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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.