Thousands Line Up for New iPhone Production Jobs at Foxconn Facilities in China

[modstyle]

The other day on This Week With George Stefanopolis, he reported on a factory Foxconn built. Anyone see this? It was under construction BEFORE Apple execs even arrived to consider the contract. Of course they signed it. And where did Foxconn get the billions to build a factory to fulfill a contract which hadn't been signed yet? The Chinese gov't. Think the US Gov't should've considered this? I do, we could certainly use a couple extra jobs here. Altho with echoes of the Solindra debacle, I think the American public would expect every gov't investment to be a success, which of course can't be guaranteed.

I love my Apple products, and a huge part of my love comes from it being an American company. It's extremely unfortunate that enormous company can't manufacture their American products in America. I won't stop buying Apple, but I will vote for a politician who's on the side of the working class, not the executive class. As should you.

 

[zipster]

Hopefully for getting those 6th gen iPhones ready to ramp up in a couple months.

I LOL'd.

 

[chrono1081]

It's because it's one of only a few products that supply cannot meet demand with and Apple makes LUXURY items - no matter how you spin it, we can all live without iWhatevers.

Are human lives worth you having a white iPhone 4S? You tell me, then live with your conscience.

Can you be anymore falsely overdramatic?

Human lives? Get real. Foxconn is not even close to one of the worst working places in China. That being said it also has a larger employee base than many small cities (and a MUCH lower suicide rate than cities of the same size as their employee populace).

No one likes to give credit where credit is due, and that credit is that without Apple, Foxconn would be a much worse work environment. Please read this:

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2012_Progress_Report.pdf

An I can absolutely live with my conscious because those people are supplied JOBS because of what I buy. Sure it may not fit the American dream of a job but seeing how as there are thousands of people lined up to work there, it has to be better than the alternatives.

Not to mention Apple does not own Foxconn and is not Foxconns only customer.

 

[firewood]

I thought that was the worst place to work and employees are treated terribly. Why would anyone ever line up to apply for a job there? Based on the NY Times article, it sounded like people are forced to work there against their will.

Because all their other options for a job are currently worse over there.

Therefore it is the Chinese economy and government that is "enslaving" them, not this job opportunity that they are lining up for. Thus Apple, via Foxconn, is allowing them the chance to have a better job and thus a better life than is possible for a lot of other people in their country.

The typical consumer certainly has far more control over the money they spend on iProducts than on the Chinese government. So buy lots of Apple products, and improve lives faster than the Chinese government can.

 

[radio893fm]

I thought that was the worst place to work and employees are treated terribly. Why would anyone ever line up to apply for a job there? Based on the NY Times article, it sounded like people are forced to work there against their will.

Oh goshh. Your sarcasm is not surprising but amazing. You need to travel to a really poor country. Then you will realize that it is slavery or nothing: they have no choice than to work in these infra-human conditions. Then you will realize that even child are working instead of going to school.

The NY time was on point! In Colombia, i.e. you can have a maid 24/7, living in your house, ready for when u need her, cleaning when u don't need her, for U$200/month... and there are thousands available and ready to work... not because they want to... but because they have to.

 

[Thunderhawks]

I'm old enough to remember when our factories used to hire many workers at a time. Today it is all about making money for upper management and the stockholders. If someone is willing to live in a dormitory next to the factory, work 12 hour days, 6 times a week for slave wages with no benefits, no pollutions laws... well that's why the jobs have gone to China.

A little simplified?

The tax structure and business unfriendly environment in some countries in the world is a big part of the " let's produce in China" movement.

Obviously it is more effective to release headlines with Apple in it that saying that John Doe's Electronic Store buys from China.

Now we need to wait until somebody posts everything America consumed be produced here.

....4,3, 2...1

 

[Will do good]

A jobs a job.

I've visited many factories in China for years. The photos of the Foxconn factories is amazing clean nice comparing to lower end factories that produces good for the Chinese market and 2nd & 3rd tier markets.

That's why workers by the thousands are lining up to apply at Foxconn.

 

[kckl]

Do you want those jobs? Do you know how much they make?

Sigh. They get all the jobs.

 

[noisycats]

These people don't know any better and think a better life awaits them when historically speaking, the only thing waiting for them as a Foxconn employee is death.

The only thing waiting for any of us is death.

----------

Why? Because everyone's a human rights activist...as they line up to get their iPhones every year...

Amazing hypocrisy, huh?

 

[tigress666]

Perfect picture of exploitation.
Apple knows full well how desperate people are for jobs. The desperate and poor will take any work to keep their families alive. It's funny how the blind followers say despicable things like "slaves don't line up." I truly hope you never have to ever work at a place you "chose" to work at only because there was very little to chose from to begin with.
I hope the lid blows off on Foxconn and I hope anyone having to do anything with it gets exposed for it. I will never buy another Apple product, that's for damn sure.

You know, the problem with your argument is you are typing on a computer... are you going to give up your gadgets entirely? Because dollars to donuts, you aren't going to be able to find a gadget that doesn't use labor over there.

As some one else said, either give up all gadgets, or at least just use the one from the company that at least demands better (even if it isn't good enough). Course, I'm not saying Apple is necessarily that one, but I don't see anyone holding any company up for emulation period when they gripe at Apple for this. I have yet to see some one hold up, "Well this company does this and this is what apple should do". Just fingers pointing at APple. I figure if some one did it better than Apple, you'd have heard the accusations by now.

Not to mention, I can't say I can tell how horrible or good it is over there. I've not been over there and media love to overhype a story because it gets more attention. So how much of the stuff you see from media is over exaggeration (or just picking out the worst case scenarios and ignoring everything else)? Seriously, media is only going to show the really bad stuff, bad news sells. They aren't going to focus on anything that isn't bad, or isn't shocking even. I mean maybe it is that bad, but you really can't take what media shows at face value either.

 

[noisycats]

It's because it's one of only a few products that supply cannot meet demand with and Apple makes LUXURY items - no matter how you spin it, we can all live without iWhatevers.

Are human lives worth you having a white iPhone 4S? You tell me, then live with your conscience.

Are human lives worth anything you have and use? Which ones?
You tell me.
Because someone, somewhere, died for everything you have and use.

I'm not trying to justify anything, just trying to point out hypocrisy in your grandiose generalizations.

 

[brock2621]

What's the purpose of this article exactly?

Oh, I know, to make it seem like it's "not that bad" at Foxconn.

Classy.

What's the purpose of your post exactly?

Oh, and the purpose of the article was to point out that Foxconn is better than their poor village lives. An OPPORTUNITY to help provide for their family in a better way than what they have or can currently can.

 

[troop231]

I LOL'd.

Nothing to lol about... https://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/2...r-iphone-5-production-ahead-of-summer-launch/

 

[FmlyDskst]

I thought that was the worst place to work and employees are treated terribly. Why would anyone ever line up to apply for a job there? Based on the NY Times article, it sounded like people are forced to work there against their will.

It's human nature to want a job when you don't have one then complain about it when you get it. Finally I am not alone I am backed up 100,000 times.

 

[cameronjpu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

It's because it's one of only a few products that supply cannot meet demand with and Apple makes LUXURY items - no matter how you spin it, we can all live without iWhatevers.

Are human lives worth you having a white iPhone 4S? You tell me, then live with your conscience.

Are human lives worth anything you have and use? Which ones?
You tell me.
Because someone, somewhere, died for everything you have and use.

I'm not trying to justify anything, just trying to point out hypocrisy in your grandiose generalizations.

Exactly my point

 

[jmgregory1]

This scrutiny on Apple's supply chain is ridiculous. And people's uninformed comments on what it's like to be an employee in China are just as ridiculous. China, like the US a century ago, is experiencing a major shift in their economy. Workers are making more money and they themselves are choosing where they work. I work for a Chinese factory (owned by a Taiwanese company) and we have issues finding good employees because so many want to be doing more technical things than building wood products.

China can be criticized, for not having in place strong employee protection laws, strong environmental protection laws, business friendly import laws, etc, but as others have noted, the changes they are seeing now are not unlike what we ourselves in the Western world went through as our economies grew exponentially. China is going to find itself consuming more than it makes and it too will look to move production to less costly places, which in turn should force a change to their import taxation laws, which should then make it easier to sell to China - which will become the goal for most companies and countries. The US, Canada and Western Europe have nothing on China and just how quickly they will grow and consume.

 

[Kaibelf]

It's because it's one of only a few products that supply cannot meet demand with and Apple makes LUXURY items - no matter how you spin it, we can all live without iWhatevers.

Are human lives worth you having a white iPhone 4S? You tell me, then live with your conscience.

I'd rather have my iWhatever and know what it took than a Samsung whatever and falsely pretend it wasn't even worse. My conscience is clear, thank you very much.

----------

Perfect picture of exploitation.
Apple knows full well how desperate people are for jobs. The desperate and poor will take any work to keep their families alive. It's funny how the blind followers say despicable things like "slaves don't line up." I truly hope you never have to ever work at a place you "chose" to work at only because there was very little to chose from to begin with.
I hope the lid blows off on Foxconn and I hope anyone having to do anything with it gets exposed for it. I will never buy another Apple product, that's for damn sure.

Are you making the LUDICROUS argument that people outside of China have the pick of any job they want that interests them? Even in the USA one could safely say that just about everyone wishes they had a better, easier job. That is, unless you seriously believe all those people bringing you food in restaurants, mowing your lawns, taking your inane customer service calls, stocking your shelves, and driving your goods around just plain love it.

 

[Antares]

Perfect picture of exploitation.
Apple knows full well how desperate people are for jobs. The desperate and poor will take any work to keep their families alive. It's funny how the blind followers say despicable things like "slaves don't line up." I truly hope you never have to ever work at a place you "chose" to work at only because there was very little to chose from to begin with.
I hope the lid blows off on Foxconn and I hope anyone having to do anything with it gets exposed for it. I will never buy another Apple product, that's for damn sure.

I think you mean that you will never buy any cell phone or computer ever again. Or any piece of thechnology, for that mater. Especially, considering that Apple is doing the same or more than other companies to address working conditions at the companies that contract with for manufacturing. I hope you don't buy any product made in China.

 

[Popinbottles]

Agree

Do you own any iWhatevers?

I think the better question to ask is if they own any shoes, clothing,toys? The list could go on and on.

 

[whooleytoo]

The production of every product in history has cost lives. The question that has to be asked is whether the production of one product costs more misery than it should and more than the alternative would.

Production creates ...well... products. And provides employment. And creates wealth. If the alternative means doing without those, I think we all know the answer to your question.

p.s. "every product in history"? Really?

 

[Mr Fusion]

Really guys? Thought we already went fifteen rounds with this last week...

- Don't like working conditions in China? Stop buying Apple. And pretty much everything else...

- Everyone else? Move to China. Say hi to the brown smog cloud for me.

 

[Akack]

That's what a one billion plus population can do for a country, cheap labor.

 

[Kaibelf]

Production creates ...well... products. And provides employment. And creates wealth. If the alternative means doing without those, I think we all know the answer to your question.

p.s. "every product in history"? Really?

I'd tend to agree. Food? Slaughtered natives. Wood? Slaughtered natives. Metals? Mining accidents. Plastics? Deadly pollutants. Cotton? We all know where that came from. Chocolate, coffee, gold, rubber, marble, steel. All the same. Just about everything you eat, drink, wear, or buy has some history of people getting killed.

 

[sparks05]

Wow, thousands lining up for what the media makes out to be a terrible place to work? Very interesting.

 

[mutantteenager]

Unsurprisingly a largely poor population will queue up for any job, no matter how bad the conditions because they have no choice.

It's an uncomfortable truth that our developed economies rely on this underclass, some may say slave labour to produce the bulk of our consumable goods. That is capitalism at it's core, maximise profits regardless of the cost.

Why is Apple being singled out? Well if you're on a Mac Forum, who exactly do you expect to be at the centre of the discussion? Also Apple are very distinct in that they make a huge deal about just how clean they are in regards to corporate responsibility and that stretches to their supplier chains. See Tim Cook's recent statement on this very matter.

Should you stop buying iproducts? Maybe, but as many have said what about everything else produced in China under similar or worse conditions?

Well this is an opportunity for people to really question their governments and yes, the brands that they chose to consume. We sold our consciences on China when we turned a blind eye to their undemocratic and oppressive regime and started accepting loans and investment from them. Quite simply cold hard economics have killed that debate. This is an opportunity to look again at where we are, and what we feel is acceptable.

If you want to demonize states like Iran or Syria, you need to look at places like China, who the west happily trades with and they have an appalling human rights record.

If Apple were to intervene in what are quite clearly unnacceptable practices at one of their key suppliers, they could do something far more valuable to the wider community than any iproduct, and that is raise the bar in employment standards for an exploited and under-valued workforce.