nytimes.com— A staggering manufacturing system in China has made it possible for Apple and other companies to make devices almost as quickly as they can be dreamed up, but for workers, it can be dangerous.
Jan 26, 2012View in Crawl 4
"Mr. Lai’s college degree enabled him to earn a salary of around $22 a day, including overtime — more than many others. When his days ended, he would retreat to a small bedroom just big enough for a mattress, wardrobe and a desk where he obsessively played an online game called Fight the Landlord, said his girlfriend, Luo Xiaohong."
The New York Times article talks about the terrible working conditions in Foxconn in China, Apple's main supplier of iPhones & iPads. It's just absolutely evil all the human rights abuses that are allowed to exist in the name of "faster, better, cheaper" electronics:
- Suicides
- Deaths from aluminum dust explosions
- Numerous safety violations including improper ventilation
- Abusive working conditions including 6 days a week 12-hour shifts
- Back to back shifts with no rest
- Overcrowded dormitories
- Inadequate safety personal protective devices (gloves, face masks, etc.)
- Underage hiring
- Paying less than the minimum wage
- Requiring employees to pay "recruitment fees"
- Withholding pay as punishment
- Push-ups as punishment
- All-day long standing shifts making workers' legs so sore they can barely walk
- Blindingly bright 24-hours a day bright lights
- Improper disposal of hazardous waste
- Records being falsified
- Workers breathing in toxic poisonous chemicals
- Repeated safety violations that occur year after year despite audits
- A disturbing culture of secrecy
Not good Apple! >:(
1) To those who say manufacturing jobs will never return to the United States, I point to Germany whose well-paid union workers enjoy universal healthcare, paternity/maternity leave and paid vacation time. Their factories are generally environmentally-friendly, and even with the Euro's problems, their business is increasing. So there's that.
2) This is why we need to re-institute the equivalence wage tariffs that once protected workers here (and abroad) from the race-to-the-bottom described in the article. I'd add an environmental-equivalence tariff.
Corporations should not be allowed to generate high profit margins simply by moving operations to countries with the lowest wages, worst human rights record and dirtiest environmental standards.
Apple is currently sitting on $90bn liquid assets. This piece puts that in perspective. It also puts in perspective the life and career of Steve Jobs; let his hagiographers explain away this.
You answer your own question, really. Jobs had a flair for design and marketing; and for a while he certainly outshone virtually the entire board at Apple. The rest was simple application of everyday capitalism, red in tooth and claw.
Ask all the other businesses doing the same thing.
Jobs isn't admired for being a nice man or even a decent human being. He is admired for bringing into being cool shiat that hundreds of millions of people like. And he did do that.
We could have told you that yrs ago when they house workers in dormitory-like houses and paired them roommates (4-6 per room) and have suicide nets all over to catch someone who might decide to take his/her life by jumping through the window. Well, they told us that the "job creators" would like to see union power reduced to minimal like with Scott Walker, the son of a union worker.
FTA: "But ultimately, say former Apple executives, there are few real outside pressures for change. Apple is one of the most admired brands. In a national survey conducted by The New York Times in November, 56 percent of respondents said they couldn’t think of anything negative about Apple. Fourteen percent said the worst thing about the company was that its products were too expensive. Just 2 percent mentioned overseas labor practices."
J'Accuse myself. I feel dirty and complicit. In so many ways, we are repeating the turn of the 20th century, only this time its foreign electronic manufacturers instead of the slaughterhouses of Sinclair Lewis. And this time, it isn't our family and friends being exploited in the factory. But we also suffer because of the drive for American workers to compete with these conditions. It isn't just wages anymore, its willingness to be enslaved. As long as products from places like this are allowed compete on an equal footing with products produced under humane, sustainable practices and we continue to look the other way, then this is what we will reap. Decline in the standards of living in America and enslavement in developing countries where any job is better than none.
Another example of Fox-style smear campaign against China... here are the real facts:
The CEO of HongHai (aka Foxconn), GuoTai Ming, has publicly clarified that his Taiwan-base company previously offered above par worker insurances... whereby ten or so Chinese employees have taken their own lives such that their surviving family members would receive the monetary compensations... the suicides dramatically tapered off after Foxconn tightened the insurance loopholes .
As the dollar value increases, the importance of the peoples welfare decreases exponentially. To hope that a company as big as Apple will suddenly start caring about it's emplyees is naive. Maybe the Chinese government should start caring about it's own people by imposing certain standards of employment, minimum wage etc.
10000lakesJan 26, 2012
"Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: “WORK HARD ON THE JOB TODAY OR WORK HARD TO FIND A JOB TOMORROW.” WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:(
nickymouseJan 26, 2012
I'm going to use that banner
scabnabbitJan 26, 2012
"Mr. Lai’s college degree enabled him to earn a salary of around $22 a day, including overtime — more than many others. When his days ended, he would retreat to a small bedroom just big enough for a mattress, wardrobe and a desk where he obsessively played an online game called Fight the Landlord, said his girlfriend, Luo Xiaohong."
Wow.
10000lakesJan 26, 2012
The New York Times article talks about the terrible working conditions in Foxconn in China, Apple's main supplier of iPhones & iPads. It's just absolutely evil all the human rights abuses that are allowed to exist in the name of "faster, better, cheaper" electronics:
- Suicides
- Deaths from aluminum dust explosions
- Numerous safety violations including improper ventilation
- Abusive working conditions including 6 days a week 12-hour shifts
- Back to back shifts with no rest
- Overcrowded dormitories
- Inadequate safety personal protective devices (gloves, face masks, etc.)
- Underage hiring
- Paying less than the minimum wage
- Requiring employees to pay "recruitment fees"
- Withholding pay as punishment
- Push-ups as punishment
- All-day long standing shifts making workers' legs so sore they can barely walk
- Blindingly bright 24-hours a day bright lights
- Improper disposal of hazardous waste
- Records being falsified
- Workers breathing in toxic poisonous chemicals
- Repeated safety violations that occur year after year despite audits
- A disturbing culture of secrecy
Not good Apple! >:(
nygenxerJan 26, 2012
Two points:
1) To those who say manufacturing jobs will never return to the United States, I point to Germany whose well-paid union workers enjoy universal healthcare, paternity/maternity leave and paid vacation time. Their factories are generally environmentally-friendly, and even with the Euro's problems, their business is increasing. So there's that.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/24/markets-oil-idUSL4E8CO2V020120124
2) This is why we need to re-institute the equivalence wage tariffs that once protected workers here (and abroad) from the race-to-the-bottom described in the article. I'd add an environmental-equivalence tariff.
Corporations should not be allowed to generate high profit margins simply by moving operations to countries with the lowest wages, worst human rights record and dirtiest environmental standards.
MikeGeorgesJan 26, 2012
Apple is currently sitting on $90bn liquid assets. This piece puts that in perspective. It also puts in perspective the life and career of Steve Jobs; let his hagiographers explain away this.
nygenxerJan 26, 2012
I don't understand those who refer to Jobs as a business genius. How hard is it to make money using slave labor?
MikeGeorgesJan 26, 2012
You answer your own question, really. Jobs had a flair for design and marketing; and for a while he certainly outshone virtually the entire board at Apple. The rest was simple application of everyday capitalism, red in tooth and claw.
nygenxerJan 26, 2012
I don't understand those who refer to Jobs as a business genius. How hard is it to make money using slave labor?
jhw539Jan 26, 2012
Ask all the other businesses doing the same thing.
Jobs isn't admired for being a nice man or even a decent human being. He is admired for bringing into being cool shiat that hundreds of millions of people like. And he did do that.
late8Jan 26, 2012
But my device is eco friendly, magical and high quality made in apple land where everything is golden.
richidJan 26, 2012Staff
“And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”
ObaAdeleJan 26, 2012
We could have told you that yrs ago when they house workers in dormitory-like houses and paired them roommates (4-6 per room) and have suicide nets all over to catch someone who might decide to take his/her life by jumping through the window. Well, they told us that the "job creators" would like to see union power reduced to minimal like with Scott Walker, the son of a union worker.
nygenxerJan 26, 2012
Yep, it's old news if you've been paying attention.
ObaAdeleJan 26, 2012
I know and I have but if they reprint it, we will discuss it. It does not make it better for all if it is re-broadcasted.
mdwhaleJan 26, 2012
Also listen to a excellent episode on the deplorable working conditions in Apple's factories from "This American Life":
"Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory" You can stream or download from iTunes (ironically)--
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
08sosoJan 26, 2012
FTA: "But ultimately, say former Apple executives, there are few real outside pressures for change. Apple is one of the most admired brands. In a national survey conducted by The New York Times in November, 56 percent of respondents said they couldn’t think of anything negative about Apple. Fourteen percent said the worst thing about the company was that its products were too expensive. Just 2 percent mentioned overseas labor practices."
J'Accuse myself. I feel dirty and complicit. In so many ways, we are repeating the turn of the 20th century, only this time its foreign electronic manufacturers instead of the slaughterhouses of Sinclair Lewis. And this time, it isn't our family and friends being exploited in the factory. But we also suffer because of the drive for American workers to compete with these conditions. It isn't just wages anymore, its willingness to be enslaved. As long as products from places like this are allowed compete on an equal footing with products produced under humane, sustainable practices and we continue to look the other way, then this is what we will reap. Decline in the standards of living in America and enslavement in developing countries where any job is better than none.
icwydJan 26, 2012
Because people will not spend $10 to $20 more for their iPad?
If they could charge $10 to $20 more I am sure it will go into the Management's/Stockholder's pockets.
crashdown1Jan 26, 2012
This is why I refuse to support anything Apple makes from here on. GREED!!
skipweisJan 26, 2012
China is known for the low labor cost. This is also the reason why most businesses would choose to have their products made in China.
KapsiotJan 26, 2012
These apple jobs are some of the most coveted in China. I heard the other day that they are sitting on 3000 applications.
blackplight4uJan 26, 2012
So sad! I am reading this on a iPad?
chongqingkingFeb 4, 2012
Another example of Fox-style smear campaign against China... here are the real facts:
The CEO of HongHai (aka Foxconn), GuoTai Ming, has publicly clarified that his Taiwan-base company previously offered above par worker insurances... whereby ten or so Chinese employees have taken their own lives such that their surviving family members would receive the monetary compensations... the suicides dramatically tapered off after Foxconn tightened the insurance loopholes .
Feel free to confirm this news.
trivialanomalyJan 27, 2012
As the dollar value increases, the importance of the peoples welfare decreases exponentially. To hope that a company as big as Apple will suddenly start caring about it's emplyees is naive. Maybe the Chinese government should start caring about it's own people by imposing certain standards of employment, minimum wage etc.
dlambertsonJan 26, 2012
Dead on