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Foxconn Workers Reportedly Strike over iPhone 5 Quality Control Demands

GuitarDTO said:
Sorry, but you are clueless. If you are sitting there thinking that Apple will just decide to halve its profit to bring the work back overseas to the US, you are dreaming.

1. American workers won't work for low wages, nor would they work the demanding hours required. They'll sit around without a job before they'll do hard labor for dirt cheap....so if anything, those jobs moving from China will just go to the next lowest bidder.

2. It's not just Apple. You make it sound like they are the ones responsible here. Nearly every piece of electronics in your house is made in China.
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since when has a 72% profit margin been the golden standad?

i never said apple was the only one...but seeing how this is a mac forum and the discussion is regarding apple's quality control standards that foxconn workers are protesting, i find it a digression to talk about every single other company. apple has pushed chinese labor to the brink due to it's industry record profit margin. no one has been able to achieve that in this industry, ever.

your generalization of american labor is tainted from what you watch on fox news. i suggest you change the channel
 
bchreng said:
How much more expensive would the iPhone 5 be if it was assembled over here in the US?
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One analyst calculated that it would cost $65 more in labor to build in the US. That's assuming they were silly enough to keep using all people instead of robots. (Even Foxconn is moving to robots.)

Perhaps someone can point out other costs that would rise.

Against that, Apple makes about $200 in clear profit from each phone right now. Add another $160 for 64GB models, to make $360 net profit on those.

If Apple were willing to cut profit margins down to what other phone makers get, then the retail price wouldn't have to rise much, if at all. Figure the odds, though. Otherwise probably it would go up by $100 or so.
 
re: how's that slave labor working out?

I'd say it's working out quite well -- since practically ALL the computer hardware makers in the USA use the same factories to build all of their stuff. HP printers, Dell workstations and notebooks ... you name it. That's who's putting 'em together for us!

Seriously, nobody's trying to justify their situations as ideal or even "great" -- but you do realize the definition of slave labor is forcing people to do work for you WITHOUT monetary compensation? That's not quite what's going on in these factories. Rather, you have people lining up to get HIRED for these jobs because it beats what they're stuck with otherwise.



CapnJackGig said:
How's that slave labor working out for ya, Apple?
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kdarling said:
One analyst calculated that it would cost $65 more in labor to build in the US. That's assuming they were silly enough to keep using all people instead of robots. (Even Foxconn is moving to robots.)

Perhaps someone can point out other costs that would rise.

Against that, Apple makes about $200 in clear profit from each phone right now. Add another $160 for 64GB models, to make $360 net profit.

Upshot: If Apple were willing to cut profit margins down to what other phone makers get, the price wouldn't have to rise much, if at all. Otherwise probably it would go up by $100 or so.
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If it is $65 in additional overhead, that would be $200-300 retail
 
I had an iMac arrive right out of the box with a HANDPRINT embedded on the glass screen. This handprint was directly on the glass screen, UNDERNEATH the removable plastic that surrounds the iMac upon arrival. So the handprint was there BEFORE the final plastic was put on the iMac.
 
Medic311 said:
Why have we allowed corporations to make electronics synonymous with cheap Chinese labor? Some blame the consumer, but we only have the choice to buy what is being sold.

Guess where most electronics were made in the USA in the early 1900's? At the RCA factory in Camden, NJ. Look what happened to the city when manufacturing was moved to Japan and other parts of Asia? This is happening all over our country and people are actually sitting here in this forum defending the elimination of jobs and exports? Use your brain people...if you think you're immune to outsourcing, think again. The "it won't happen to me" attitude no longer applies.
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And when the consumer is able to chose between the identical item that is built in the US but costs 25% more that one built overseas, which one does the consumer purchase? That is why production moves overseas. Once the cost of producing an item becomes more expensive to produce overseas (taking into account production costs, excise taxes, shipping, quality control, etc) then the company will move production to the United States if a qualified labor force exists (manpower, training, etc).

Do you think a collage graduate will accept working in a factory to produce a cell phone? Now that we feel that everyone in the US must get a collage degree, we are producing a workforce that consists of managers and administration without considering that we also need workers that produce a final product.
 
bob24 said:
20-30 years ago, there was mass production to meet consumers demand at prices people could afford - and things were not produced in China.

Of course you are right that if you try to reproduce in the US the Chinese model of just having one or 2 factories predicting iPhones for the whole world, it wouldn't work.

But what about a few factories in Americas, a few in Europe, and a few in Asia? That would certainly meet the demand, and it would be healthier for the world economy.
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There would be more factories producing in America if people would purchase products made in those factories. The Toyota Camery is a perfect example. Camery factories grew rapidly in the USA because people bought more of them than the foreign built Chevys. The Camery is the most 'made in america' vehicle, second only to the Ford F-150.
 
Give you guys some fact, which I read those related info here in hk.

1-Foxconn employs some 800k workers all over china.
2-those worker works 60hrs each week incl overtime shift which they earn extra.
3-their wages around 2400rmb each month (do your math)
4- they need to assembly the phone along a production line which not allowed to fall behind the work rate as many others doing diff procedure of the assembly, which in turn, they hardly go to meets their nature calls.
5-they are not allowed to talk during working hrs.
6-those workers came form all over of china, where daily income not more then few dollars each person.
7-as the pressure is too high for those workers, some of them jump out from the roof to end their lives and Foxconn and china authority joint to cover up everything.

Consider those poor workers are almost gone crazy in such working condition, what could the world do?

Can all of us stop buying the phone? No. Can apple shift the work to anywhere in the world? I think yes, and I don't mind to pay a bit extra to make myself "guilty free minded"
 
Storrow said:
This just made me feel really bad about complaining about the scratches on my iPhone 5. I can't imagine being one of those factory workers. Makes me feel like an ******.
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Yes I feel like an "iHole" after being upset about my scuffs as well. :(
 
SatManager said:
Do you think a collage graduate will accept working in a factory to produce a cell phone? Now that we feel that everyone in the US must get a collage degree, we are producing a workforce that consists of managers and administration without considering that we also need workers that produce a final product.
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I would say there is plenty of potential labor for factories in America, not to the level of China of course. There are lots of non-degreed people. Still for such a mass produced product it would be a partial solution at best and really only something to do for good will, PR etc. It would be very cool to see how many people would pay more.
 
scotty321 said:
I had an iMac arrive right out of the box with a HANDPRINT embedded on the glass screen. This handprint was directly on the glass screen, UNDERNEATH the removable plastic that surrounds the iMac upon arrival. So the handprint was there BEFORE the final plastic was put on the iMac.
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That's a travesty!!
 
Sony311 said:
Most SELFISH comment I've ever seen. I hope you NEVER get a perfect IPhone or any other product again. Arrogant as$hat
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Oh, please. They're not forced to work there and actually pursued those jobs. The right thing to do is strike in response to the beating, not allow those obviously damaged iPhones full of nicks and scuffs slip past QC THEN strike over heightened QC demands.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
I think you know he was talking about normal anodizing coating, which will scratch and rub off in the long run, not iPhones with defective anodizing coating that the factory workers have so nicely allowed to slip past QC.



I bet Apple didn't know and those workers and/or their supervisors screwed them by allowing predamaged iPhones to slip past QC just to meet the increased demand under a time gun.



Mistreated? How about they're mistreating us by allowing those obviously damaged iPhones to slip past QC, leaving us as customers to return them to get non-damaged replacements?
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You sicken me. You're an embarrassment to western society, and you should be appalled and ashamed at yourself.

These are fellow human beings we're talking about, and all you care about is a goddamned phone having some scratches.

They're protesting because they have no rights. They're paid next to nothing for ridiculous hours that they have to work, and they've gone on strike because it just got even worse for them. All they're demanding is some basic rights and scum like you reject that, as all you want is some shiny new product - no matter what the real cost is.

You are a clear example of everything that's wrong with society.
 
Noisemaker said:
You sicken me. You're an embarrassment to western society, and you should be appalled and ashamed at yourself.

These are fellow human beings we're talking about, and all you care about is a goddamned phone having some scratches.

They're protesting because they have no rights. They're paid next to nothing for ridiculous hours that they have to work, and they've gone on strike because it just got even worse for them. All they're demanding is some basic rights, and scum like you reject that, as all you want is some shiny new product - no matter what the real cost is.

You are a clear example of everything that's wrong with society.
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Don't forget those companies also have guard towers. Sounds more like forced labor camps than places of employment.
 
Bring on the wackadoodle right-wing neo-con libertarians defending business interests over adequate and safe working conditions for human beings.
 
darster said:
Don't forget those companies also have guard towers. Sounds more like forced labor camps than places of employment.
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????? .give us a link for that. The worker can quit and leave at any time. These are not slaves as witnessed by the fact they are actually striking.
 
baypharm said:
Bring those jobs back to America, Apple. Put the people to work here who buy your products. We have a saying here, in America we have no art...we do everything as well as we can.
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I don't know what part of America you are in, but I've literally never heard that saying before, and I've lived in America my whole life.

Maybe that saying was created 30+ years ago when we still had these jobs?
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Oh, please. They're not forced to work there and actually pursued those jobs. The right thing to do is strike in response to the beating, not allow those obviously damaged iPhones full of nicks and scuffs slip past QC THEN strike over heightened QC demands.
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Yes, in china , those workers are relatively high earners. People without higher education seeks those jobs desperately.

In reality, strike is not an option. Chinese people thinks differently. There are always betrayer coming out, and makes the strike useless.

The management is using military means to manage the factory. That's drive those suicidal act.

$$$$ is the only means for those workers and most of the Chinese, people in the west hardly understand that.
 
darster said:
Don't forget those companies also have guard towers. Sounds more like forced labor camps than places of employment.
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Thanks for that - the addition of that information will surely counter his response of "they can quit if they don't like it".
 
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