Apple's iPad And The Human Costs For Workers In China

The New York Times:

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[JohnBryansFontaine]

12:45 PM on 01/31/2012

More than 140,000 people join campaign calling on Apple to protect workers
By D.C. Denison

http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/01/31/more-than-people-join-campaign-calling-apple-protect-workers/Gw2MNc4ZIqdGyFPfzdbkwO/story.html

http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-ceo-tim-cook-protect-workers-making-iphones-in-chinese-factories

[JohnBryansFontaine]

11:04 AM on 01/31/2012

Online Petition Tackles Apple Factory Worker Conditions
Petitioner wants to be proud to be a Mac person again
by Josh Wolford

"...A petition on popular online petition site Change.org is gaining a lot of attention. Washington D.C.’s Mark Shields is petitioning Apple (and specifically CEO Tim Cook) to “Protect Workers Making iPhones in Chinese Factories.”

In just a few days, the petition has amassed 146,000+ signatures as of the writing of this article, and it’s progressing at an astonishing rate..."

http://www.webpronews.com/online-petition-tackles-apple-factory-worker-conditions-2012-01

[Ariana Avitia]

02:54 PM on 01/30/2012

Where there is money, there'll be blood.

[samuraifrog37]

12:04 AM on 01/31/2012

Oh Oh....Really?

[CFL68]

11:33 AM on 01/30/2012

Simple solution:

If apple and others really cared a frikkin krapp about the lives and welfare of these grossly exploited people, they could hire their own full time, independent auditors who would be on the ground 24x7 doing constant inspections, and soliciting feedback from employees on the floor.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

09:55 AM on 01/30/2012

UPDATE :

Mark Shield's petition to Apple regarding the exploitati­­­on and abuse of Chinese Workers has now passed 130,000 signatures :

Apple: Protect Workers Making iPhones in Chinese Factories

http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-ceo-tim-cook-protect-workers-making-iphones-in-chinese-factories?utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert

( Please sign it if you haven't already )

[ahammerjack]

10:52 AM on 01/30/2012

all the tea in china ,will not change a thing ,if it was made in america
we would not have to sign anything ,blame the companys who sent our jobs
to china and else where ,i will sign if i see the union label ,MADE IN AMERICA

[JohnBryansFontaine]

08:15 PM on 01/29/2012

Apple: Protect Workers Making iPhones in Chinese Factories

"...According to the New York Times, workers at a factory in Shenzhen, China, owned by Foxconn (a company that manufactures iPhones, iPads and other devices for Apple) regularly work sixteen-hour, seven-day work weeks.

They stand until their legs swell and they can’t walk, and they perform repetitive motions on the production line for so long that some permanently lose the use of their hands. To cut costs, managers make workers use cheap chemicals that cause neurological damage. There has been a rash of suicides at the Foxconn plant, and 300 workers recently threatened to jump off the roof over a safety and pay dispute.

In short, as one former Apple executive told the New York Times, "Most people would be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from..."

http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-ceo-tim-cook-protect-workers-making-iphones-in-chinese-factories

[Liberal business owner]

07:44 PM on 01/27/2012

What if I told you that Apple and foxconnknew of a safe solution to the alumina dust in 2007 and did not implement it because they did not want to slow production even temporarily? True story

[llibsetag]

09:24 PM on 01/27/2012

Evidence or proof of this statement?

[NerdyStudent]

10:19 PM on 01/27/2012

This sounds like a back alley, shady operation you're running here...

And I'm no fanboy of Apple...

[Donald N]

06:13 PM on 01/27/2012

For me, this isn't about singling out Apple and ignoring all the other Tech companies that do the same. What I and others found galling after Steve Job's death were the reverential outpourings of grief and remembrances that treated him as some kind of icon of business that all CEO's should emulate. Jobs and Apple are just like any other multi-national, finding and exploiting the cheapest labor possible and paying as little as they can in taxes. Apple also wields its "intellectual property" like a club to destroy competition, no better than Microsoft. This worship of wealth and big business, whether its Apple, Microsoft, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, or Donald Trump( whatever their corporate conduct ) is a sad testament to what a lot of the world values.

[NerdyStudent]

10:21 PM on 01/27/2012

Uh oh, you compared one big corporation with a 'uncool' reputation to a corporation with a self-described 'hip' reputation, there will be fireworks now.

[AngryMonkey]

01:59 PM on 01/27/2012

This American life had a recent show about the subject buying an iPad which had pictures of the workers in the factory on it. He decided to go and meet them.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

[CFL68]

11:27 AM on 01/30/2012

I am pretty sure that is what got this whole ball rolling...

[That Liberal Guy]

12:02 PM on 01/27/2012

I still have an iPhone 3GS, even though everyone I know has long since upgraded to the 4 or 4S. They always ask me why I don't upgrade and I would always tell them because there's nothing wrong with my phone. It just seem asinine to me to rush out every six months to pick up a new phone with a few modest upgrades.

Well, now I have another reason to be more conservative with my technology use. We don't need to boycott Apple because it's an industry-wide epidemic. What we do need is to have more informed consumers and start making wiser decisions.

[yemaya]

02:09 PM on 01/27/2012

well said. We also need to pressure our elected officials about the issues we care about. Call your representatives, send emails, sign petitions. We still have the power of the masses and it's our money they profit from so we definitely can make a difference when we choose not to buy the products.

[revko]

11:03 AM on 01/27/2012

iCarumba

[farleft1917]

11:02 AM on 01/27/2012

Having lived in America since 1994, what I still find shocking is how indifferent you are to the plight of others from Drone attacks on villages full of children to the creation of Apple or Samsung products. The American Mantra seems to be: Well others do it or others are worse: end of story.

The reason why Apple was highlighted is simple: it is the market leader in the post PC world. They should lead the world in insisting that the factories follow humane policies.

However, here Apple fans complain it is not that bad or HP is as bad, as if that ends our interest in the story.

America should be ashamed of itself but then Iran is far worse so you don't care.

[theveggiedude]

02:15 PM on 01/27/2012

Apple is doing far more than any other company, so it is taking a leadership role. Where are the audits from Microsoft, Moto and the rest? Apple did almost 300 last year alone, and finding abuses is the first step to doing something about it. The other companies just want to brush it under the rug.

[NerdyStudent]

10:22 PM on 01/27/2012

You could in a way, say that those 'others' just have a terrible PR department.

[ayisha]

05:41 PM on 01/27/2012

i completely agree with you. i keep looking back at this story expecting to see the usual HuffPost community activism that leads to links to e-petitions and lists of contact info to voice a complaint. instead, there's still the tone of trying to downplay or dismiss the claims of the article. we accuse Republicans of hypocrisy all the time, but it seems there is a lot of that going on with this topic in general. this story is not an isolated incident. charges of poor work conditions and other abuses have been leveled against this company before, but the 'ever ready to protest over anything Walmart or Fox News does' crowd is staying mum on this one. it's really easy to pledge to boycott stores you never go into or products you never buy... but give up your iDentity (see what i did there?)... that's not gonna happen. people line up in the snow every 6 months to buy whatever latest gadget Apple is selling, because this brand is driven by arrested peer pressure and lemming consumerism. if you tell most of them Walmart did something wrong, they'll willing hop up on the soapbox and explain ad nauseum why they will never buy anything from Walmart - including the ever popular themes of manufacturers moving jobs to China and the exploitation of cheap labor to produce goods we really don't need - but they go into silent mode when it comes to a brand they actually identify with.

[DRaymond]

02:37 AM on 01/27/2012

It is not a given that Apple has to build their products in China.  Toyota build cars and trucks in the US with less than 23 hours of labor each.  The fact that US labor is more expensive isn't that important because there are so few hours in each.  

Meanwhile if you divide the number of workers widely estimated to be assembling products for Apple at Foxconn by the number of items produced each month you reach the conclusion that most Apple products have over six hours of labor in them.   In other words for the quantity of labor Foxconn spends in China assembling 4 iThings Toyota builds and entire car in the US.

An Apple plant in the US using Toyota-level automation might have mere minutes of labor cost in each.  But that means that Apple would , like Toyota, take its manufacturing seriously rather than just writing a check to Foxconn and then looking the other way as much as possible regarding the cyber-serfs.

[Michael Lindley]

01:55 AM on 01/27/2012

This is HuffPo trying to support its preferences for BlackBerrys (Buh-bye) and Flash (Buh-bye). At www.apple.com you will find Appke's report on working conditions on the first page for all to see. At www.macdailynews.com you will see all the Apple news. Do your own research, huffPo has an agenda. I complain all the time that tgey still use Flash when even Adobe has abandoned it. Apple is certainly one of the top comoanies in the world when it comes to staff treatment. What do Dell, HP, Samsung (especially) do to protect their assemblers? Look it up.

[AlanBannacheck]

06:25 AM on 01/27/2012

It was The New York times actually. Besides are you suggesting macdailynews doesn't hold certain biases?

[booyahcah29]

02:50 PM on 01/27/2012

I love when people use the argument, "well, that place is worse" instead of actually complaining about the place in question. Whatever helps you sleep at night. Explain to me why what Apple is doing is right. Fact is, lots of people use this cheap labor. And the US doesnt really care. Oh, HP is showing facts, not showing an agenda. Please.

[ok3apples]

11:28 PM on 01/26/2012

Why are any of us surprised by this? Why do you think companies outsource jobs and use contractors to take care of the hiring? The labor is cheap, the countries support the sweat shop mentality, the share holders get nice returns (and really, that's all that matters), and the corporate ledgers show fat profits. The human labor aspect of any fortune is never considered in any other way than how little can be paid. There was a time when American workers were subjected to just the same kind of exploitation. And those days just might be coming back.