Slashdot Mirror
Foxconn Workers Getting Raise With Apple Subsidies
hackingbear writes "Workers at Taiwanese electronic outsourcing manufacturer Foxconn are getting a pay raise after a series of 13 suicides, including three in three consecutive days. According to an article by state-run newspaper China Daily, Apple concluded that the main cause of the suicides is low wages. (The media has also attributed the suicides to a variety of other factors — everything from the semi-military style of management, to long overtime, to China's one-child policy, and Foxconn paying too much compensation to the family of suicide workers, thereby encouraging copycat suicides.) Apple plans to subsidize raises using its own products (Google translation; Chinese original here) — the first one being the iPad. This would raise the outsourcing cost from 2.3% to 3% of the iPad's sales price. The article does not say the amount of the raise per worker, but it is rumored to be about 20%, according to other Chinese news sources."
"It's not Apple's plant, it's Foxconn's."
Wrong. Apple knows what's happening. Everywhere Apple goes, there is abuse. Apple takes advantage of people who don't understand the technical implications of the Apple designs.
There are 3 choices: Be abused by Apple. Be abused by Microsoft. Use a less finished and poorly documented OS, Linux. Yes, I know, if you have lived and breathed Linux since you were a teenager, you don't need documentation. But businesses need to have a low cost of ownership, and good documentation is important to keep costs low.
None of them give a shit. Slavery was always the goal. We outlawed it in the US.. but not overseas.
The US Workers who demanded a modest life style, home and health care... were sold out by those companies who would rather employ slaves, then Americans because its more profitable and slaves are easy to abuse.