VOA慢速英语:Inspections Open at Apple Manufacturers in China

A labor group has begun investigating working conditions at the Chinese factories where many Apple products are made. Apple officials ordered the investigation after The New York Times newspaper described poor working conditions at the factories.
一家劳工组织已经开始调查制造苹果产品在中国工厂的工作条件。在纽约时报描述了该工厂的工作条件差之后，苹果官方下令展开调查。

The Foxconn Technology Group owns the manufacturing centers in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Zhengzhou.
富士康科技集团在深圳，成都，郑州等城市都拥有制造中心。
 
Angela Cornell is a professor at the Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York. She says many issues were raised last year after a number of suicides at the Foxconn factories.
安吉拉•康奈尔是纽约州伊萨卡市的康奈尔法学院的一名教授。她说，在去年富士康工厂多人自杀后，许多问题浮出了水面。

One issue is the number of hours that employees are required to work. Other concerns are pay, living conditions and even reports of violence against workers.
问题之一是员工的工作时间。其他问题是薪酬、生活条件，甚至是对工人的暴力行为报告。

The New York Times reported that employees sometimes worked seven days a week. The newspaper said some stood so long that they had trouble walking. Widespread criticism of Apple followed publication of the report. Mark Shields organized a campaign calling for better working conditions.
纽约时报报道称，员工有时一个星期工作七天。该报纸称，一些人由于站立太久而行走困难。报道公开后苹果遭受了广泛批评。马克•希尔兹组织了一场要求改善工作条件的运动。
 
MARK SHIELDS: “Workers lives are really hard and really severe, and there’s terrible stories about people losing the use of their hands because of horrible repetitive motion injuries, and suicide rates that are so high that they have got to hang nets off the sides of the buildings to prevent workers from killing themselves.”
马克•希尔兹：“工人们的生活真的非常艰难。而骇人听闻的是，由于可怕的重复性运动损伤，一些人失去了他们的手部功能。自杀率如此之高，工厂只能在建筑物外侧挂上防护网以防止工人自杀。”

Professor Cornell says the conditions at the Foxconn factories had to have been really bad.
康奈尔教授表示，富士康工厂的条件已经非常糟糕。

ANGELA CORNELL: “Just imagine how dire the working conditions would have had to be for those workers to sacrifice their lives.”
安其拉康奈尔：试想一下，工作条件要有多可怕，这些工人才会放弃自己的生命。”

Professor Cornell says even Apple’s own reports noted issues at some of its factories. These included involuntary labor and underage labor.
康奈尔教授说，即使是苹果公司自己的报告也指出了一些工厂的问题。这些包括非自愿劳动和未成年人劳动。

ANGELA CORNELL: ”These are important issues. The involuntary laborer(s) are indentured migrant workers. And that is a crucially important issue. I mean that’s basically slave labor.”
安其拉康奈尔：“这些都是重要的问题。非自愿劳动者是合同制民工。这是一个至关重要的问题。我的意思是这基本上是奴隶劳工。”

More than two hundred thousand people have joined Mark Shields’ campaign for better working conditions. The American admits he loves his Apple products. But, he says, he wants them to be made without human suffering.
超过二十万人已经加入了马克希尔兹要求改善工作条件的运动。美国人承认，自己喜爱苹果产品。但他说，他希望这些产品在制造时没有民众遭受痛苦。

The company announced last week it had asked the Fair Labor Association to investigate the conditions at its Foxconn factories. The FLA was established in nineteen ninety-nine to investigate working conditions around the world. Apple joined the not-for-profit group earlier this year.
该公司上周宣布，称其已经要求公平劳动协会（简称FLA）调查富士康工厂的条件。公平劳动协会成立于1999年，致力于调查世界各地的工作条件。今年早些时候，苹果加入了这家非营利性组织。

Last Friday, the Times reported that the president of the FLA has begun praising the factories. But the group’s second-in-command suggested delaying judgment until a report on the investigation is finished.
上周五，纽约时报报道称，公平劳动协会总裁开始赞扬这家工厂。但该协会的第二号命令建议推迟裁定，直到完成调查报告。

Also on Friday, Foxconn said it was raising the pay of its workers in China. It was the company’s third pay raise since twenty-ten.
同样在上周五，富士康表示，公司已提高了中国工人的工资。这是该公司自2010年以来的第三次加薪。