After gathering in front of Apple's offices in Taiwan earlier this week, protesters are now demanding a substantive response from Apple by the end of the month regarding alleged workplace labor and safety violations at Wintek, one of Apple's display component suppliers.

Labor groups associated with the protesters claim that Wintek unlawfully fired 619 workers, cut salaries without negotiation, and forced employees to work overtime without pay to fulfill rush orders. The company has since re-hired 20 of those workers and says it is operating within the law. Wintek has also threatened legal action if "company and stakeholder interests" are jeopardized. Wintek further claims that labor groups are violating their agreements and encouraging workers to demand benefits illegally.

The protesters appear to be using the popularity of Apple's brand name to get attention to their cause. "We want to go through Apple to put pressure on Wintek," said Chu Wei-li, secretary-general of the Taipei-based National Federation of Independent Trade Unions.

Apple Asia released a tepid response after the protests. Spokeswoman Jill Tan said, "Apple conducts regular audits of suppliers to make sure they comply with Apple's code of conduct. We require corrective actions when we find violations."

An audit is exactly what aggrieved Wintek employees say they are demanding. MacNN says that rights groups associated with the protests are also asking the Electronics Industry Citizen Coalition to investigate Apple's delay in responding to the matter.

Wintek was recently rumored to be the winner of the display contract for Apple's "media pad" tablet device. Some analysts predict the tablet will go on sale next year.

Apple has previously found itself in the middle of other labor disputes. In 2006, Foxconn workers protested low pay and poor working conditions while assembling iPods. Apple conducted its own investigation and found that the company violated overtime rules and unreasonably punished workers. Since then, cute pictures of Foxconn employees have thawed the image of the supplier.

Last week you may have caught some photos going around of a cute Foxconn factory worker flashing peace signs. The photos were found on a UK man's brand-new iPhone, and posted at MacRumors.

The mystery girl's identity is being protected by Foxconn, and a company spokesman said that her job is not in any danger. Taking pictures with the camera is a normal part of the testing procedure done before the phone is shipped out.

As with other Chinese internet celebrities, identities are hard to come by. Second Brother on the Right, who was part of the Olympic torch procession through many countries, is still anonymous.

[Via Reuters.]

TechCrunch is reporting that Foxconn (the Taiwanese Apple manufacturing plant) is building over 800,000 iPhones per week in order to meet demand. They are also reporting that this means the plant is working "above current full capacity" and notes that the quality control might not be the best at this time.

Apple has moved more than 6 million iPhone units in just the first year. According to TechCrunch, Apple's run rate for the iPhone 3G is over 40 million units per year.

MacNN reports that Hon Hai Precision Industry (aka "Foxconn Electronics") has won a new contract with Apple to produce a line of Mac notebooks. The actual notebook line in question is still unclear. MacNN notes that the company will ship about 3.2 million notebooks in 2007, of which the Apple order only makes up a part.

If the name of this manufacturing company sounds familiar, it's probably because of our recent story about Foxconn reportedly winning the iPhone handset contact. Foxconn has also built has had contracts to build has had TUAW stories about having possibly having had contracts to possibly build in a theoretical way only Mac Minis, Powerbooks and iBook G4s for Apple in the past.

MarketWatch is reporting that Apple's shares reached a 52-week high of $87.95 today, apparently fueled by furious rumors of - you guessed it - an iPhone. I'm sure the report that Hon Hai received a manufacturing order from Apple for just such a device isn't doing anything to stop people from losing their investing sense either. If the iPhone is really going to happen, the word on the street hasn't changed from "the first half of next year" yet, unless you consider this latest momument to craptastic journalism from AppleInsider about a second iChat-based iPhone already in the works (seriously guys: try drawing the line somewhere - for once).

As usual, you'll hear more as soon as we do.

[via MacMinute]

Foxconn, in a good move for a change, has dropped the libel suit against the reporters who broke the iPod factory story. The reporters alleged that workers assembling Apple's iconic iPod were not being treated according to Chinese labor laws. An Apple lead investigation found some issues with the factory, but overall it checked.

Bravo to Foxconn for coming to their senses and dropping this ridiculous lawsuit.

Sounds like things might not be so squeaky clean in the "iPod City" after all, as Engadget has dug up some dirt on the Foxconn factory's admission of breaching Chinese labor laws. Specifically, Foxconn has admitted their employees work about 80 extra hours each month - which is a tad above and beyond the 36 extra hours that Chinese law allows for. To make matters worse though, Apple launched an investigation into the factory once this issue broke, "but has found no problem with Foxconn", to quote a factory spokeswoman from the ChinaCSR.com report. Here's hoping Apple is delving a bit deeper into the matter beyond what is likely a preemptive quote from a spokesperson eager for the issue to simply go away.