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Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry, edited by Ted Smith, David A. Sonnenfeld and David Naguib Fellow. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2006. 357 pp. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 1592133304.
By the end of the introduction to tfiis book, I had put down the volume to search the web for information on toxic pollution levels by electronics companies in Ireland. In a whirlwind tour of the international electronics industry from Silicon Valley to Silicon Glen, from India to Mexico, to Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, China and elsewhere, the myth of electronics as a "clean industry" is firmly busted. Twenty-five chapters by occupational health and environmental health specialists, activists, trade unionists, and social scientists range across die many environmental and labor issues within the global electronics industry, providing a detailed empirical account of the darker side of this iconic global industry.
The book organizes this large number of short chapters into three sections. The first provides a tour of the global electronics industry, giving an overview of working conditions, employment and environmental problems, and worker organizing throughout the global production networks of the industry. The second section focuses more specifically on the problematic labor rights and environmental and health conditions in electronics manufacturing from Silicon Valley to Taiwan. The editors note the intimate connections between labor and environmental justice struggles, placing workplaces at the center...