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Foxconn's Other Dirty Secret: the World's Largest "Internship" Program
pigrabbitbear writes "In light of a series of reports that have emerged over the years, one of many dark stories of suicide now points at one of the lesser-known but more unsavory aspects of Foxconn's much-criticized labor practices: with the help of schools and government officials, the company runs a massive internship program built not on voluntary education but on 'compelled' factory work for teenage students. According to Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation."
I'm looking forward to working my way up. Some of the old timers have made it all the way up to the roof they said.
So, the next time you see an internship "coworker" in your company, do the math, and get the hell out of this sweat-shop.
You got your iCrap (TM) why would it matter to you how it was made and who made it? It's so shiny and Apple claims it really, really cool.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
One day you might get paid!
I feel incredibly guilty for not researching the company behind my Kindle before giving them my money. Of course, I'd feel even guiltier if I were reading this post on my Kindle.
Is this a Bill Clinton program?
Close, but no cigar.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Wont happen, too much money from corporations being used to loby against it. China on the other hand has massive import tariffs for US goods. So companies more or less have to make stuff over there if they want to see in China.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
"a" church? Implying only one does that?
PreviousPost.replace(/see/g,'sell');
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Okay, now *that's* funny.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
"In light of a series of reports that have emerged over the years, one of many dark stories of suicide now points at one of the lesser-known but more unsavory aspects of Foxconn's much-criticized labor practices: with the help of schools and government officials, the company runs a massive internship program built not on voluntary education but on 'compelled' factory work for teenage students. According to Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation
Which is also called slavery.
This is yet another reason why we shouldnt be manufacturing in hellholes that will bend over backwards for business, but snap the backs of the people that work for them (should they ask for more than the company approved allotment of freedom).
Perhaps US & EU manufacturing isn't a bad idea after all.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I was with you right up till the iTard line... Foxconn and really china's labor practices in general are horrific, but it isn't apple to blame, it is the entirety of silicon valley, and possibly some blame can go on the U.S government and their lobyests for more or less doing nothing to discourage companies from off-shoring everything that is humanly possible to do.
~50 years of rationalizing US involvement in China has been predicated on the idea that the US will help make China a better place. Well, this is the decade of truth. Cisco got paid to build the 'Great Firewall of China', and Apple - and many others - have made fortunes exploiting cheap labor. Will the US now use it's hard won influence to make China better, or was that all bullshit?
tomorrow who's gonna fuss
the whole summary is linkbait. Follow the articles... the internship program may be unpaid (like internships in the US mind you), but it's not "unvoluntary". From rtfa:
* "Liu had traveled hundreds of miles for a chance to get hands-on experience working for China’s leading electronics maker."
* "Liu’s internship — which he landed through a labor placement firm in the nearby city of Guangzhou — would have included housing, food, and a small stipend estimated to be about half the salary of a typical factory worker"
if you actually read the text, the worst you can say is that many Chinese schools require internships in order to graduate. This is probably on par with US vocational schools. So let's hold off on the "zOMG won't somebody think of the childrenz!"
I like how you glazed over the part where he KILLED HIMSELF a month later.
... but it isn't apple to blame
Correct. Their shareholders deserve the blame. Apple's just a corporation. Own Apple stock? You're a slaver. Buy Apple products? You enrich slave owners. FOAD.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
You read this part, right?
The Henan provincial government declared that 100,000 vocational and university students would be sent on three-month internships at Foxconn’s Shenzhen plants.
At one vocational school in Zhengzhou, wrote Hu Yinan, students were informed of the government’s requirement after the summer semester had begun, and that “all those who refuse would have to drop out.”
The excellent documentary/drama hybrid "24 City" (made by talented Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke) has a lot of details on this practice (at least as it existed at one time). Many of the participants talk about mandatory factory internships in high school (considered a communist obligation, apparently). You got assigned to a factory in your junior year and worked there from then on (part time at first, apparently). Then you either go to college or move on to full-time. They made it sound pretty benign. But then again, they made it sound pretty benign when the government forced families to break up too.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You seem to have missed this part: "This isn’t the venerated internship of the privileged college student, building valuable work and life skills with school credit and on-the-job training in place of pay – if such an internship even still exists. Historically, Foxconn’s low-wage internships involve essential factory labor by poor students, some of whose areas of study have nothing to do with electronics, and turn the “school credit” idea on its head. According to SACOM, vocational students, including those studying journalism, tourism and languages, have had practically no choice but to participate in such internships if they want to graduate from their schools. As temporary workers, they have little legal protection or recourse in the event of injury, over-work, or underpayment. And if they complain, they could jeopardize their diplomas."
McDonald's food probably qualifies as industrial goods, and is probably 99% made in the in the good ole USA!
I8-D
yes, a shill would. shills are little more than paid trolls.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
but it isn't apple to blame
I disagree. Apple is contracting with Foxconn to churn out millions of iDevices. Regardless of what other Silicon Valley companies are doing, Apple is the one that is dealing with FoxConn. If they think that the workers deserve better treatment, they have it in their power to see that their demands are met; if they aren't, then they can contract with someone who will. "I'm just following the status quo," is a poor defense.
I work for a company that deals with a lot of contractors. If a contractor isn't living up to our expectations (usually safety related), we find a new company to do that work. If they're not living up to our standards, they don't come on our site. Our safety numbers reflect this. (I think our bottom line benefits, too, but those numbers are a little trickier to pin down.)
I think that a company's handling of contractors reflects their values. Apple (and I guess the rest of Silicon Valley) values money more than good working conditions.
workers saflty / labol laws apply to temps also in some cases the IRS has ruled the temps to be full employees in some cases.
* your internship turns out to be menial. In the US it's filing papers, fetching coffee. Same deal that is breaking the law.
* vocational students must do internships as part of their education. But the VOC part is doing a real job part of the class load not being a copy / coffee boy.
In the U.S. the internship at least pretends to be related to your studies. Journalism majors don't end up assembling cars in Detroit. If they end up as coffee gofers, they at least bring that coffee to journalists and get a chance to see how journalism works in the real world while they're at it.
In the U.S., interns aren't 'exempt' from workplace safety or from compensation if they are injured. Typically this means that the employer bends over backwards to keep them away from anything more hazardous than a ballpoint pen.
They're sending people on "Jobseekers Allowance" into "internships" with the likes of Tesco (our own national Wal-Mart), on the promise of gaining useful job experience which will gain them employment. So they stack shelves for the duration of their internship, which gives them literally zero marketable experience (and indeed, probably damages their prospects - who wants to hire a shelf-stacker for anything less menial?)
If they leave after a short "cooling off period", their benefits will be cut off, removing even the social safety net provided by the state. While Tesco have been recruiting unpaid interns on a voluntary basis for some years now, this recent trend is essentially state-sponsored slavery, and sounds eerily like the complicity of the Chinese local government in these Foxconn internships.
Vocational training, even if not directly related to the students chosen field is not only suggested by the Chinese Labor law, its nearly required to be done by universities. During the Mao era, sending students off to farms to work the fields was considered a "good" educational experience for the students, now that China has viable factories to handle the students, they are sent there.
Article 66 The State, through various means, take various measures to expand vocational training undertakings, the development of professional skills of laborers, improve the quality of workers and enhance their employment capability and work ability.
Article 67 The people's government at all levels should develop vocational training into the socio-economic development planning, and various forms of vocational training to encourage and support qualified enterprises, institutional organizations, social organizations and individuals.
Article 68 The employing units shall establish a vocational training system, the extraction and use of funds for vocational training in accordance with state regulations, according to its practical, planned way and laborers with professional training.
Fact #1 - Foxconn currently employs 1.3 MILLION people. It employed 920,000 people in 2010 when the suicides happened.
Fact #2 - The number of suicides (and attempted suicides) in a year that sparked "outrage" is 18.
Fact #3 - The suicide rate in the United States is 11.8 per 100,000 people.
Fact #4 - The suicide rate in the Peoples Republic of China is sitting at 22.2 per 100,000 people.
Fact #5 - Basic math skills, show that Foxconn enjoys a suicide rate of 2 per 100,000 people.
Don't you think that the suicide rate would be higher then the rest of China if things were actually that bad? After all its a tenth of the rest of China, and its nearly 6 times under the American suicide rate.
Fact is, currently in China, based on what I'm getting from Chinese media, and the wife's family, jobs are in a shorter supply then people who are leaving rural areas to go to work in these factories. Companies like Foxconn are well known, and people fight over the jobs.
The internships are paying at least minimum wage, as the article suggests. Foxconn on top of the salary of its employees includes free accommodations and food, which makes Foxconn a very attractive place to work as many of the employees work there simply to afford to send their income back "home" where their parents live in impoverished conditions. China is labelled a "developing" country for a reason.
Overtime in China is restricted to no more then 36 hours a month, and no more then 3 hours on any one day, overtime must be paid out at 1.5 times. Over time on weekends is automatically double time, and over time on holidays is triple time. Salaried workers like here, where you could work a 60 hour a week without any additional compensation is outright illegal.
Yes workers do start work at say 8am, and end at 8pm in China, giving them a 12 hour day, however, like is the custom in many countries (including Europe) lunch breaks in China typically involve at least 2 hours, and 4 hour lunch breaks are common. There working hours before reaching over time is however limited to 40 like most of the world. Which is similar to here, you work from 9am to 5:30pm, with a half hour unpaid lunch in many jobs or you simply get docked the half hour's pay between 9 to 5.
As for this "living minimum wage" its not a issue with Foxconn its a issue with everyone in China, which is why the Chinese have been increasing it between 15-30% per year for the last few years. The Chinese standards of living are increasing, costs are increasing due to the industrialization, and while it might not be ideal, their minimum wages have been increasing at a greater rate then any developed nation. Complaining about that, is like complaining that the 7.25$ that is minimum wage in NY is the company that employs you fault that it costs 3 times that to live in NYC. It happens everywhere
Chicago Bread LLC / Panera Bread no pay, drive site to site and Assist with deliveries, inventory, ordering supplies.
They want you to have drive 20-50 miles to get to some of the stores? Will they pay for that? It can cost $15-25 in gas / other car costs + tolls that can add up to about $3-4 each way?
-deliveries, inventory! a intern is not a shipping, copy, coffee boy.
Hear is old job ad for them
IT Internship
Chicago Bread LLC, dba Panera Bread, is looking for an IT Intern to help the IT team in the Chicago market. Gain real-world experience in the work force with a well-known company!
Job Responsibilities:
Support the IT Team in the maintenance of hardware, software and other systems
Must troubleshoot issues with equipment like printers, computers, servers and register repairs
Assist with deliveries, inventory, ordering supplies, laptop management and server room management
Education:
Must be in pursuit of an Associates or Bachelors degree in computer science or have an
AS or BS in IT and looking for experience in the field.
Desired skills:
Excellent communication, time management and interpersonal skills
Strong leadership/motivation skills
Positive attitude
Excellent analytical and problem solving ability
Ability to travel to cafés for support
Hours:
Part time -- 2-3 days a week or as needed
Location:
3051 Oak Grove Road
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Email resume and school schedule
Location: Downers Grove, IL
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: no pay
While Foxconn is an apparent beneficiary, the actual responsible party is the Chinese government. It is not stated whether Foxconn had any involvement in legislating the policy. The Henan provincial government is reported as having mandated internships as a requirement of completing a course of study, while undefined local government agencies appear to have a kickback scheme for filling worker quotas, also linked to graduation. Under free-market capitalism, the government has no say in education, and cannot coerce students into labor while concurrently enriching itself. Such empirical consequences of government intervention in the economy should give pause to those calling for a similar environment in the US.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Moded as "flamebait" for correcting my own post. Oh the slashmanity.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
It does get really hard to show up at Occupy Wallstreet and protest against unfair practices while holding a shiny iPad whose screen was cleaned by hand with n-hexane. So there's a natural urge to downplay this stuff and treat Apple as a different sort of company. Otherwise they'd feel compelled to use pen and paper, and you just can't look cool at Occupy protests if you are using pen and paper...
The 19th century just telegraphed, and they want their outdated economic models back. Tariffs just create bubbles of reality denial where everything costs more, and domestic exports never increase because there is no impetus to compete outside of the 'protected' market, which is extremely sluggish at best.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
The problem is that such choice is made under duress.
Foxconn is like a slavemaster that beats you less; they still beat you like a slavemaster, but it is with precision instruments and your chains are of the highest quality. Should you wish to object, you get shot and disappeared by the government.
If they really were free, people wouldn't have any trouble speaking about Foxconn without anonymity.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
foxconn is a 19th century factory.
With the company store
On site living
overtime that exceeded the legal limit
little worker safety
workers being humiliated for messing up
I'm not sure what to think of this story, but I was surprised when I spoke to two mainland Chinese co-workers about the issue of worker conditions in China. Essentially they said that only Apple has the power to do anything about this issue. The Chinese government won't do anything, Foxconn and other manufacturers won't do anything, the Chinese workers are too powerless to do anything. Only Apple has what they phrased as "moral standing". The Chinese government and Foxconn are viewed as amoral.
I also read an interesting article the other day about the planned inspections. The author, a person with experience in doing inspections, says the currently planned third-party inspections won't work. He suggested instead Apple place an employee representative on-site permanently ensure compliance.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Foxconn-Inspections-Are-Good-PR-but-Apple-Needs-to-Protect-Workers-407229/1/
Unless you're posting this on a Commodore64 Im going to conjecture that you and almost every other slashdot user are enriching "slave owners". Do you think there are many high-volume commodity electronics manufacturers that don't use Foxconn or lesser known manufacturers who use similar practices?
-- listen to interesting music, support independent radio... WPRB
You totally miss the educational/motivational part of such internships !
Once the students have worked during 3 months in these factories, they'll learn the following values:
1) if you fail your studies, that's where you'll work until the end of your life
2) if you succeed in your studies, you'll probably want to change the future working conditions in China.
3) if you excel in your studies, you'll be the next bosses, and these are good lessons on how to exploit people.
These are valuable work and life skills !