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Report Profiles Secrecy at Apple's Asian Manufacturing Partners' Facilities
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man this is pulling me in different directions. i already don't buy nike shoes (even though they are very sexy) because i don't like how the company treats its workers. i love my mac and love the OS but i almost wish i didnt read this article. i DO NOT support this greedy, narrow-minded, hitler-ish attitude.
You do realize that there are company housings everywhere. When building power dams the US government would make townships just for the workers.
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BTW, those Japanese people are paid the minimum wage.
Wow! Human rights abuses! Slavery! Outrage! Apple Apologists!
"Employees are provided most of their daily needs. There are dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries."
"The workers understand that secrecy is part of the Apple mystique and the silence is self-enforced...it's just accepted."
Those absolute BASTARDS! BAKERIES! Secrets! The inhumanity of it all.
Get a grip...Read the article, folks. Apple is not accused of doing anything illegal or immoral or outrageous, or even condoning anything illegal or immoral or outrageous. It was all about corporate secrecy, something literally hundreds of thousand of corporations do all the time, and many to a greater extent than Apple. Hospitals, tech industries, defense contractors and federal research facilities, for a start.
"[Apple] has a code of conduct that spells out how those working in its supply chain should be treated...Suppliers must be committed to a workplace free of harassment, states one." To ensure compliance Apple periodically audits its suppliers."
There is no slavery, no indentured servitude, no chaining of employees to their tables. Employees are free to go out and get lunch at McDonalds, free to go home at the end of their shift. Employees are free to get another job somewhere else. Employees are paid an acceptable wage for the local economy (Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics: 2008 average wage in Beijing $4279, up 17% over 2007). Did you get a 17% increase?
Hon Hai is an $8 Billion corporation, with clients like Cisco, HP, Dell, Nokia and Sony in addition to Apple, so it's not like Apple calls the shots, as some have stated.
Finally, not one person in this thread has supported or condoned in any way human rights abuses, including those in well known Chinese sweat shops in other industries.
"Employees are provided most of their daily needs. There are dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries."
"The workers understand that secrecy is part of the Apple mystique and the silence is self-enforced...it's just accepted."
Those absolute BASTARDS! BAKERIES! Secrets! The inhumanity of it all.
Get a grip...Read the article, folks. Apple is not accused of doing anything illegal or immoral or outrageous, or even condoning anything illegal or immoral or outrageous. It was all about corporate secrecy, something literally hundreds of thousand of corporations do all the time, and many to a greater extent than Apple. Hospitals, tech industries, defense contractors and federal research facilities, for a start.
"[Apple] has a code of conduct that spells out how those working in its supply chain should be treated...Suppliers must be committed to a workplace free of harassment, states one." To ensure compliance Apple periodically audits its suppliers."
There is no slavery, no indentured servitude, no chaining of employees to their tables. Employees are free to go out and get lunch at McDonalds, free to go home at the end of their shift. Employees are free to get another job somewhere else. Employees are paid an acceptable wage for the local economy (Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics: 2008 average wage in Beijing $4279, up 17% over 2007). Did you get a 17% increase?
Hon Hai is an $8 Billion corporation, with clients like Cisco, HP, Dell, Nokia and Sony in addition to Apple, so it's not like Apple calls the shots, as some have stated.
Finally, not one person in this thread has supported or condoned in any way human rights abuses, including those in well known Chinese sweat shops in other industries.
It used to be important in the 50's and 60's that a company worked with the employees and the contractors to provide a safe and fair work environment. You can do a quick search of most major companies and find out that this only became an issue in large part because of out-sourcing. Was it always perfect? Far from it! Was it ever better that it is now? You bet it was...
D
Have you read the book?!?!
The willy wonka analogy would still probably be true...lol...
Was I the only one who read that as "mental dectors?!"
I think there's a fair bet that the Chinese worker, given the choice between income and being stuck in a compound for a time, or no income and their work done overseas by another worker or a machine will probably take the former option.
Ultimately protecting the rights of workers is not the concern of the consumer: it's for the company, the workers and the applicable government to sort out. Granted, I imagine the Chinese government aren't overly concerned about workers rights, but there's nothing we can do about it. Taking our money (that basically only has value because of Chinese investment in foreign currencies anyway) elsewhere doesn't help anybody on that front, other than keeping money at home and reducing the export deficit, which actually I'd be more interested in doing than helping some guy in the far East, but then corporations are selfish and, ultimately, so are we on the whole.
The American consumer is under no moral obligation to provide better working conditions for the Chinese. The only obligation an American consumer has is getting the best deal.
I quite agree, although I'd widen that to any consumer, not just American ones.
I've never heard that expression before. I've just looked it up and I'm suitably amused.This thread has been Godwined.
According to recent complaints...
Foxconn workers are housed in converted workshops with hundreds of people per room, and one large shower and bathroom area.
Regular workers put in 11 to 12 hours a day.
Regular workers get one day off every two weeks, unless there's a production push, in which case it's only one day per month.
Most factory workers like them make about $1.75 an hour.
Foxconn workers are housed in converted workshops with hundreds of people per room, and one large shower and bathroom area.
Regular workers put in 11 to 12 hours a day.
Regular workers get one day off every two weeks, unless there's a production push, in which case it's only one day per month.
Most factory workers like them make about $1.75 an hour.
This report is soooo..... distorted. Most of the factories in China run like this not just APPLE. Factory workers are coming from provinces miles away and most facilities are provided for these workers so they do not need to look for housing/food etc around the area.
Most of the money the workers get each month are sent back to their families. When you are living in a country where the social welfare are highly developed, you do not need to live on your children's salaries. But then, you paid super high tax when you were working!
Most of the money the workers get each month are sent back to their families. When you are living in a country where the social welfare are highly developed, you do not need to live on your children's salaries. But then, you paid super high tax when you were working!
This is complete ********. For one, the industry as a whole has been innovating since the conception of the integrated circuit. And yet, back then you would never hear reports of this because it never happened. Production was made in the US.
The problem is simple: cheap labor, something of which almost every corporation is guilty off. It's kind of sick to think that corporations would indirectly support such regimes of cheap, slave like labor (which is pretty much what happens in China) just to get profit. Go ahead and cry all you want about herp derp money and about capitalism, this trend is simply hypocritical and unethical.
+1 good post. I'd say its true that baasically anything with a computer chip inside it somewhere has undoubtably if not originated from china, can be very loosely connected to china. Even freezers n dishwashers have a chip in- albeit a small one, which would of no doubt come from china, or the far-east region.
Apple is no minority in employing people overseas on the sly. Contrary to the complaints people seem to be having here, this foxconn facility actually sounds relatively decent. Or would you like to travel to indonesia and visit primarks (UK) sweatshops? or i got one, indias car manufacturing plants for ford, among others?
As for the secrecy element, i think that apple has every right to protect their intellectual property. Its effectively worth billions of dollars even in the short term-1 year etc etc.
I work in currys retail at the mo, we have to be searched everytime we leave the store. Pockets, bags, trousers, socks (if the managers being picky) I would much prefer to be searched out, than be walking out the door and then get 'wrongly' accused of putting something in my bag, which i didnt. (iPods, MP3 Players, DVDs, Games, controllers, HD's etc etc.) Its not only for the employers safety of mind, but the employees as well. Not a directly comparable example, but comparable enough none-the-less to make my point.
Apple is getting attention on this because of their high profile in the tech industry. Much like Primark got screwed with their sweatshops (was all over BBC), Nike had to spend billions if i remember rightly when commissions found that they were treating they're employees incorrectly. It happens all over the place. And worse still, until our western mindset changes; whereby we are happy to pay extra money to ensure that the people manufacturing our goods actually get paid correctly, it will keep going on and on.
My 2 cents..
PTP
I don't see a problem with this at all if the employees are told what they're getting into before accepting the job. It's not like they're forced to work there. If they are working there, they've accepted the conditions. No problem.
Now if they didn't have a choice, then that's slavery. I doubt this is the case.
Now if they didn't have a choice, then that's slavery. I doubt this is the case.
I agree totally, like it or not, that is the way things work these days. Everybody is kind of wary of anything China, however nobody is forced to work in such conditions and the personnel involved are totally aware of what they are committing to when they join, and the wages are are way above what they would get working on the land or similar.
I live in Singapore where there is a very high numbers of construction workers from all over Asia who are pleased to work long hours in hot humid conditions for a couple of years to earn in two years what would equal ten years at home.
It is not up to anybody else to judge, as we in the west forced a situation by demanding unions which forced companies to look elsewhere, and who can blame China and other ASean nation for jumping on that lucrative bandwagon.
As a brit I am very sad that an established British Company like Cadburys is taken over by the US company Kraft, that Jaguar cars are now manufactured in India, but likely we asked for it - but where will it end? It is our own faults....
WE are too happy to judge when the reality it is our own collective faults.
Foxconn isn't forcing them to work there, poverty is.
I'll leave it at that - I don't want to start a flame war.
Complete sentence? Not sure what you're asking.
i see. thank you for clarifying.
Whoever reads this bit of "news" in shock and disgust has no idea of the reality of manufacturing in China.
Almost every factory here operates in this fashion regardless of who the end buyer is. Almost every factory is walled, almost every factory has private security, and yes... most workers live at the factories and hardly ever go out.
Security at a factory may rough you up if you get stupid or nozy. And in China if you get into a scuffle it is most likely that nobody is going to help you because people are afraid to get themselves in trouble or hurt. The normal cops known as "Gong An" do not carry guns so they are also very unlikely to join into a fray unless it is particularly bad and warrant calling in support. If you get into to trouble here plan on getting out of it yourself, and if the cops get involved as a foreigner it only makes matters worse.
China is a country based on migrant workers. It is not just limited to the factories either. The service sector such as restaurants and hotels rely heavily on migrant workers who come to live at their facilities throughout the year. The people that I work with at my factory are not there against their will, I see people coming and going everyday as they see fit. They are also not unhappy or mistreated, they are very thankful and appreciative of the owner of the factory because he in essence takes care of them and their families. By being fed and housed all year they save their money and send it home to support their families. China is still very family oriented outside the big cities and most people save all of their money to give back to their families. It's just the way it is...
And as one poster previously mentioned, this treatment of workers is much better than the alternative for a lot of women which is to be a hooker at a KTV. And there are a lot of KTV's in China...
Almost every factory here operates in this fashion regardless of who the end buyer is. Almost every factory is walled, almost every factory has private security, and yes... most workers live at the factories and hardly ever go out.
Security at a factory may rough you up if you get stupid or nozy. And in China if you get into a scuffle it is most likely that nobody is going to help you because people are afraid to get themselves in trouble or hurt. The normal cops known as "Gong An" do not carry guns so they are also very unlikely to join into a fray unless it is particularly bad and warrant calling in support. If you get into to trouble here plan on getting out of it yourself, and if the cops get involved as a foreigner it only makes matters worse.
China is a country based on migrant workers. It is not just limited to the factories either. The service sector such as restaurants and hotels rely heavily on migrant workers who come to live at their facilities throughout the year. The people that I work with at my factory are not there against their will, I see people coming and going everyday as they see fit. They are also not unhappy or mistreated, they are very thankful and appreciative of the owner of the factory because he in essence takes care of them and their families. By being fed and housed all year they save their money and send it home to support their families. China is still very family oriented outside the big cities and most people save all of their money to give back to their families. It's just the way it is...
And as one poster previously mentioned, this treatment of workers is much better than the alternative for a lot of women which is to be a hooker at a KTV. And there are a lot of KTV's in China...
Ah the joys of CAPITALISM, the word that built the YOU ESS of AYE.
You want it cheaper,
You want your stock to be worth more.
Capitalist answer = outsourcing.
You now see unemployment almost reaching 10%
Detroit is a ghost city.
Minimum wage is what it is... Minimum.
And now we're looking at China, and blaming them for what we've done?
These factories exist everywhere there. Your shoes, your shirts, your underwear. Your watches, your TVs, your telephones, your computers. Your wallets, your jewellery, your fridges your glasses... Basically look at the desk your monitor is sitting on top of and pick out something that IS NOT Chinese made. It will be a short list indeed.
Apple COULD build all of its products in the USA if it wanted to, and STILL make a very very good profit. But it's not in the CAPITALIST spirit, now is it? The shareholders would not want to lose those few cents per share in value right?
We blame Jobs, but he's still dictated by his real bosses: the shareholders. Power to the people? = power taken away from other people, but in another country.
I truly wonder how this capitalist experiment the Chinese are running will end up?
You want it cheaper,
You want your stock to be worth more.
Capitalist answer = outsourcing.
You now see unemployment almost reaching 10%
Detroit is a ghost city.
Minimum wage is what it is... Minimum.
And now we're looking at China, and blaming them for what we've done?
These factories exist everywhere there. Your shoes, your shirts, your underwear. Your watches, your TVs, your telephones, your computers. Your wallets, your jewellery, your fridges your glasses... Basically look at the desk your monitor is sitting on top of and pick out something that IS NOT Chinese made. It will be a short list indeed.
Apple COULD build all of its products in the USA if it wanted to, and STILL make a very very good profit. But it's not in the CAPITALIST spirit, now is it? The shareholders would not want to lose those few cents per share in value right?
We blame Jobs, but he's still dictated by his real bosses: the shareholders. Power to the people? = power taken away from other people, but in another country.
I truly wonder how this capitalist experiment the Chinese are running will end up?
You're totally wrong here:
1. Apple isn't paranoid. It simply needs to maintain security and is going about it.
2. ". . .treat it's workers. . ." should be ". . .treat its workers. . ." Go back to school and learn how to spell.
3. Apple doesn't treat its employees as date-stamped meat. Most of them are happy and very dedicated. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing nearly as well, and their products wouldn't be nearly as good as they are.
4. No laws are being broken by Apple enforcing security.
5. Those employees who break security rules are the ones without human dignity. Honest employees realize the need for security and willingly follow the rules. Dishonest employees who break security rules make general enforcement necessary. Dishonest criminal people by their actions give up many of their rights when they land in jail.