occupational Health in Silicon Valley: A Conversation with Amanda Hawes......Page 135
11 Immigrant Workers in Two Eras: Struggles and Successes in Silicon Valley......Page 144
12 Worker Health at National Semiconductor, Greenock (Scotland): Freedom to Kill?......Page 154
13 Community-Based Organizing for Labor Rights, Health, and the Environment: Television Manufacturing on the Mexico-U.S. Border......Page 165
14 Labor Rights and Occupational Health in Jalisco’s Electronics Industry (Mexico)......Page 176
15 Breaking the Silicon Silence: Voicing Health and Environmental Impacts within
Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park......Page 185
16 Human Lives Valued Less Than Dirt: Former RCA Workers Contaminated by Pollution
Fighting Worldwide for Justice (Taiwan)......Page 196
17 Unionizing Electronics: The Need for New Strategies......Page 206
III. ELECTRONIC WASTE AND EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY......Page 216
18 The Electronics Production Life Cycle: From Toxics to Sustainability: Getting Off the
Toxic Treadmill......Page 220
19 High-Tech Pollution in Japan: Growing Problems, Alternative Solutions......Page 230
20 High-Tech’s Dirty Little Secret: The Economics and Ethics of the
Electronic Waste Trade......Page 240
21 Hi-Tech Heaps, Forsaken Lives: E-Waste in Delhi......Page 249
22 Importing Extended Producer Responsibility for Electronic Equipment into the United States......Page 262
23 International Environmental Agreements and the Information Technology Industry......Page 275
24 Design Change in Electrical and Electronic Equipment: Impacts of Extended Producer
Responsibility Legislation in Sweden
and Japan......Page 288
25 ToxicDude.com: The Dell Campaign......Page 300
Appendix A: Principles of Environmental Justice......Page 314
Appendix B: The Silicon Principles of Socially and Environmentally
Responsible Electronics Manufacturing......Page 316
Appendix C: Sample Shareholder Resolutions......Page 318
Appendix D: Computer TakeBack Campaign Statement of Principles......Page 321
Appendix E: Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship......Page 323
Acronyms Used......Page 326
References......Page 330
Resources......Page 352
Contributors......Page 354
Index......Page 358
