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Independent Audit Finds Foxconn Violates Chinese Work Rules
doston writes "The first independent audit of Apple's supply chain found excessive working hours and health and safety issues at its largest manufacturer, piling more pressure on the technology giant. This investigation targeted Hon Hai Precision Industry which is known as Foxconn. The company says they will try to stop their overtime criminality by July, 2013. Will the public ever sour on Apple devices in light of the constant media attention on supplier working conditions?"
So the company known for its ability to immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, ... and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day is now going to take 487 days (or 1 year, 4 months) to make this change?
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
What's mildly amusing about this is that some of those worker complaints we heard about were the worker's demand for more overtime.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I think the point is, that this question at the end of TFS, "Will the public ever sour on Apple devices in light of the constant media attention on supplier working conditions?" is simply flamebait. Nobody's disputing that Foxconn's working conditions are problematic, in light of this audit. Foxconn manufactures devices for far more companies that just Apple. So why single out Apple devices as things "the public should sour on?" Should they buy Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, or Nokia devices manufactured by Foxconn instead? Or should we sour on ALL of those devices, refuse to buy them, and engage in a little neo-luddism?
And if we do the latter, do you really think the million or so people out of work at Foxconn would *thank us* for sending them back to working as subsistence farmers in third world poverty?
As distasteful as Foxconn's working conditions may be to your delicate sensibilities, they represent a vast improvement in the average chinese worker's living conditions. That doesn't mean there won't be room for improvement, but you're kidding yourself if you think they take (and continue to work) these jobs unwillingly.
the American middle class manufacturing sector fell was because of unions not because the unions fell but because they got greedy. Unions became inflexible and businesses said FUCK IT
Of course, it's never quite this simple but if anyone was paying attention the last 3-years they would have seen lots of proof of this point. Living in Wisconsin we had some real big names in manufacturing prove this very point. Kohler (Kohler, WI), Harley Davidson (Milwaukee, WI), Mercury Marine (Fond du Lac, WI), Miller Brewing (Milwaukee, WI), and Thomas Industries (Sheboygan, WI) all went through tooth-and-nail fights with their unions just to get concessions to sustain their manufacturing. And it's not even "overseas", it's other states.
Thomas Industries left Sheboygan after many decades (Thomas is a division of Gardner Denver) to right-to-work Louisiana. When Miller and Coors went to combine, there was a huge fight to keep Miller in Milwaukee, a historical landmark. Mercury Marine pretty much had their bags packed to leave to another right-to-work state (Oklahoma) before the workers revolted against union leadership and held their own vote to accept concessions (after the city of FdL got the company to reconsider with an added sales tax benefit).
Kohler union leaders almost saw most of their plumbing jobs shift to Kohler's other plants across the US, Mexico, and China. I live in the are and worked for Kohler as well as have/had family work as accountants for them. There's this mentality that these works are down-trodden while making $26/hour doing unskilled labour. More when they have mandatory overtime. After you add in benefits, it's closer to $50/hour total (estimated numbers from the accountant). Is it any wonder why a company would be attractive to $1/hour labour? Yet, these "evil" companies are willing to keep these good paying jobs in the US if they accept to pay more for things like benefits so the company pays $40/hour instead of $50 in benefits. And $40/hour puts you in upper-middle class range.
I could go on, but it's obvious. Manufacturing is surviving in the US but that's usually in cases with no unions or unions who where not hostile to their employer. Unions had an important part in history, but it's become just another corrupt political origination that adds inefficiency. There's all kinds of laws protecting works from abuse employers: unemployment, lawsuits for every kind of discrimination (to the point that we more often talk about frivolous lawsuits), OSHA for worker safety, etc. Workers to stand together and "unionize" against such employers was needed long ago. You use to loose an arm in a work accident and get fired for not being able to do your job anymore. Who thinks that can happen in the US without a billion dollar lawsuit?
The desire for a reasonable slice of the pie shouldn't be referred to as greed, especially in light of what's on the opposing side of the equation.
The labor unions fought for "more" from management and the "ownership society" (in the vernacular of the neoconservative right wing) because it was there and could have been shared, easily, for the betterment of all concerned. The high tech mfg isn't the auto-industry, which failed because it refused to deal with reality and build better cars. Audi and BMW, which don't mfg ANY low-end cars, and do business in Germany, one of those SOCIALIST states, are profitable and competitive. And Apple amassed 100 BILLION fucking $'s while leading their industry in innovation and price.
Don't give me this crap about the greed of the unions. Management and government together have 'arranged' globalization and the migration of U.S. mfg as well as anything else they can 'outsource' because it fed stock options, bank accounts of the already wealthy and an entire propaganda industry which supports politicians' placement in Washington.
You should really take a look at what's happened to 'our' economy, starting with Ron Raygun, as the financial sector's bite of GDP doubled and the rest of the economy shrank shrank proportionately. It's called stagnation, and the only reason the stats don't look worse is because our illustrious 4th estate doesn't bother to report on how 'oafishoil' measures have been manipulated over time to make it seem like all remains well in the garden, as long as we tend to the roots and wait for the next season of growth.
Gotta watch Being There again.