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Apple Investigates Claim That Illegal Student Labor Was Used To Assemble Apple Watch (bgr.com)
Apple is currently investigating a report that Apple Watch supplier Quanta Computer relied upon illegally employed students to help manufacture the company's exceedingly popular wearable. "Originally brought to light by The Financial Times, the report details how dozens of students were ostensibly working as interns, but in reality were working assembly line shifts, often throughout the night. Some students even reported working six days a week in 12-hour shifts," reports BGR. From the report: The allegations stem from a report put together by SACOM, a workers rights group based out of Hong Kong. In compiling its report, SACOM notes that it interviewed upwards of 28 students. The FT report reads in part: "The alleged abuses echo the labour violations uncovered last year in Apple's iPhone supply chain at its Foxconn Zhengzhou factory, where both Apple and Foxconn acknowledged that student interns had illegally worked overtime. The two companies said at the time that they would end the practice of student interns working extra hours." In a statement on the matter, Apple said that it is "urgently" looking into the aforementioned claims and that they have a "zero tolerance" policy for companies who try to skirt around Apple's workplace guidelines.
Didn't they already do this? https://www.bbc.com/news/busin...
Yes that was happening before, as the very summary of the article said. So Foxconn said they had stopped it, but this report shows perhaps it was not stopped after all.
Which is also what the summary said.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
shut up.
I was an intern and made time-and-a-half overtime and double time on holidays. really helped with the college bills.
properly paid internship is a blessing.
I'm sure Apple is devastated...
I'm trying to remember the last time I saw someone with a Rolex watch - they're not exactly what I'd call a popular brand either. Though with their prices they could be hundreds of times less popular than, say, Timex, while still leading them in sales.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Using interns for your main assembly labor force can be wrong, but for engineering students, assembling for a few weeks or so can be HIGHLY instructional. Exposing students to production processes, manufacturing tolerances, and QC and such is a great way to get them to think, truly, about design-for-manufacturing as a core belief rather than a check-box as the end of a design. I know more than a few factories in the US that require their engineers reach at least "B" level performance at each production stage before being allowed to start designing gear for this very reason. If you are not intimately familiar with the assembly process and procedures of your factory, you're going to have a hard time designing something that can be reliably and consistently built in any kind of quantities.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Internship as part of a high school or tech school degree is a form of slavey. Assembling an apple watch has zero educational value.
Actually the communist party leaders says it is educational, educational to the degree that it is a required component of education for some. In particular for college students who are on a track to be managers or leaders or some sort. These communist party leaders argue that these future managers and leaders must understand the worker's perspective from their own first hand experience. A requirement of spending time on a farm or in a factory is not unheard of in communist china.
I thought communism was supposed to be pro-worker.
The article mentioned the students were doing work not even in their fields. Third party or not, Apple outsourced it.
"Off Topic"
If Apple is so concerned about slave labor, rather than having this keep coming up year after year..
they could you know..just make the watches here in America..
like they used to with Macs and Apples years ago..
Just saying..
they have a "zero tolerance" policy for companies who try to skirt around Apple's workplace guidelines.
Maybe they'd have more success if they renamed that to 'mandatory workplace requirements'.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
if this is true it will endanger Apple's reputation even though he is not the one who does it
Actually, Apple is the leading watch brand by value. Rolex make and largely sell approx 800k-1m expensive watches per year (based on the number of chronometer certifications they receive). The Apple watch is obviously a lot less expensive, and they will this year sell something like 20 million pieces (depending on the market analysts between 15m and 25m) which is frankly quite impressive.
This deserves modding up -- it's insightful
Apple Commie phones are build by red china.
Let me guess, not guilty!
This is what happens when you build your stuff as cheaply as possible.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
NAZI PROPAGANDIST KEN DOLL YOUR LIES ARE ON FULL DISPLAY AND YOU CAN'T DELETE THEM THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES KEN DOLL
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Come on then, what are these lies and what will the consequences be? I am genuinely interested.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
When I was first in college, I worked as a temp in a factory over summer. I'll always remember an "engineer" there who would come by and try to see how he could improve the lines for packing batteries. He was all excited that I was an engineering student and kept asking me stuff to help the line personally. Except it usually went like this: "Would this improve the process for you?" No. "Oh ok. Just brainstorming a few ideas here." Next day I come in and he did what I said wouldn't help. And it made work harder.
Seems like he could've used some battery packing 8 hours a day for a while himself.
No it isn't. Working as a nurse is worse than working in a Chinese factory assembling iPhones? And "working conditions on farms"? Obviously no one here has ever visited a farm. This isn't the 1940s.
They didn't build their bot to actually give that information. You'll have to wait for version 2.0
I'm just curious where the consequences fall on the consequence spectrum - are we talking a 5-minute time out with the phone taken away; or being put up against the wall 1950s communist purge style?
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Using interns for your main assembly labor force can be wrong, but for engineering students, assembling for a few weeks or so can be HIGHLY instructional. Exposing students to production processes, manufacturing tolerances, and QC and such is a great way to get them to think, truly, about design-for-manufacturing as a core belief rather than a check-box as the end of a design.
Not just the engineering side, but the people side. More than half the problems I deal with are playground politics between labor and management.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
No it isn't. Working as a nurse is worse than working in a Chinese factory assembling iPhones?.
Back injuries are very common in the nursing field. I can't recall the source but moving patients from beds to gurneys and back is more dangerous than a lot of industrial work.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
That was before our elites collectively agreed to fuck us over and put an end to our good lives. NAFTA was the nail in the coffin of the American working class and it passed not under a Republican but under Bill Clinton and the Democrats. The Democrats also passed the harsh laws that put millions of working class in prison for ticky-tack offenses. They were all set to pass the TPP which would have been even worse until Trump threw a monkey wrench in their plans.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
If they did, people would stop buying this stuff. Nope, the commie government, has approximately 1.5 BILLION "cheerful" workers to exploit one way or another. And those workers, when shown in the print & television media will have SMILES on their faces, with brand new clean uniforms. Nope, they won't be shown in their "living conditions", which are basically a prison dorm, where the money you make, goes toward your room & board, to the point you are pretty much a slave to the shop you work for. Gotta keep churning out all that Chinese made electronics so people world wide can stand in line for a new one every few months.
That is called a temp job.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I thought that's how all Apple products were made nowadays.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
it was called being intern, plenty of intern jobs pay. screw the ones with no pay.
also, I got job at the place after graduating. great deal
Well it costs an order of magnitude less and will give interesting health related functionality for say 5-10 years. Not a bad trade-off.
Worse is pretty subjective. But it's certainly just as tough, if not considerably tougher. Long hours, relatively low pay, physically demanding, mentally exhausting, lots of accountability but relatively little independence, etc.
As for farms, let's quote a faith-based organisation that works to alleviate the conditions of farmers: "Farm workers are among the poorest workers in this country. Child farm workers risk their safety, health, and education working our fields because their parents can’t earn a living wage. Hazardous conditions are routine, including pesticide exposure, extreme heat and lack of shade and adequate clean drinking water.
Agricultural work is hard work."