I pressed Cathy to confirm other key details that Daisey reported. “So there was nobody who said they were poisoned by hexane?” I continued. So I asked her: “Did you meet people who fit this description?” I met her in the exact place she took Daisey-the gates of Foxconn. Most of them…can’t even pick up a glass.”Ĭathy Lee, Daisey’s translator in Shenzhen, was with Daisey at this meeting in Shenzhen. He meets a group of workers who’ve been poisoned by the neurotoxin N-Hexane while working on the iPhone assembly line: “…and all these people have been exposed,” he says. Take one example from his monologue-it takes place at a meeting he had with an illegal workers union. Mike Daisey would have you believe that he encountered-first-hand-some of the most egregious examples of this history all in just a six-day trip he took to the city of Shenzhen. I tracked down Daisey’s Chinese translator to see for myself.įor years, reporters in China have uncovered a sizable list of problems that have shown the dark side of what it’s like to work at factories that assemble Apple products. When I heard Daisey’s story, certain details didn’t sound right. “Do you really think Apple doesn’t know?”ĭaisey told This American Life and numerous other news outlets that his account was all true.įor the past year and a half, I’ve reported on Apple’s supply chain in China, where I work as Marketplace’s China Correspondent, based in Shanghai. “I’m telling you that in my first two hours at my first day at that gate I met workers who were 14 years old…13 years old…12,” Daisey recounted. With the help of a Chinese translator, Daisey finds underage workers, poisoned workers, maimed workers, and dismal factory conditions for those who make iPhones and iPads. It’s Daisey’s story about visiting a Foxconn factory in China where Apple manufactures iPhones and other products. The man was Mike Daisey, a storyteller who is widely credited with making people think differently about how their Apple products are made. The public radio show “This American Life” aired an electrifying account of one man’s visit to several factories. Apple got a lot of attention recently over conditions in the Chinese factories that make its iPhones and iPads.
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