New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse tweeted, “Jon Stewart is doing devastating takedown of FoxConn factory giant w/horrid conditons that produces for Apple & Microsoft.” Indeed, the Daily Show host pulls no punches.

Stewart satirizes the notion that the U.S. factories should emulate the Chinese electronics giant FoxConn, which employs 800,000 workers assembling everything from iPhones to Xboxes. FoxConn has found ingenious ways to save money. Workers live in the FoxConn compound, housed eight to a room in dormitories where roommates may not know each other’s names. They are paid 31 cents an hour, and work up to 35 hours per shift.

Workers who try to unionize will be imprioned. Stewart wonders if incarceration might be more pleasant than life on the FoxConn line.

After a spate of suicides, FoxConn installed nets to catch would-be jumpers.

“In Western medicine, we call that ‘treating the symptom,’” Stewart quips.

Over the weekend, thousands of Sanyo employees protested over wages and job security at a speaker plant in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen:

(Reuters) - Thousands of Chinese workers protesting over compensation and job security at a Sanyo Electric Co Ltd plant clashed with police in southern Shenzhen, media said on Monday, the latest outbreak of labor unrest in China’s manufacturing hub.

About 4,000 workers protested over the weekend at the Sino-Japanese joint venture, the Chinese-language Oriental Daily reported. Sing Tao Daily and the People.com.cn website put the number at over 3,000.

The People.com.cn website said police arrested four people after clashes with police in Shenzhen, next to Hong Kong.

Sing Tao Daily quoted an employee as saying that workers feared they would not receive any compensation after Sanyo and Panasonic Corp (6752.T) integrated their businesses this month.

Thousands of workers at foreign-owned companies in China have launched labor actions over the past year.

[Photo credit: A Sanyo blimp, stateside. Inky, Creative Commons.]

The Sidney Hillman Foundation invites you to an exclusive preview screening and discussion of PBS’s new documentary, Slavery By Another Name, on Thursday, Feb 2 at 6:00pm at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (219 W. 40th St, New York, NY).

Based on the award-winning book by Wall Street Journal reporter Douglas A. Blackmon, the film challenges the cherished assumption that slavery in the United States ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. Join Blackmon and the film’s Hillman-award winning producer/director Sam Pollard for a panel discussion moderated by Gerry Hudson, executive vice president of SEIU.

Click here to view the full-sized event flier.

Space is limited, please RSVP by January 30. Phone: 646-448-6413; email: alex@hillmanfoundation.org.

For those of you who can’t join us in person, I’ll be blogging about the screening here at Clear it With Sidney.

As Indianapolis prepares to host the Superbowl, the state’s Republican legislators and governor are pushing to make Indiana the twenty-third “right to work” state in the nation. On Tuesday, right-to-work legislation advanced to the full state house, despite efforts of Democratic legislators to slow passage of the bill.

Six NFL players from Indiana have spoken out against the bill:

INDIANAPOLIS — Quarterbacks Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Rex Grossman of the Washington Redskins are among six NFL players urging Indiana lawmakers to oppose right-to-work legislation.

Cutler, from Santa Claus, Ind., and Grossman, from Bloomington, joined New Orleans’ Courtney Roby, Pittsburgh’s Trai Essex, St. Louis’ Mark Clayton and San Diego’s Kris Dielman in sending letters to Indiana House members Monday. Days earlier, the NFL Players Association came out against the measure that would ban private contracts that require workers to pay union fees for representation.

Cutler called it a “political ploy” against workers. [AP]

Last year, Democratic lawmakers thwarted the GOP’s attempt to pass right-to-work legislation by fleeing the state. This time around, Republicans have clipped the opposition’s wings by passing anti-bolting legislation that could impose fines of $1000 per day after 3 days of unexcused absence.

[Photo credit: Indywriter, Creative Commons.]