23-04-2009 Goodelectronics: Chinese battery supplier to Sony and Toshiba continues to ignore demands of workers poisoned with cadmium.

Excerpt from a news item on the Goodelectronics website:

For years now, the Chinese company Gold Peak Batteries Limited  is at loggerheads with civil society groups in China as well as abroad over recurring Occupational Health and Safety issues. In 2004, an outbreak of cadmium poisoning cases occurred in four subsidiary factories of Gold Peak Batteries in mainland China as well as in Hong Kong. One case concerns the cadmium poisoning of workers of the Gold Peak Batteries plant in Hong Kong. Another case concerns the cadmium poisoning of workers at JetPower, a Gold Peak subsidiary based in Shenzhen, China. Workers of this factory recently struck up new protests against the projected closure of the Shenzhen plant, for fear their medical claims will not be resolved. Starting from last week, 10 JetPower workers with excessive cadmium levels started a new round of action again and take turn (24hours) to stop JP plant to deliver their products. They have been demanding negotiation with management on their compensation package.
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Gold Peak Batteries has long-established supply agreements with some of the world’s biggest consumer brands. Gold Peak rechargeable batteries and components are used in electronic products manufactured by Black & Decker, Canon, Casio, EverReady, Fuji, JVC, Kodak, Konica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, Rayovac, Ricoh, Siemens, Sony, SonyEricsson, Toshiba and Uniden, to name some. Its batteries are found in cordless and wireless phones, toys, power tools, and are sold across the world.