News Exercise #69
Questions:
1) What caused Apple to make promises to protect its workers in 2010?
In 2010 14 workers killed themselves. (0:32)
2) What three rules were mentioned as being broken by the factory in Shanghai?
1. Employees’ ID cards are taken away from them.
2. Staff are given a health and safety test, and are given all the answers.
3. They were ordered to accept the choices about working conditions: Do you mind working nights? Do you mind working standing up?
3) At 1:45 – “Apple told us they’ve seen no evidence of coaching.” What does that mean?
“Coaching” means illegally being told how to answer the questions. Apple investigated but couldn’t find any evidence, despite the hidden camera finding it immediately.
4) At 1:50 I feel the BBC have made the situation seem worse by not typing the full sentence. What came before that? “… the widespread abuse of migrant workers.”
“Apple said they’ve done more than any company to prevent the widespread…”
5) There is a similar case at 2:49. The typed sentence is “excessive overtime and…”. What was said before that?
“Apple say they work with suppliers to prevent excessive overtime and…”