Link: Microsoft accused of child labor - 4.15.2010
Microsoft is getting hammered by the National Labor Committee over the working conditions at the factory of one its suppliers in China, called KYE. NLC alleges that KYE pays workers -- some of them children -- $.65 per hour to work 16.5 hour days. Over the past three years, unprecedented photographs of exhausted teenaged workers, toiling and slumping asleep on their assembly line during break time, have been smuggled out of the KYE factory. KYE recruits hundreds-even up to 1,000-"work study students" 16 and 17 years of age, who work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week. In 2007 and 2008, dozens of the work study students were reported to be just 14 and 15 years old. A typical shift is from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m.

Article: Nokia and illegal child labour in Africa - 3.10.2010
What are Nokia's plans to ensure that phones are not financing conflict or propping up illegal child labour in Africa

Article: Apple issues report on supplier responsibility - 2.24.2010
Apple has published an extensive report on supplier responsibility that addresses how the company works to ensure that all of its business partners are fair and socially progressive.

Link: Good News for Nestlé Workers - 1.20.2010
Nestlé is infamous for abusing worker rights around the world. ILRF has listed Nestlé for two years in a N27881774559_1168 row on our "Working for Scrooge" report that highlights the worst companies in the world for union organizing. Nestlé is one of the largest multinational corporations in the world and the company's workers face an uphill battle in standing up for a voice at work. Fortunately, there is some goods news for Nestlé workers. Earlier this month, the union at Nestlé Pantnagar in India signed a collective agreement on wages and benefits with the company. The workers at the factory waged a strong campaign even in the face of intimidation from the company which included the dismissal of key union organizers. This latest success for workers follows on a big victory in December for Nestlé workers when unions at three other Nestlé facilities in India signed similar agreements. The agreements also include wage information that had previously been classified as "secret" by company management.

Link: Nestlé's Kit Kat Goes Fairtrade - 12.7.2009
Embarking on what its UK chocolate boss described as an ethical "long journey", the four-finger Kit Kat will carry the Fairtrade logo from next month. Over the next two years the two-finger and other versions of the £183m-a-year bar will make the switch. More than 8,000 cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire (formerly Ivory Coast) will benefit from the decision, receiving an extra $150 a tonne, 4 per cent above the $3,384 world price.