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The Human Cost of the Apple Supply Chain Machine (bloomberg.com)
Apple is still struggling to improve working conditions at its supply chain factories. China Labor Watch and Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Catcher, a key supplier for iPhone and MacBook casings, makes workers endure harsh safety conditions and unfair work terms in a factory in Suqian. According to observers and discussions with workers, the machines are not only loud, but spray fluid and metallic particles that frequently hit workers' faces only some of which have access to safety goggles and gloves. From the report: Hundreds throng a workshop where the main door only opens about 12 inches. Off duty, they return to debris-strewn dorms bereft of showers or hot water. Many go without washing for days at a time, workers told Bloomberg. "My hands turned bloodless white after a day of work," said one of the workers, who makes a little over 4,000 yuan a month (just over $2 an hour) in her first job outside her home province of Henan. She turned to Catcher because her husband's home-decorating business was struggling. "I only tell good things to my family and keep the sufferings like this for myself." "I asked for the earplugs many times but they didn't have any. The loud noise of 'zah-zah' made my head ache and dizzy," one of those employees told Bloomberg.
I'm really tired of the Apple Shaming Society. It's like theres some group of people out there whjo make it their bussiness to rapidly notify all of us apple users or non-users that the company-that-can-do-no-wrong has a skid mark on it's shorts. Really were not thew naive. We don't exhalt apple to sainthood. It's a company that makes products we like or loath but it's not expected to be saintly. And most people even know that apple does go a mile further than most it is making sure it's foxconn suicide nets are secure and that the toxic effluent is at least mint flavored and made from recylced whale blubber not fresh kills.
Apple had the courage to remove the headphone jack. And to drive prices up to $1,000 per unit. These measures will ultimately result in improved working conditions for those who are privileged to be building Apple's hardware. I heard that the wealth trickles down.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
19th century working conditions. If all countries had laws that required the selling company to prove that their workers are treated and paid humanely the world would look quite different. Which, of course, is exactly why this will never happen. Greed is good for too many people in high places.
-- Cheers!
The wife works in a factory and the husband owns a home decorating business? Well THERE'S your problem.
In China, most factory workers are women. The men are back on the farm doing heavy labor. Most modern factory work requires dexterity, not strength.
But how far up the chain should Apple's responsibility go? Should they be responsible for the farmers that grow the rice served in the company cafeteria?
Why do you expect apple to fix this? Yout hink all the others using China are nto keeping the same deplorable conditions? China needs to step up and say treat people better but they wont!
Last time you bought something, did you check if everyone involved was being treated fairly? Are you responsible for all the production steps that happens when you buy anything?
Let's say you buy some Oreo cookies:
- where did all the ingredients come from? Was there any people or animals harmed? What about harm to the land itself?
- how was the packaging manufactured? Which method was used to procure the oil used to make the plastic packaging? Was it harmful to the environment?
- how much polution was produced to make the cookies, the packaging, transport it between the supplier and the warehouse, then the warehouse to the grocery store where you shop? And when you drove there to buy them and bring them back to your house?
Say what you want, but even if Apple are trying, they're only working via contracts with manufacturers. They can ask of them to adhere to certain standards, but the fact is that everything costs money. That's capitalism at work.
#DeleteFacebook
Apple isn't able to produce phones that sell for only $1,000 without slave labor. They only have $231 billion of cash on hand. Think of the children of the Apple executives.
but 12 inch doorways seem truly cruel
The USA congratulates itself for having excellent workplace safety, child labor, and environmental laws. Meanwhile we export our jobs to countries that don't give a damn. This makes no sense. Maybe free trade should be contingent on following practices similar to ours. Just an idea.
COE
I am sceptical about the accuracy of TFA. Jiangsu is one of the most prosperous provinces in China, and is within commuting distance of metropolitan Shanghai. These workers have plenty of other options, so if the conditions are really as horrific as described, why would they work there?
Nope. High prices only go to pay higher executive salaries and to compensate investors and stockholders.
Companies no longer view that they have any moral skin in the game.
Use child labor? Fine if it is more profitable.
Use child labor under conditions that blind people and kill several children a year? Fine if it is more profitable.
It's horrific. And if we don't stop it there, it is going to return to here.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Last time you bought something, did you check if everyone involved was being treated fairly?
In this case that person is Tim Cook who has the Billions laying around he could do worse than properly investigate. Hell hire me. I can solve this problem. How hard is it to walk into a factory and look around for children; workers rioting; basic safety conditions. I don't as a "ethical" consumer do those things. I simply boycott Apple products. If you don't you are part of the problem.
Why do you say that Samsung is doing even worse, what is your evidence of that?
Samsung actually has factories of its own, many in Korea where the labour conditions are relatively good. They use other manufacturers in China as well for some stuff.
You say Apple monitors this, but clearly they didn't notice what was happening at this factory. Is there any evidence that they have people on the ground? I know they said they would do it, but did they go through with it?
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Please. Apple makes BILLIONS in profit. You're simply trying to pass the buck. "It's not Apple's fault, they're a business!" Saying that they have to make a profit above any and all other considerations is bullshit.
Sorry, but people are going to pay attention to this kind of stuff, and they're going to ream Apple about it (though this kind of thing is not exclusive to Apple). That's the cost of doing business. Paying someone so low that it's pretty much slave labor isn't going to get you any gold medals.
Do you boycott 99% of all electronic products? Because they're almost ALL made in China.
#DeleteFacebook
...Until is more fair?
It is not Apple's job to give everyone in the world the equivalent of an American middle-class lifestyle. $2 per hour is a fair wage in China, especially for an unskilled worker. It is not enough to afford an SUV and a four bedroom house with a white picket fence, but it is enough for a moped and a room in shared apartment, and with two adults working, and the grandparents providing childcare (normal in China), it is enough to support a family.
Uh huh. And you typed this post on the pi? Cuz pretty much every computer and mobile devices you can buy is made by the same suppliers Apple uses, and it's been that way for a very long time.
Sounds more like you've been swept up in the Hatorade Distortion Field and are looking for reasons to justify your irrational, religious-like beliefs in one company's products.