The Silicon Valley of Dreams - Part 3

The book has since talked about the electronics industry and how the work flows through the system. Chapters 6-7 talks more about the individual experiences of a number of employees that the authors have managed to interview. The chapters also talked about how the families of each worker is also affected in such cases of environmental injustice. In addition to all the above, chapter 7 especially talked about the piece-by-piece assembly process which is done by many immigrant families in the area.

When I was going through the chapters in this book, I momentarily forgot...well...segregated in my mind, the other environmental justice issues that we've talked about so far in this class. The other issues that we talked about in this class had to deal with overall environmental pollution and how people of color tend to live in areas that have a high disproportion of waste facilities etc. This book talked about environmental injustice in the workplace which covered different areas of focus. People were exposed to health hazards but could not do anything about it for fear of being fired from their jobs and losing income to support their families.

There is already a distinction here. In both cases of workplace and living area injustices, it feels like those who encountered workplace injustices had to risk more than those who encountered environmental injustices in where they live. Losing one's job immediately would be bad as they would lose their source of income. Fighting against a corporation that wants to put a dump near your house seem to have less immediate adverse effects.

Reading about the injustices that electronics workers face and the type of management that they have to put up with is disheartening. To think that they risk so much to support their families really is hard to read because as consumers of such goods, we are partially to blame for not asking for better workplace practices and ethics.

Regarding the piece-by-piece assembly from home; one of my friends had her entire family doing such work but it wasn't electronics but plastic instead. It was an additional source of income where everyone in the family would sit down in front of the TV in the evenings and assemble plastic parts. They were paid for each piece that they assembled. I think Asian cultures are very different in a sense that it is more family oriented with relatives pitching in to help if they can. But in the case of the electronics industry, home assembly is probably more dangerous than factory assembly because it also exposes other family members (the elderly and children) to toxic chemicals.

There were also several instances in the book that told of a few small victories achieved by a few of the workers who actually stood up against their employers but I don't think it is enough to combat the injustices that are still going on in the workplace. Also, when the government actually intervened, they also caused harm because all the workers who assembled from home got fired from their jobs. Now how is that helping?