Chinese iPod maker ordered to unionize

Hongfujin Precision Industry Co., the unit of Foxconn responsible for building Apple’s iPod, has been told by the Chinese government to let its more than 200,000 workers form a trade union. The Associtated Press reports: “Hongfujin Precision Industry Co. is on a list of companies in the southern city of Shenzhen that have been ordered to set up such a union, which would be affiliated to the government’s All-China Federation of Trade Unions. China does not allow independent labor organizing, but in recent years it has been pushing foreign invested companies to allow the state-sanctioned labor groups. Such groups are not industry-wide, but represent workers in a single company or sales outlet. They traditionally have been allied with management.” Foxconn has been at the center of labor violation claims this year following reports of substandard working and living conditions at its iPod factory.