Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry by: Jim Hightower(Foreword),Ted Smith(Editor),David A. Sonnenfeld(Editor),David Naguib Pellow(Editor) Price:  US$ 26.95     Availbility: Usually ships in 24 hours Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.     Product Detail     376 pages (Paperback)     Dimension (wxh): 890x110     Publisher: Temple University Press     ISBN: 9781592133307     Shipping Weight: 0.50 kg     Avg. Customer Review:(2)

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  Book's Description

"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.

Demand corporate accountability  ,03/02/2007 "Challenging the Chip" by Ted Smith, David Sonnenfeld and David Naguib Pellow (editors) is a collection of essays on the labor and environmental problems of the electronics industry. The thirty-plus contributors to the book were connected through a series of symposiums wherein this ambitious project was conceptualized. By describing their shared experiences, the authors succeed in articulating why the public must demand corporate accountability in order to gain economic and environmental sustainability. The editors merit praise. The book contains over 25 articles but contains no weak material. The writers seem to have expressed a high degree of collegiality by voluntarily subjecting their work to extensive peer review, criticism and revision. The result is a remarkably even and high-quality series of essays that are characterized by ample research, insight and analysis. The editors also supply excellent introductions and expertly frame the key issues that are discussed in each section of the book. The first section is titled, 'Global Electronics'. Seven articles describe how the production and distribution of electronics are organized on a global scale. We learn that multinational corporations tend to avoid social responsibility by exploiting workers in poor nations with either lax or non-enforced labor and environmental laws such as China, India, Thailand and more recently, countries in Eastern Europe. Oftentimes, the most vulnerable workers are subjected to subsistence wage relations without union representation and exposure to occupational health hazards without protection or compensation when illness ensues. This grim reality is in stark contrast to the manipulated media images that are projected to consumers by the relatively small number of major corporations who control the supply chains that tie these far-flung operations together. The second section is 'Environmental Justice and Labor Rights'. Nine articles written by

behind the hi tech glamour  ,10/10/2006 The editors take a peek behind the hitech glamour of the semiconductor industry. It is one of the most global of industries, with factories dispersed widely. But the book shows that working conditions can be hazardous at times. The reagents used in production are often highly reactive. One chapter on occupational safety describes many of these reagents, and studies done at various fabs. Notably, at IBM's, from which several researchers have looked at cancer rates and the effects on the reproductive abilities of female workers. Especially since fabs and assembly lines tended to favour hiring females. Other chapters look at factories in Thailand, eastern Europe and India. The working conditions can sometimes be harsh, with many petty rules that severely circumscribe workers. Strikes have often resulted at the worst factories. Overall, the book is a thoughtful counterpoint to IT's public image.