Presentation by Ted Smith
Coordinator, International Campaign for Responsible Technology
SHARPS Press Conference - Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Thank you for inviting me to speak today at this important event. I bring greetings from my many colleagues around the world who express their solidarity with SHARPS. I especially want to express my condolence to Mr.Hwang, the father of Yu-mi, who has suffered such a huge loss and who has shown such courage and strength in his support for the many others who continue to struggle for workplace justice!
Let me share with you some history that I believe is relevant to the situation here in Korea.
I come from San Jose, California, known throughout the world as Silicon Valley. Up until 40 years ago, our community was known as the “Valley of heart’s delight” because it was such a beautiful agricultural paradise. But in the 1960’s a new industry started to grow in our community – it was called the electronics industry, but the people who promoted it called it the “clean industry” since it did not have smoke stacks. What they didn’t tell us was that the manufacturing used many very toxic chemicals.
In the 1970’s, the first warning signs began to emerge as workers in the semiconductor industry became sick from working with toxic chemicals on the job. The Santa Clara Center for Occupational Safety and Health was formed in the 1970’s to document this pattern of occupational illness and to provide support for the workers and the families who suffered.
Then in 1982, the State of California discovered that the chemicals used to make the chips had leaked into our groundwater aquifers and had polluted our drinking water source. Overnight, our community learned that the so-called “clean industry” was a dangerous toxic chemical handling industry that needed strict regulation to protect the workers and community. We formed the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and I was the Executive Director for 25 years. We focused our attention on promoting sustainable production and sustainable electronic products.
As the electronics industry expanded into other parts of the world, we reached out to others around the world who were discovering very similar impacts from the growth of this industry. We formed the International Campaign for Responsible Technology in 2002 at a global symposium in Silicon Valley and participants from more than a dozen countries adopted the following Mission Statement: "We are an international solidarity network that promotes corporate and government accountability in the global electronics industry. We are united by our concern for the lifecycle impacts of this industry on health, the environment and workers' rights."
Here’s what we’ve learned:
• Of the 70,000 chemicals in commerce, only a few are well tested for health effects
• 1000’s of chemicals are used in electronics, including carcinogens, reproductive toxins, genotoxins and developmental toxins
• People continue to be exposed to these chemicals on the job and in the communities, and they have developed cancer, given birth to children with serious birth defects, and suffer from other serious chronic and acute illnesses.
• Cancer clusters in electronics production workers continue to emerge around the world:
• IBM (US),
• National Semiconductor (UK);
• RCA (Taiwan);
• Samsung (Korea)
The Samsung workers' story is an important chapter of a decades-long saga that includes similar actions and reactions around the world:

• demands from workers and communities for the "right-to-know" about toxic chemical use, exposures and health information vs. corporate claims of "trade secrets" and “proprietary information” when people’s health is at stake;

• intense anti-union bias from electronics employers vs. workers demands for decent working conditions, respect and corporate accountability for harm;

• corporate 'green-washing' as companies use public relations to build and protect valuable market share in the huge consumer electronics market, regardless of environmental and health impacts of production on workers and communities;

• Government indifference or hostilities to those who bring these issues into the public arena because of their blind commitment to “economic development at any cost” and who are afraid that public visibility of the “collateral damage” caused by high-tech development will undermine their “economic miracle”.

SHARPS has undertaken the challenge of piecing together and showing how once again the image of a "clean industry” is at odds with the grim reality of chemically-intensive production and the “just-in-time” production demands that take such a huge toll on their workers lives. And their story is compelling – they are truly writing the next chapter of “Challenging the chip” through their work. The video “Workers in Samsung” presents their story in a dramatic and compelling way and is a call to global action for everyone who cares about health and justice in the workplace.

I was privileged to attend a meeting of SHARPS at the KMWU union office in August 2009 and meet some of the workers and their families and was very moved by their stories and the video presentation from SHARPS. I was impressed to learn of other struggles by electronics workers at other factories in Korea who are raising and sometimes winning workplace victories and are organizing workers to join together and speak for themselves to improve their working conditions.

I am proud to join with SHARPS and say: “Enough is enough! We will no longer tolerate this environmental injustice!” That’s why we are announcing a new global petition drive to demand accountability from Samsung. I will work with SHARPS and all of my colleagues around the world to encourage people to send a strong message to Samsung that they cannot continue with business as usual and that if they really want to be a global leader, then they must accept responsibility for their actions and errors.
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The petition reads:

The families and friends of electronics manufacturing workers at Samsung in Korea have discovered a cancer cluster among young workers exposed to toxic chemicals. The pattern of cancer deaths bears a striking resemblance to the pattern of cancer deaths among IBM “chip” workers in the US* and to other electronics cancer clusters around the world. March 6th marks the third anniversary of the death of Yu-mi Hwang, a Samsung semiconductor factory worker, who died from leukemia at age 22. Her death – and similar coworker deaths - has motivated people to demand that Samsung:
1) Accept responsibility for the hazards of semiconductor manufacturing,
2) compensate those harmed; and
3) prevent future suffering and mistreatment of workers by making Samsung a toxics-free model workplace where workers are treated with dignity and respect.
Samsung denies all responsibility, and the Korean government has taken its side by denying compensation and even arresting and detaining the victims’ lawyer! Yu-mi’s family, co-workers, friends and other concerned people have formed SHARPs (Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry) to demand justice.
SHARPS is now asking concerned people around the world to join their campaign for international solidarity to raise awareness about occupational disease in the electronics industry and bring accountability to Samsung (and the rest of the electronics industry). In particular SHARPS is asking people to tell Samsung that people around the world endorse these just demands:

• accept responsibility and pay compensation when electronics workers die of cancer after exposure to toxic chemicals on the job
• disclose to the workers and the public the truth about the hazards of working in the semiconductor industry
• give voice to the victims and their families who have suffered and bring accountability to Samsung
• support electronics workers in their struggles for a safe and fair workplace.

Please add your voice by signing this petition to support SHARPs in their campaign for international solidarity.

- see http://www.ehjournal.net/content/5/1/30 -- “Mortality among US employees of a large computer manufacturing company: 1969–2001”