BBC Documentary Claims Apple Fails to Protect Chinese Factory Workers

[toph2toast]

They are most certainly not helping Apple. These issues are known to everyone who's worked in Asia before. That's why it's a long process to change the work culture.


And again you get the actors wrong. It should be BBC helping the Chinese government and the factory owners improve. Apple customers and Apple have collectively provided a demand platform for them to leverage.

They should also encourage other brand owners to follow suit.

Tell me, what kind of leverage does the BBC have to make these companies change? Do you think its more or less than Apple?

If Apple is going to pound their chest, saying "look at all we are doing", and posting this information on the front page of their website, they should also be ready for the criticism too.

 

[576316]

No this is the BBC looking for ratings and page views. Otherwise it wouldn't be just about Apple.

But Apple is funded by the licence fee, they don't have to worry about ratings or page views because nothing is advert based. But I do believe the documentary is likely to be very one-sided. Don't think I'll be tuning in because I know at some point the customers will be victimised.

 

[Dezryth]

One day they'll all be replaced by robots and can go fill all those open doctor/lawyer positions.

 

[ashdelacroix]

No this is the BBC looking for ratings and page views. Otherwise it wouldn't be just about Apple.

The idea that Apple does not deserve special scrutiny due to the uniquely prominent way it trades on its ethical credentials, far beyond other computing giants, is utterly warped and small-minded to a worrisome degree.

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Tell me, what kind of leverage does the BBC have to make these companies change? Do you think its more or less than Apple?

If Apple is going to pound their chest, saying "look at all we are doing", and posting this information on the front page of their website, they should also be ready for the criticism too.

This.

A very sensible point.

If Apple make much of its ethical credentials, it deserves proportionate scrutiny.

 

[Hodar1]

Why is Apple held to a higher standard

Foxconn makes products for Sony, Dell, IBM, Levino, HP, Samsung, LG, and pretty much every other major company in the world.

Yet, all we hear how "evil" Apple is. Would the BBC be happier if these people were starving to death in the streets, because they had no job at all?

 

[viacavour]

So you're saying that it's OK for Apple to be aware of employees getting abused but it's not their problem as long as the units are built...

Got it!

Nah... They clearly see the issues as part of their charge but everyone knows that the root problem can only be solved by the government and factory owners. Apple is being helpful to help monitor and set the appropriate expectations.

 

[Nunyabinez]

Then you agree with me. They are NOT helping Apple.
They are after eyeballs ?

Absolutely. I think Apple is already taking this seriously and already knows what is happening. The only way they would "help" Apple would be to put more pressure on them to do what is right. But I don't think it's a question of Apple's will. It's a difficult problem that will take years to fully fix if it ever can be.

 

[69Mustang]

Questions I wonder if they'll address:

• Is Apple doing MORE or LESS to investigate these issues and take steps to help the workers than all other tech companies are doing?

• Is Apple MORE or LESS transparent about these issues than all other tech companies?

In the past, Apple has been singled out on this same issue despite being far better than all the companies who somehow get a free pass (and nobody thinks to boycott them).

These issues CANNOT be ignored (and Apple hasn't). I'm sure Apple CAN do better (and on the other hand can't single-handedly fix the word). But if they are singled out apart from all other companies, is that accurate reporting?

Hopefully the sensational headlines will turn out to be for a well-reasoned and useful piece of journalism. We'll know soon.

I have no proof but I am almost certain Apple is probably doing more than other tech companies. Which is a good thing. I also think Apple is far more transparent regarding labor practices. Unfortunately, it brings about a catch 22 for Apple. That transparency brings a spotlight and in our "tear down the top" society, they are the easiest target. When Apple says they are doing X,Y, and Z to help improve the life of the factory worker, the media will look for situations that directly contradict Apple's statement. It's the way of the world we live in. Part and parcel of being #1 in anything.

 

[ashdelacroix]

You're not looking at the larger issue. This is a problem of the Chinese Government, FoxConn and the current labor laws. The BBC has its nose in the wrong place. Next story, move on, let China solve its own problems unless they ask for an American company for assistance. Send a letter to the Chinese Government with your opinion and suggestions.

You are ignorant to a degree that shocks me. Wiping your hands of the whole damn ethical uncertainty of a factory culture that makes the very things you are using right now and every day.

 

[Lone Deranger]

Other than the dormitory bit, all of those things are happening as we speak, here in the west.
I work in the Visual Effects industry for film and TV, and pretty much every Hollywood blockbuster these days calls for large quantities of CGI.
The state of the industry being such that most of my colleagues are expected to work very long hours indeed. 12-16 hours a day certainly is not uncommon... and during what's called "crunch time", weekends are essentially cancelled. So yes, 7 days a week... for sometimes months on end, with little in the way of overtime compensation. Then at the end of a film project, you'll be "lucky" if you get ferried onto the next project that conveniently too, happens to be in crunch-time, or the studio will not renew your contract and you're on the dole.
The burn-out rate is worrying.

BBC producers: This is taking place in London, a stones-throw away from your offices. Where, I wonder, are your undercover reporters?

 

[Rogifan]

The problem is Apple is exploiting horrific human labour conditions in China to manufacture their products. Why don't Apple manufacture in the US? Because it's far too expensive and they'd never make enough to meet demand. So China it is.

Apple isn't the only one doing it, it's an industry problem. But, Apple is the most glamorous, profitable and the one who supposedly 'cares' so they are damn right the ones we should be pointing the finger at. They have the power and finances to make a huge impact, but they don't. They just sit on their billions and make stupid spaceship campuses.

Sometimes living the west it's hard to see through that fog at what is really going on in the world. Especially when it is your 'beloved' Apple.

So why do you buy Apple products then? Aren't you just helping them amass their billions so they can make "stupid spaceship campuses"?

 

[scaredpoet]

So basically, they are blaming Apple for another company's treatment of employees? Shall America start lecturing the UK on the way they treat their citizens?

...or the BBC on how their hosts treat children.

 

[viacavour]

This is quite an ill-conceived answer. It is widely known that Apple exerts exacting control over its suppliers and makes a great deal of fanfare about its ethical policy. Apple could do a great deal to further improve worker conditions, and as it has proved in the past it can spend a lot of money and take a lot of the kudos for making such changes.

Not necessarily. It's not a money problem. It's a culture issue. I worked in China for 8 years.

If you give them money to correct this problem, they will show you more of the same problem to get more of your money. :-D

 

[mattopotamus]

What! People in China are over-worked and under-paid...no way.

 

[Zxxv]

Next Apple Advert will contain happy Chinese People to unconsciously undo the damage done to the mass publics perception of Apple.

 

[ashdelacroix]

Foxconn makes products for Sony, Dell, IBM, Levino, HP, Samsung, LG, and pretty much every other major company in the world.

Yet, all we hear how "evil" Apple is. Would the BBC be happier if these people were starving to death in the streets, because they had no job at all?

That is a tired argument, saying that these people are "relatively" well off and therefore you can just brush your hands of the whole damn matter. I guess you sleep well at night.

None of the above companies make such prominent use of their ethical credentials, and so Apple deserves a proportionately large amount of scrutiny.

 

[Luap]

Not so long ago I had a job, and I worked it 75 hours or so a week. Was it hard and tiring work? Yes. Did I complain, whinge and expect a documentary to be made about it? No. I just got on with it. It's not like anything illegal was going on. It was just good old fashioned hard work.
When I eventually decided I didn't like it anymore, I simply left.

The guys working in these places have the same choices available to them. They can leave if they want!
And.. Foxconn, Pegatron, whoever.. These companies are NOT Apple. They are basically suppliers to Apple. Those companies make stuff for other companies besides Apple. Yet you'll notice you hear little to nothing about those other companies, until it becomes fashionable to hate on them instead

As much as I expect this kind of "News" these days. It's disappointing that it comes from the BBC, which is normally a respectable organisation.

 

[ashdelacroix]

Not necessarily. It's not a money problem. It's a culture issue. I worked in China for 8 years.

If you give them money to correct this problem, they will show you more of the same problem to get more of your money. :-D

Silly answer. It fails to see how much influence Apple has over the factories that make its products. They have shown in the past that they could make dramatic changes, following previous controversies, and then made a great deal of positive press out of the efforts they made. Apple can do more, without any doubt at all.

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What! People in China are over-worked and under-paid...no way.

Apple claims that its workers are properly looked after! But they're not! No way!

 

[Zxxv]

Is this happening in a country that has a law of only one child per family and routinely kills girl children and ties baby girls to chairs for hours at a time in rooms with other children?

or has that stopped?

my point, don't just blame apple as the culture in china is very different.

 

[Rogifan]

I have never seen such a bunch of idiots as I witness on this forum and all in alarmingly quick succession.

The idea that Apple does not deserve special scrutiny due to the uniquely prominent way it trades on its ethical credentials, far beyond other computing giants, is utterly warped and small-minded to a worrisome degree.

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This.

A very sensible point.

If Apple make much of its ethical credentials, it deserves proportionate scrutiny.

So if Apple said nothing then we could all just ignore the issue? So because Apple is quite public about what they're doing from an environmental standpoint no one has the right to investigate Amazon, Facebook, Google or Microsoft because they choose not to publicize their environmental work as much as Apple does? Talk about warped thinking.

 

[Pearl-g]

But...but they put up suicide nets! that's a good thing right?

 

[viacavour]

Tell me, what kind of leverage does the BBC have to make these companies change? Do you think its more or less than Apple?

If Apple is going to pound their chest, saying "look at all we are doing", and posting this information on the front page of their website, they should also be ready for the criticism too.

That's the wrong way to looker things. Apple certainly don't think they can solve these issues overnight but they are willing to invest to improve over the longer term.

BBC most certainly have leverage to help change. But they are stupid and wrong when they shoot the only helper these factories have.

BBC can in fact work with Apple and other supporting bodies to highlight the real issues and incremental improvements to encourage more participation.

Now BBC just looks like a big clueless idiot.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple claims that its workers are properly looked after! But they're not! No way!

So basically you're saying Apple is lying. You got hard facts to back that up?

 

[ashdelacroix]

But...but they put up suicide nets! that's a good thing right?

Exactly.

I wonder if they put suicide nets at the hospital that doctor boasted he was working at for 80 hours, or that guy who "tested games" for a living? Poor things.

 

[AppleMad98004]

Who cares?

I really don't give a crap about this. If the Chinese government isn't regulating labor laws and the people don't rise up and topple the communist government why is it Apple's problem. I bet there would be an out cry if the Chinese State TV did the same at a UK factory.

There is a lot of racism in this. We in the West need to take care of you because you and your government are too stupid to do so.