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Photos of Chinese Sweatshop Used By Microsoft
MongooseCN has a follow-up to last week's Chinese Sweatshop story. He says "The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see: Too tired to stay awake. These Chinese workers earn just 34p an hour (about 52 cents in US dollars), work 15-hour shifts, and deal with other abuses to package US-made products."
I think the difference here is, while you were doing this:
1) You made 0.52USD in a fraction of an hour
2) You could have quit and found another programming job, most likely within a drivable distance from where you live.
-Will P.
Wal-Mart profits too much from their form of slavery to ask for decency(even if it gets rid of those pesky labor unions in the US).
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Unless they are being forced to work in this factory as literal slaves, the fact that they're doing it probably means it's the best option available. By all means lean on the factory to improve conditions, but before taking the business elsewhere for the sake of the employees, find out what the employees would do otherwise. Work in an even worse factory? Become prostitutes? Starve?
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
I know we always want to bash Microsoft here at Slashdot, but did the submitter fail to notice Foxconn (Apple's supplier), Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Acer, Logitech and Asus all use this same manufacturing house? How about:
"Photos of Chinese Sweatshop Used By US Tech Companies"
I guess that just doesn't have the same bite? At least it's more accurate.
I've toured several Asian factories and this is the reality of Asian work life. People live in factory dormatories, work 6 VERY long days a week, and sleep at their desks when they get tired. We can pretend that we're shocked, but we all know that goods from Asia are dirt cheap and yet we never seem to ask "WHY"? Is this willful blindness? Until we start imposing tariffs based on unequal labour standards, this will never change.
These Chinese workers earn just 34p an hour (about 52 cents in US dollars), work 15 hours shifts
The $.52 is meaningless; how much does an apartment cost? What is the price of food? When I was in Thailand in the USAF in 1974, the average wage was about $1,000/yr, but I rented a bungalow for $30/month (woman included), and could take three girls to a nice restaraunt for a dollar. It cost a nickle to go anywhere.
How many hours a day do American Microsoft programmers work?
It isn't just the Chinese who are being exploited, it's also the Americans whose jobs have been exported to China, and maybe even their American staff.
Free Martian Whores!
I think that this is more the point:
They are not allowed to talk or listen to music, are forced to eat substandard meals from the factory cafeterias, have no bathroom breaks during their shifts and must clean the toilets as discipline, according to the NLC.
The workers also sleep on site, in factory dormitories, with 14 workers to a room. They must buy their own mattresses and bedding, or else sleep on 28in-wide plywood boards. They 'shower' with a sponge and a bucket.
And many of the workers, because they are young women, are regularly sexually harassed, the NLC claimed.
The organisation said that one worker was even fined for losing his finger while operating a hole punch press.
At least here in northern Europe it got better when we formed labor unions and associated political parties, then we got new laws that protected the workers against the worst abuse. This is about a hundred years ago so not many people remembers it directly anymore, which is widely evident in political discussions today. Sure it can get to far the other way and we end up with ridiculous worker rights like full pension when your 50 and stuff like that. But profit seeking companies will not give their worker fair wages and decent working conditions unless they absolutely have to.
How is this gonna happen in China?
Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not still a one party state and "workers paradise"?
+5 insightful. Just read the friggin' article:
'I know I can choose not to work overtime, but if I don't work overtime then I am stuck with only 770 Chinese yuan (£72.77p) per month in basic wages,' the worker said.
'This is not nearly enough to support a family. My parents are farmers without jobs. They also do not have pensions.
'I also need to worry about getting married, which requires a lot of money. Therefore, I still push myself to continue working in spite of my exhaustion.
Regardless of the working conditions, these people are there because they have needs and desires the same as the rest of us. They work there because there is no other work available, or the work that is available is even worse. That's the state that the majority of the world is in, and it won't be changed by any number of idealistic fools opining about the immorality of large corporations.
Did you have have sick days and vacation?
Health benefits for you and your family?
Regulations for workplace health and safety?
Did you have labour laws to protect you?
Were you allowed to sleep at home? Did you even read the article?
I don't know how old you are, but you have forgotten all the principles for which the citizens who lived before you fought and died. If you're young, you have MUCH to learn because your education has been a failure. If you are old, you have even given up thinking or given up compassion.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
It may surprise many people who don't take naps, but there are in fact a lot of people who do - even in full view of others. /. - shocking to some, normal to others.
Not much different from eating lunch at your desk while checking
Move along.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
In Ohio, the minimum wage is $7.30. This means that someone working 40 hours/week would earn roughly $14,600 a year. Our GDP per capita is about $48,000, so someone earning minimum wage is getting about 30% of the average. In china, GDP per capita is $3,266. Someone earning 50 cents/hour, working 40 hours a week, earns $1,000 US a year. Hey, look at that, right about 30%. So, these factory workers are basically earning the equivalent minimum wage in china (*if* scaling based on GDP is appropriate). This is to say nothing about actual cost of living, or the actual working conditions, but dollar for dollar if we expect someone in the US to work for $7.30 an hour when the average is much higher, we should have no problem expecting someone in China to work for $.50 an hour considering what everyone else makes.
that the majority are from uncaring scumbags defending these working conditions. Not sure why, but I just expected differently from the slashdot crowd.
Yes, why blame Microsoft? The root cause of these working conditions falls squarely on the Chinese government and Chinese culture.
First is the cost of an xbox, or whatever, a major part of our overall expenses? I think I am fairly typical, and my biggest expenses - by far - have been: income tax, mortgage, health care, education, and retirement. Lowering the cost of computer mice, or toaster overs, does very little, if anything, to lower my overall cost of living.
Does lowering the cost of labor even lower our cost of goods? In the 1980s, when auto manufacturing was shifted from US workers making $15 to hour, to offshore workers making $0.35 an hour, did the cost of cars go down significantly?
Offshoring labor certainly causes inhumane worker conditions, and causes high unemployment in the west. But I don't see where offshoring labor is helping the average US citizen at all.
So why don't we stop buying goods that manufactured offshored? For one thing, we often have no choice, and we don't even know. For example, is an all-Americans Dell computer really made in the USA?
For another thing, I think it has to do with a lack of solidarity. If I personally stopped buying goods made offshore, it would not amount to anything. If several million people made an organized effort, that might get somebody's attention.
Well, maybe if the idealistic fools are on the board of large corporations, that would change. You cannot run a company based solely on how much profit every decision gets you, as it leads to social and environmental unbalances. That most companies are run like that does not make it right.
but if I don't work overtime then I am stuck with only ... 'This is not nearly enough to support a family. My parents are farmers without jobs. They also do not have pensions.
'I also need to worry about getting married, which requires a lot of money. Therefore, I still push myself to continue working in spite of my exhaustion.
I've worked jobs that are much harder, just as repetitive, under comparable conditions, here in the U.S. I didn't have a choice about working overtime...if they needed me, I worked a 16 hour shift. Or I got fired. If I was dumb enough to lose a body part in the machinery, I'd have wound up fired. I didn't get a place to sleep (driving home was usually extremely dangerous, due to the exhaustion). They didn't feed me. I'd usually get 2 10 minute breaks in a 12 hour shift, but you never really knew.
(I know this is where I'm supposed to keep going with that, talking about trudging through snow, crawling through the muck, going barefoot, and how we all enjoyed it. That all happened, except for the barefoot, but most people probably won't really believe the basics).
With all that, there's no way I was making enough money to support a family. Much less save up for a marriage.
I'm sure there are "real" Chinese sweatshops that are absolute Hell-holes. This isn't even close. This is pretty close to the average life for a huge chunk of Americans.
Regardless of the working conditions, these people are there because they have needs and desires the same as the rest of us. They work there because there is no other work available, or the work that is available is even worse. That's the state that the majority of the world is in, and it won't be changed by any number of idealistic fools opining about the immorality of large corporations.
Exactly! These conditions really aren't all that bad. Much better than I'd actually expected. If enough people throw a big enough fit about this sort of thing, then the company just moves its operation, and these girls go back to...what? Prostitution? Starving to death? Selling body parts? Whatever it is, it's almost guaranteed to be worse.
Well, maybe if the idealistic fools are on the board of large corporations, that would change
Ah, more idealism :)
If these idealistic fools were on the boards of large corporations, those corporations would shortly find their profit margins disappearing, their stock plummeting, and their shareholders knocking on the door brandishing torches and pitchforks. Idealism can't compete with economics.
With that said, there ARE ways to improve living conditions, over time. We know what they are. We've known it for quite a while. The basics are relatively simple:
1. Provide a stable government which supports individual liberty and encourages entrepreneurship.
2. Provide good-quality basic education to everyone, and make it mandatory for children.
3. Create a reliable system of communication and uncensored information exchange, as well as some form of transportation that is available and affordable for the majority of the population.
4. Last, but certainly not least, make women the legal and social equals of men, with the same rights, benefits, and access to education and communication.
That's pretty much it. Unfortunately, those are not things which we can force on people, and they're certainly not something that corporations can provide. However, it's much easier to just blame those evil "fat-cats" than to actually look at the massive undertaking which would be required in order to achieve global prosperity.
Quick! Someone tell the Communist Chinese government about this, I mean doesn't the whole idea of communism exist to "PROTECT THE WORKER" from crap like this in the first place, I'll bet Mao himself is spinning in his grave over this one.....
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Once again: China is communist in name only. It practice it is a shining example of near perfect anarcho-capitalism.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
No, it isn't an example of the No True Scotsman fallacy. In the no true Scottsman fallacy, the man in question really is a Scotsman. He isn't American or English. A country must actually practice some form of communism to be communist.. Was the USSR really a Republic? Was the DDR? Can we indict the Republic as a form of government because so many so-called Republics were actually repressive totalitarian states?
If you want to make the argument that many states that attempt communism fail to achieve it, I can agree with you. But that is because power hungry elitists fear real communism more than anything else. The power elite care about one freedom: the freedom to oppress others, the freedom to touch your life without being touched in return. Communism in its true form will prevent the sociopathic power elite from dominating others, and so they fight it, and/or infiltrate it and take over from the inside.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton