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Apple's New iPhone Built With Illegal Overtime Teen Labor (bloomberg.com)
Apple's main supplier in Asia has been employing high-school students working illegal overtime to assemble the iPhone X in an effort to catch up with demand after facing production delays, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing several teenagers involved. From a report: A group of 3,000 students from the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School were sent to work at the local facility run by Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, known as Foxconn, as part of a three-month stint that was billed as "work experience," and required to graduate, the Financial Times reported. Six of the students told the FT they routinely worked 11-hour days assembling Apple's flagship smartphone, which constitutes illegal overtime for student interns under Chinese law. Apple said an audit did find instances of student interns working overtime, adding that they were employed voluntarily, were compensated and provided benefits, but that they shouldn't have been allowed to work overtime.
Okay, Foxconn, had a rep for inhumane human labor practices, including making people stand for 12 hours assembling iphones. Foxconn doesn't change it's stripes because of a little embarrassment, and Apple know it. Much like the Gap, Joe Fresh, Blue Navy (owned by the Gap), continue to use manufacturers that quietly hire child labor no matter how many times similar scandals come up. If Apple really cared, they would stop using Foxconn whose reputation for what we consider basic human decency let alone laws relating to it, is very poor. If WE really cared about any of these issues, we would stop buying iphones (we can always get used ones if it MUST be an iphone), or better yet get a phone with an open source android derivative (Replicant, Cyanogen, LinageOS), but as people with eager faces prepare to sign either a free phone for a 3 year contract or plot $700 USD for the newest iphone, it seems pretty clear where our priorities are. And no matter how many times we see stories like this, we'll keep buying iphones. So Apple will keep using Foxconnm, who will repeat profitable inhuman labor practices.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
the definition of 'voluntary'. It's no longer voluntary if you've set up a society where you have no other viable options. This is why we don't let people sell themselves into slavery. Because if you're at the point where you're selling yourself into slavery then you're no longer at the point where anything is truly voluntary.
Said it before, I'll say it again, you're not a free man (or woman) so long as somebody else controls your access to food, shelter and medicine. Until then you're one step away from being made to do whatever the person in charge of those things wants.
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I doubt if any of this is voluntary. The job itself is not voluntary. All students in all schools are required to work 3 months in a factory (or on a farm) to instill solidarity with the proletariat. The only other option is a 3 month military training stint. They are paid the same wages as an entry level full time worker/farmer/soldier.
I doubt if the overtime is voluntary either. You can't run an assembly line with half the assemblers missing.
Mandatory overtime is legal in America, and is fairly common, so I don't see what the big deal is here. 11 hours of work isn't going to kill anyone, and the majority likely appreciated the extra pay.
It's been a while since we've seen one of these stories and it appears that some new and refined rationalizations have developed. New entries checked at the end of the list. Props to scourfish, cdreimer, zippo01, SuperKendall and several ACs for your contributions.
Apple/Foxconn worker and environmental exploitation rationalization worksheet
Check all that apply
[_] Making iPhones in a Chinese factory is better than being a Chinese peasant
[_] iPhones/Pads would cost too much if I had to pay my fellow citizens to make them
[_] iPhones/Pads would cost too much given environmental regulations I vehemently insist on for myself
[_] All the other manufacturers are doing it too
[_] Some/Many/Most Chinese workers appreciate 70 hour weeks and breathing my aluminum dust
[_] It's not Apple, it's Foxconn
[_] It's not Apple, it's the Chinese government
[_] They should quit if they don't like it
[_] It's just capitalism at work
[_] It's just communism at work
[_] Apple's disposable workers are paid better than non-Apple disposable workers
[_] Apple's auditors didn't find any serious issues
[_] Some day the Chinese will be too wealthy to exploit
[_] Your Android is Foxconn too
[_] You're an Apple hater using Apple as a scapegoat
[_] I also work 60/80/100/120 hour weeks at my IT job
[_] Apple designers are in the US
[_] The US did the same thing to the British
[_] The US had slaves once too
[_] The US has prison labor today
[_] It's up to the Chinese to stand up to their oppressive government
[_] There are lines of eager workers outside Foxconn factories
[_] If any company were to stop the exploitation, I really think it'll be Apple
[_] Your free Linux runs on Chinese hardware too
[_] Foxconn workers think they have it great, so it's ok!
[_] Foxconn worker suicide rate is lower than Chicago's murder rate
[_] Foxconn worker suicide rate is lower than China's suicide rate
[_] We can't pollute the whole world!
[_] Half of all US households have an Apple product
[_] If we don't exploit them they'll never develop
[_] The suicide's families get the insurance money
[_] You're posting from a macbook/iphone/ipad right now
[_] There are suicide nets on American bridges
[_] Interns in the US don't get paid
[_] They don't beat the workers, apparently.
[_] Why is this news? We expect this from China.
[_] It's their country; we have no right to judge.
[X] If it's voluntary it's ok; their body, their choice.
[X] Only 11 hours/day? Come over to the U.S. and do 12-hour days!
[X] Things are tough all over; I had a job in high school.
[X] Isn't this the case for all smart phones, of all brands?
[X] Android phone assemblers were abused worse
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
There was an article discussing the mandatory overtime and sometimes low pay for these mega factories. I am not at all surprised things haven't changed.
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/thomas-lee-foxconn/all/1/?viewall=true
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
I guess this is what Tim Cook meant about conquering the Chinese education market. To the victor go the spoils but surely there are UN conventions about child labour in POW camps.
Although hopefully these Chinese students are learning to Think Different and that this will be the generation of young people that finally overthrows the one party state of their great grandparents, tired of being worker slaves for tax-avoiding California-based multinationals.
With Trump promising to bring home manufacturing, high school students across the USA will be demanding equal opportunity. Every child will get a free iPhone as part of their education, provided they do the appropriate number of shifts at their local Apple Inc factory.
You think 11 hours of work every day for three months is not going to kill anyone?
It might if you were a patient of these people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
But unlikely if you're a young person.
The article did not say they were working 7-day weeks, nor was it every day, but if it were so, that's only a 77 hour week.
Many of us here on Slashdot have worked projects that called for putting in those kind of hours for months, and I'll bet some are working like that right now. The difference us and the Foxconn kids? They get paid for the overtime and we don't.
Define "mandatory".
If the boss says "We have a big order coming in, so everyone has to work 10 extra hours next week so we can ship on time", and you refuse, then you can be fired.
Of course, if you have a valid reason for refusing the extra work, then you can explain that to your boss, and he would likely accommodate your needs. But that is between you and the boss, and not up to the government.
This may not be true in all states, but there is no federal restriction on firing someone for refusing overtime work, nor do most states prohibit it.