Yeah, right. Never happen. This so called free trade and global economy crap is what got us in this mess in the 1st pace. Its the big businesses that wanted and pushed for free trade so they can exploit third world countries and use SLAVE labor! We would all be turned into slaves with your statement.We need to eliminate countries and currencies, and make the entire world a single country with no borders and a single currency, and a single minimum wage.
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Foxconn Workers Reportedly Strike over iPhone 5 Quality Control Demands
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You haven't' the foggiest notion of what you're talking about, right?
Very entertaining.----------
Dunno about that. I've seen on this forum macro images posted by buyers complaining about a microscopic ding and returning the phone. So what's Apple supposed to do in response to that?
If you get a brand new anything with damage on it, you send it back. iPhones are no different to any other luxury item. If the phones are leaving the factory with damaged finish then it's unacceptable. This is a quality control issue and the workers in China are going to produce some product with defects, that's unavoidable. Its QA in the factories that is lacking letting these phones go out with damage. The damaged phones should have been spotted by QA, the causes identified and working practices continuously improved to reduce the number of defects. I suspect you just have idiot managers pushing this all back at the workers because the phones have scratches rather than trying to re-engineer the process so the scratches don't happen. That's what quality assurance is all about but judging by the poor quality of most product coming out of China its an area where they are still years behind. Workers cannot be blamed for this, its the lack of QA process that's at fault.
Pure and simple. Love the fact that they are designed in the US with US-based engineers. Let's bring some love back to our workers here and add some automation for truly menial tasks. It's a win for the US industry as a whole. Plus, a whole lot less leaks from Chinese websites.
Probably the short term answer however is Brazil.... :/
This is for all you ass clowns. http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/news/new-434.html
Yep don't see Apple being label as being responsible......
I would like to see this, followed up with a report of the difference in cost to produce X amount of iPhones at each factory.
It would be nice to know what the actual difference in costs would be. Is it a major difference or are we only talking $10 per iPhone?
By many accounts, the iPhone 5 is difficult to assemble. The materials are more easily scratched or bent (a thin sheet of aluminum is not particularly hard or rigid). Employees' performance and pay are tied into the number of rejected parts. The employees feel upset that they are being asked to perform at a substantially higher level without new tools or training or face a cut in their wages. If you think this is just laziness, I wonder how you would feel if your employer increased your workload without increasing your pay. Factory work is not easy.
Moving jobs back to the United States does not appear to be a viable answer. The issues are related to pay, environmental standards, and also supply logistics. The pay, benefits, workers' compensation, etc. benefits would add more than a few dollars to the price of the finished product.
The factory that is making the iPhone 5 is likely a couple of blocks away from the factory that is making the case and a couple of blocks away from the factory making the battery, etc. This allows Foxconn to minimize warehousing costs and labour inefficiencies. Parts are coming in as they are needed and work crews are always working at close to capacity.
Moving manufacturing back to the US would mean moving all of those associated industries as well, and some of them are quite dirty. It would mean coordinating a large workforce across several industries. Labour disputes in any one industry would disrupt everything else.
Brazil looks like it's willing to make a major commitment to manufacturing. But it is worth remembering what the average standard of living is there. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people living in tin sheds without adequate sanitation.
The goal of free trade is to remove traditional barriers to business. When you do that, you increase competition for manufacturing by dramatically increasing the number of people available and willing to work. People in poorer countries will always be willing to work for less than those in more affluent countries.
There are reasons that Zenith, RCA, etc. are no longer manufacturing in the US. If you think it's an easy fix, start up your own company and see how many headaches you'll face in manufacturing in the US. Also, you'll see how much of a premium most people are willing to absorb to buy locally assembled products.
Moving jobs back to the United States does not appear to be a viable answer. The issues are related to pay, environmental standards, and also supply logistics. The pay, benefits, workers' compensation, etc. benefits would add more than a few dollars to the price of the finished product.
The factory that is making the iPhone 5 is likely a couple of blocks away from the factory that is making the case and a couple of blocks away from the factory making the battery, etc. This allows Foxconn to minimize warehousing costs and labour inefficiencies. Parts are coming in as they are needed and work crews are always working at close to capacity.
Moving manufacturing back to the US would mean moving all of those associated industries as well, and some of them are quite dirty. It would mean coordinating a large workforce across several industries. Labour disputes in any one industry would disrupt everything else.
Brazil looks like it's willing to make a major commitment to manufacturing. But it is worth remembering what the average standard of living is there. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people living in tin sheds without adequate sanitation.
The goal of free trade is to remove traditional barriers to business. When you do that, you increase competition for manufacturing by dramatically increasing the number of people available and willing to work. People in poorer countries will always be willing to work for less than those in more affluent countries.
There are reasons that Zenith, RCA, etc. are no longer manufacturing in the US. If you think it's an easy fix, start up your own company and see how many headaches you'll face in manufacturing in the US. Also, you'll see how much of a premium most people are willing to absorb to buy locally assembled products.
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There is still a lot of improvement that can be made in the US working conditions. For instance, the highest state's minimum wage is still lower than the lowest provincial minimum wage in Canada. And a large number of the states don't have any set minimum wage at all.
The gains the unions made to working conditions have been steadily whittled away in the past few decades.
Move the factories out of China to India, Vietnam, Brazil, Taiwan, Korea, or USA.
India, poor infrastructure, your iPhone will be stuck in traffic for weeks on wend.
Vietnam/Brazil do not have the necessary factories to produce products like the iPhone.
Taiwan/Korea/USA too expensive.
So we're stuck with China... for now.
Can this strike/protest (whether it's true or not) actually affect scruffgate? Just wondering.
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Still I'm pretty sure they would make good quality products by having improve education/skills.
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Still I'm pretty sure they would make good quality products by having improve education/skills.
As much as i despise darwinian capitalism, in the broad long term historical view you'll see that this is all part of a process towards the rising of economic standards and a burgeoning middle class in what were once third world countries.
Eventually it will probably become less cost effective to manufacture in china. so whats left now? perhaps the empires will begin exploiting african labor, but firstly by installing friendly dictatorships to keep labor in line and provide some sort of governmental stability.
Once there's no longer any place on earth to exploit cheap labor, then maybe manufacturing jobs will come back to the US. But don't hold your breath... it may take another couple hundred years.
Eventually it will probably become less cost effective to manufacture in china. so whats left now? perhaps the empires will begin exploiting african labor, but firstly by installing friendly dictatorships to keep labor in line and provide some sort of governmental stability.
Once there's no longer any place on earth to exploit cheap labor, then maybe manufacturing jobs will come back to the US. But don't hold your breath... it may take another couple hundred years.
Chill out with the guilt trip. Let the Chinese workers figure it out for themselves. If they don't want to work for peanuts, they'll have to band together and make a change. Americans forgot how bad it was before we unionized... and that's why our incomes have been steadily dropping right in line with union membership. The Chinese have self-determination just like we do... it's up for them to realize it.
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Yes, crazy Americans wanting things like a place to live, food, and transportation.
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Yes, crazy Americans wanting things like a place to live, food, and transportation.
Respectable working conditions and wages in the non-union sector is because of unions.
It WAS because of unions. Now, there are laws preventing such work conditions. Now, there is not need for them.
Those laws are constantly being challenged, and rolled back. It is unions that are able to maintain the pressure to keep them in place. When the union movement was strongest, working conditions were improving - generally - year by year. Now that union membership is declining working conditions are at best stagnant, and even going backwards in some instances.
I just talk from personal experiences. I've never had good encounters with union workers. Sugar in gas tanks, sabotage, and overall laziness in the unionized construction industry gets old.