BBC Documentary Claims Apple Fails to Protect Chinese Factory Workers

[MacrumoursUser]

Pointing finger to other companies saying they do much better doesn't look very good. No cares if you do better if its still bad. No gives a flying **** if you get a 1000 or 500 years jail sentence, you will die in jail regardless. This video footage is pretty damn convincing.

 

[Zxxv]

Who doesn't fall asleep at work?

raise your hand.

Did the BBC crew fall asleep at any point whilst filming this?

raise your hand.

 

[viizi]

I do 12 hour shifts often, I might yawn once or twice but I don't pass out. Forced? They are their by choice lol! My brother did 2 x 92 hour weeks in a row at his work to get a place ready before a launch and that was his choice. People just want to see Apple burn because they are jealous Apple is at the top.

and even if all that crap were true, that is not Apple's fault. That is FOXXCON fault lol.

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They also fall to address the other 50 plus companies that use the same factories

exactly. They only target Apple because they feel inferior to Apple and want to feel better about themselves trying to push Apple under themselves

 

[MagicBoy]

Yawn. It's about ratings. The BBC doesn't really care about Chinese factory workers any more than most of the people posting here.

Arrogant much?

Utter rot.

Ratings are used to set prices for advertising. Why would the BBC need to be concerned about ratings for anything other than the pride of the marketing types when they check how Eastenders is doing against Coronation St?

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If TV licence fees is not a tax to the government and then used to fund BBC which is paid out by a government body I'll eat my hat.

It's collected on behalf of the BBC by a company called TV Licensing. Technically the money is the passed to the government by TVL, as it's then split between the BBC and a Welsh broadcaster called S4C.

On that basis you need to eat about 95% of your hat. I hope it wasn't made in China, who knows what's in it!

 

[thalazy]

Full documentary on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpgA7iw5sM

Just found this while doing a google search to see if they were going to air this on BBC America. Will watch this tomorrow.

One thing I noticed while watching is that the employee's are being paid overtime but it's being disguised as a bonus.

 

[gnasher729]

I guess you copied and pasted the above without actually reading it.

The British government does NOT fund the BBC.

The British government does set the licence fee charge as it's effectively another form of compulsory taxation but they don't contribute towards it. The fee is paid by every household in the UK.

And that makes a huge difference. So the government doesn't _pay_ the BBC through taxes, but the government created a law that forces basically every household in the country to pay a fee, which apparently we are not allowed to call a tax.

In practice, there's no difference. Either way, the government created laws to take money from the pockets of its citizens and hand it over to the BBC. Most people don't care what it's called.

 

[Piggie]

And if Apple stopped manufacturing in China where would all these Chinese factory workers go? Back to the fields making 1/10 the wages they're paid by Foxconn?

I always think this is a silly point of view to justify something is bad.

So I fly over to Ethiopia get a young black child who was going to starve, bring them back and make them do all my work for me, I'll feed them and give them shelter that's all.

Hey I'm doing good. Without me they'd starve.
You don't want me to have my slave, ok then I'll sent them back home where they will starve and die.

See, I'm doing good really.

That's a dumb justification for doing something we all know is wrong.

 

[Nordichund]

Apple now needs to ensure that what it promises when it comes to workers conditions actually happens, end of.

Makes me fee really fortunate that I live in a country where workers have 5 paid weeks annual leave plus national holidays. That if I become ill I know that there is free medical and hospital treatment, no BS with insurance companies. Where there is little crime, except for the odd right wing, crazed nutter.

Life is good.

Merry Xmas

I will certainly think about those poor workers next time every time I turn on my shiny new Mac. But that is like most of the things produced in the east for western consumption. Should we feel guilty?

 

[roadbloc]

I'm seeing a lot of people here jumping the post gun without even understanding how the BBC works. You're showing yourself up guys and defending a company that fails to protect its workers in the process.

But whatever. Its MacRumors so I wouldn't expect any different. To hell what a fair and impartial documentary says, Apple till I die, Apple are perfect, Apple cannot make any improvements or be criticised at all.

 

[Winni]

If you don't like it leave. Go to whatever labor board they have and complain.

When was the last time you have visited the real world...?

 

[nebo1ss]

One of the interesting points made in the program last night is that the cost of assembling an Iphone in this factory is $5. How many of us would object to paying a little more to see conditions improve or perhaps Apple could make a little less profit. I assume an extra $5 could result in a 100 percent improvement.

We all know that Apple are very tough in their financial agreements with their suppliers and assemblers. There are plenty of other sweat shops in China that would be happy to take on the work.

With regard to those who make the point that many other companies use the same factories and have similar conditions. I think you will find that you are partly right. They might use the same companies but not the same facility. The facility that was highlighted in the program does work exclusively for Apple in fact it was referred to as "Apple City". This does not excuse the other companies I am sure there are many guilty parties.

 

[SHNXX]

I watched the entire production.



Having considerable experience with manufacturing in China, I have to say the conditions generally look to be on the higher end of normal. Workers sleeping during breaks? They do that everywhere. Show me a guy with a cattle prod keeping them awake if you want to impress me.



Hell, at the Olympics in Beijing fully 3/4 of the volunteers working the venue in my event were asleep at any given time. Think they were being abused?



I have to say the piece lost all credibility for me with two major items- the entitlement based outrage that the Beeb reporter didn't get an interview in Cupertino, and the vague "we have been told" about the link between the tin mines and the Apple supply chain taking up a third of the show.

Thumbs up

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One of the interesting points made in the program last night is that the cost of assembling an Iphone in this factory is $5. How many of us would object to paying a little more to see conditions improve or perhaps Apple could make a little less profit. I assume an extra $5 could result in a 100 percent improvement.



We all know that Apple are very tough in their financial agreements with their suppliers and assemblers. There are plenty of other sweat shops in China that would be happy to take on the work.



With regard to those who make the point that many other companies use the same factories and have similar conditions. I think you will find that you are partly right. They might use the same companies but not the same facility. The facility that was highlighted in the program does work exclusively for Apple in fact it was referred to as "Apple City". This does not excuse the other companies I am sure there are many guilty parties.

Economies of scale is a good thing and I seriously doubt this shotty journalist really did his research properly to get that $5 number.

Apple's profit margin is 40% according to publicly available data.
Why should they decrease it?
Should the shareholders just give up what is rightfully theirs?

 

[apolloa]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpgA7iw5sM

Just found this while doing a google search to see if they were going to air this on BBC America. Will watch this tomorrow.

One thing I noticed while watching is that the employee's are being paid overtime but it's being disguised as a bonus.

Nice find mate, I suggest people watch it before commenting.

Oh, and can people please stop commenting on how the BBC is funded as its very obvious some of you have NO CLUE how its done.
Its a licence fee pretty much everyone has to pay, and some British people just see it as another tax as its basically mandatory if you want to watch TV.

 

[Mr Fusion]

Just watched the documentary (thanks UK VPN server). It's pretty clear Apple's been phoning it in when it comes to supplier responsibility. They have three paths ahead of them:

- Invest more heavily in auditing global supply chains or get into the mining and manufacturing business directly to fix the problem. This is costly, perhaps cost-prohibitive.

- Get off their high-horse about how they're more responsible than the next idiot with an electronics company.

- Continue blowing smoke up peoples ***** and subject themselves to this kind of reporting.

Option three goes over best in the out-of-touch world of Silicon Valley.

Yet they fail to report that these hard done by people are paid a fair wage by there countries going rate and there there by CHOICE. It's not forced labour!

It's pretty clear you didn't watch the program. Fair wages weren't a topic of discussion, try trolling harder next time for more up-votes.

 

[haravikk]

Highlighting this stuff is all well and good, but it annoys me that the focus is always on Apple as if every big company isn't doing exactly the same thing (or worse), that's just the wonderful world we live in thanks to the benefits of capitalism.

Companies will change if they see profits being (potentially) lost, or if governments make them do it, but for both of these things to happen it requires people to demand action. But as usual people's extreme, overwhelming apathy prevents it, as the majority of us are happy to use products hand assembled by people who are essentially slaves (and sometimes children) if it means we can have the latest mobile phone every year at an unrealistically low price.

It's one of the reasons that I find Black Friday so incredibly disgusting; aside from the fact that Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in the UK (yet we have Black Friday, wtf?), and that it completely undermines the holiday it's supposed to be a part of, it's entirely focused on the acquisition of cheap electronics. So many electronic goods are massively underpriced for what they are, and they can only be delivered at these prices through exploitation of tax systems and third-world countries. But don't be seen trying to stop it, or Joe Bloggs will get outraged if he can't afford to buy a new HDTV every year to replace the perfectly functional one he'll be fly-tipping somewhere.

 

[Col4bin]

Gotta love the BBC profiteering off Apple with this sensationalist story, simply due to Apple's overall popularity. But don't let the fact that many other large tech firms also partner with the Pegatron's/Foxconn's of the World and all share these same exact employees. These employees don't work for Apple, yet Apple has made the most strides in advocating for better working conditions and wages. BBC can **** off with this crap. Give me a break.

 

[rmbpuser]

****ing bbc is making it ****ing hard to ****ing care about those workers knowing its a ****ing cheap shot of an "expose" to garner profit on apples back which is ironic because most likely these workers have it better than others working for different supply chains. **** off and to hell with this

 

[ani4ani]

Gotta love the BBC profiteering off Apple with this sensationalist story, simply due to Apple's overall popularity. But don't let the fact that many other large tech firms also partner with the Pegatron's/Foxconn's of the World and all share these same exact employees. These employees don't work for Apple, yet Apple has made the most strides in advocating for better working conditions and wages. BBC can **** off with this crap. Give me a break.

Watch the program and then reflect on how silly your comments are

 

[MH01]

Yet they fail to report that these hard done by people are paid a fair wage by there countries going rate and there there by CHOICE. It's not forced labour!

Working conditions..... you completely choose to ignore the issue at hand.

You would not make it one week working in that factory, even if they paid you your US wage!

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This thread just shows how pathetic Apple Apologists can be. I advise some of you to actually watch the documentary... you will realise how pathetic your statements are.

Watch it.

I could not work in those factories, even if they doubled my current wage.

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****ing bbc is making it ****ing hard to ****ing care about those workers knowing its a ****ing cheap shot of an "expose" to garner profit on apples back which is ironic because most likely these workers have it better than others working for different supply chains. **** off and to hell with this

And this boys and girls, is why you should remain in school.

 

[Zombie Acorn]

Never seen so many Apple apologists in one thread. The reason Apple gets picked out is because they are marketing a premium brand and their typical user doesn't like to see people get treated like **** to make an overpriced product that Apple is already bathing in margins on.

 

[apolloa]

Gotta love the BBC profiteering off Apple with this sensationalist story, simply due to Apple's overall popularity. But don't let the fact that many other large tech firms also partner with the Pegatron's/Foxconn's of the World and all share these same exact employees. These employees don't work for Apple, yet Apple has made the most strides in advocating for better working conditions and wages. BBC can **** off with this crap. Give me a break.

****ing bbc is making it ****ing hard to ****ing care about those workers knowing its a ****ing cheap shot of an "expose" to garner profit on apples back which is ironic because most likely these workers have it better than others working for different supply chains. **** off and to hell with this

Go back to school or stay in school, or Google how the BBC makes money. Either way please don't comment on things you have NO CLUE ABOUT!

 

[MH01]

I'm seeing a lot of people here jumping the post gun without even understanding how the BBC works. You're showing yourself up guys and defending a company that fails to protect its workers in the process.

But whatever. Its MacRumors so I wouldn't expect any different. To hell what a fair and impartial documentary says, Apple till I die, Apple are perfect, Apple cannot make any improvements or be criticised at all.

Spot on mate! A post that summarises this thread. Is it just me, or were threads back before apple became huge on MR a lot more intellectually stimulating? The bar has dropped.

 

[spacemanspifff]

1. I don't think Apple has anything to do with how these companies treat their workers. Although I know that they are at least trying to change conditions in these factories (I'm not sure about the mines though).

2. If not even one person was ever going to see this program, it would still have been made, the BBC don't need to have guaranteed viewers to make content. However, I think by linking Apples name to this documentary, they have made it much more likely that it will get a larger audience.

3. In the future, as the eastern economy escalates, these 3rd party companies will begin to pay their workers more money and give them more time off, and then the cost of all these gadgets that everyone here is so fond of (and already complain about the high cost of) - will go up! In fact it may get to a point were the Western world will be the ones working like dogs to keep the Chinese people in appleWatches.

 

[Ramchi]

Nothing surprising!

More publicity stunts will be organised to erase this image but underneath the same old stuff goes on and on....greed has no limits!

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I don't ask the folks at Apple Retail if they've gotten enough rest. I don't ensure the ARS employee's safety. That's the job of the employer.

I don't understand how it's Apple's or Dell's or HP's responsibility to ensure FOXCONN workers are getting enough rest.

Not trying to be an Apple apologist here, just saying that Apple and the rest may want to pull their business if they know something is up, but it's not their responsibility to make sure folks in another company aren't working themselves too hard.

There's a lot of fabrication in documentary story telling. The most recent one I can recall is 12 O' Clock Boys, which is total garbage.

US champion on WTO conventions on various aspects including child labor, workers compensation etc...They cannot preach something they cannot enforce in their domain may be the point BBC is highlighting, not that BBC is perfect in all aspects though

 

[MH01]

Yawn. It's about ratings. The BBC doesn't really care about Chinese factory workers any more than most of the people posting here.

You seem very vocal on MR, as I do not spend too much time on here I was not sure wheather you were a rational subjective poster or a apologist, this thread made it clear. My only advice, you have no idea how the BBC is funded or what journalistic integrity is, so I'd advise you to talk about things you might know. And clearly you have not watched the program. If you have and are still posting these comments ,you should raise your concerns with the education system you went through.