Accuse a Sirius: schiavismo dietro i ricevitori satellitari

Non bastassero i guai finanziari, adesso per la radio satellitare Sirius XM ci si mettono pure le beghe sindacali. E' scoppiata una brutta polemica, con tanto di proteste, picchetti e scioperi della fame, sulla questione dei ricevitori digitali che gli abbonati di Sirius utilizzano per sintonizzarsi sui segnali che piovono dal cielo. I ricevitori vengono prodotti in Corea da Kiryung Electronics e secondo le organizzazioni sindacali sono frutto di un trattamento schiavistico dei dipendenti, che percepirebbero stipendi ridicoli (meno 600 dollari al mese) in una nazione dove il costo della vita è più caro che da noi e non possono assentarsi dalla catena di montaggio neppure per andare in bagno. Ieri è stata organizzata una protesta davanti alla sede newyorkese dell'emittente, dopo che le manifestazioni di Seoul non sono servite a sbloccare la situazione.

Bruttissima storia. Anche perché il famoso conduttore Howard Stern, uno dei simboli di Sirius, ha appena fatto discutere (per l'ennesima volta) per aver accusato una stilista americana di importare capi di abbigliamento cuciti negli sweatshop estremo-orientali. "Adesso Howard Stern saprà prendersela anche con chi lo paga" si chiedono i sindacati?

The Dark Side of Sirius Satellite Radio

Oct. 20, 2008

NEW YORK, Oct 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Sweatshop Conditions at the Kiryung Electronics Factory
Labor rights watchdog challenges Howard Stern -- who lampooned Kathie Lee Gifford over the exploitation of child workers in Honduras who sewed her clothing for Wal-Mart -- to confront Sirius Satellite Radio for the abusive sweatshop conditions faced by women workers at the Kiryung Electronics factory in Korea, where they assembled Sirius Satellite Radios.

WHO: Charles Kernaghan, director, National Labor Committee
Women workers from the Kiryung Factory in Korea,
Representatives of the Korean Metal Workers Union.

WHAT: Attempt to meet with Sirius management. (This will be the third attempt to meet.)
Press conference

WHERE: Sirius Satellite Radio headquarters
1221 Avenue of the Americas (Entrance on 49th St. betw. 6th & 7th Ave.), NYC

WHEN: Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 1:00 p.m.

-- Over 250 production line workers at the Kiryung Electronics factory have no rights and are held under conditions of constant uncertainty and fear.

-- Married women limited to just three-month contracts so they can be fired if they become pregnant.

-- Workers can be fired for using the bathroom.

-- Forced to work 13 to 14-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, sometimes going for up to three months without a single day off. There are also grueling all-night 24-hour shifts two or three times a month.

-- Workers making Sirius Satellite radios earn just $145 a week, despite the fact that the cost of living in Seoul is as high or higher than in New York City. Workers and their families must subsist on rice and kimchee (pickled cabbage).

-- In the face of discrimination and abuse, the workers organized a union in July 2005. Management immediately threatened to fire the women, who then occupied the plant staging a sit-down strike.

-- Kiryung management informed the workers that at the insistence of Sirius Satellite Radio, production of the radios would be relocated to a low wage factory in China.

-- Hired goons also attacked the strikers, stomping, kicking and beating the women.

-- For 1,160 days, the women have continued their strike in front of the factory gates. The head of the local union at the Kiryung factory went on a hunger strike for 94 days before being hospitalized in mid-September. The situation has reached a crisis, which is why the workers have come to New York to press Sirius Satelite Radio to intervene.