Foxconn Said To Use Forced Student Labor To Make iPhones

The New York Times:

As Apple prepares to unveil the latest iPhone this week, the company’s manufacturing partner in China, Foxconn Technology, is coming under renewed criticism over labor practices after reports that vocational students were being compelled to work at plants making iPhones and their components.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

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Comments

[Andrew Harvey]

12:21 AM on 09/26/2012

Hey, how about people stop accusing apple for being the only user of Foxconn?
Here's a list from wiki of Foxconn users:

Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)
Apple Inc. (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Dell (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)
Intel (United States)
Microsoft (United States)
Motorola Mobility (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)
Sony (Japan)
Toshiba (Japan)
Vizio (United States)

[doublestack999]

12:13 PM on 09/14/2012

Funny how people will speak out against human rights violations in the world and are anti-corporations, but will be the first ones in line to get an iPhone 5.

[davisboundmarine]

03:13 AM on 09/12/2012

Who cares about that... tell us something important like when the new iPhone comes out. That's news! And that's all we care about.

[Jim8]

07:10 PM on 09/11/2012

We call those "Interns" here.

[AldronsLastHope]

07:04 PM on 09/11/2012

Apple is such a great company, they put up suicide nets for their employees! (True Story)

Human Resources is a term invented by the soviets. We are not people to these corporations, we are a resource like cattle or trees. And they are treating us like it.

[OldTulsan]

07:18 PM on 09/11/2012

Disposable carbon-based cost units.

[AldronsLastHope]

07:36 PM on 09/11/2012

I will not be surprised to see that description in my contacts in 20 years, but it is more PC than "dumb eaters" :-/

[WeCanBlogIt]

11:27 AM on 09/29/2012

Speaking of groupthink, are you implying that Foxconn is Apple?

[AldronsLastHope]

09:53 AM on 10/01/2012

No, but Apple (and all others that sub-contract through Foxconn), are responsible for choosing their partners.  Foxconn manufactures apple’s product, so obviously Apple did not do it’s due diligence in researching this company or it did and did not care about the horrible working conditions.
 
Make sense??
 

[lnedykstra]

04:59 PM on 09/11/2012

ENOUGH OF Fox(CONNS!)

[farleft1917]

02:54 PM on 09/11/2012

10 million new iPhone 5 contracts predicted in September alone suggests: no one cares or that this number will not be reached. I cannot be the only former Apple consumer planning to upgrade to another product.

I think it is time to boycott Apple as a warning to all lesser American companies operating in China and the Pacific zone then we can also show the power of our purse.

Consumers forced a change in Dairy Farming by boycotting milk with hormones and antibiotics thus bringing a change to the business plans of factory farming. Many consumers now insist on free range eggs. The list goes on and back when Americans were not as greedy they boycotted grapes and the exports from brutal dictatorships.

These Foxconn workers for the new Apple iPhone are treated like livestock. We must simply demand that they are treated better by boycotting all products made by Apple and Foxconn. This will create a massive shock to the ruling elite that assume Americans and others will not care as long as they get their shiny new toy.

Apple and others have to stop treating workers like this. Our money is worth more than any vote. Obama will not stop this and forget about Mitt. Americans cannot keep supporting near slavery.

Good for the NYtimes to reveal this disgrace and show a light to Apple's hypocrisy for claiming to be acting to improve conditions, not now, but later, and really never. Profits are all.

[hgus]

01:52 PM on 09/11/2012

The world NEEDS Unions now more than ever!!!

[OldTulsan]

04:19 PM on 09/11/2012

http://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_viewpoints_global_strat_labor/
A Global Strategy for Labor | Economic Policy Institute

"By Jeff Faux

The overwhelming majority of people in this world must work in order to live. The definition of Labor in the global marketplace includes those who are unionized and those who are not. It includes those who work in cities and those who work on farms. It includes those both in the formal and informal sectors. It includes those who work at home and small business people who live by exploiting their own labor. It follows that full employment, adequate wages, and a healthy environment ought to be the common sense goals of global economy.

But the global marketplace, like all markets, is built on a set of rules. Indeed, according to a former director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the rules of the WTO represents the “constitution” of the new global economy. The current rules of the global market — those of the WTO, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and other global regulators — were not established to promote the dignity and well-being of Labor. They were established to protect the interest of those who invest for a living, at the expense of those who must work.

Investor Protectionism

The investor protectionist policies imposed by those who set the rules for the world’s commerce include trade de-regulation, privatization, weakening of collective bargaining and financial liberalization..."

[hgus]

01:50 PM on 09/11/2012

$0.17 an hour is too much! Foxconn actually needs to use "interns".

I read that if the Iphone were made in the United States with Union Labor and benefits, the phone would cost $20 more. Given that Apple makes about $400 per phone in profit, that doesn't seem like too high a price to pay.

[den1953]

01:50 PM on 09/11/2012

If any work place would be ripe for a union this would be the poster child for one, this is a snapshot into a future industrial marker for a Romney White House, to the Koch Brothers enjoyment!

[Lonnie DeVorak]

08:54 PM on 09/11/2012

China, ripe for a union, yea right. Good way to get yourself killed over there, where do you think they are, the States?

[jerryvinter]

01:40 PM on 09/11/2012

Hopefully, Apple is guarding this among other of its "innovations" using patents as well.

[opantxm]

01:39 PM on 09/11/2012

Richest company in the history of the world, cant pay its $1 per hour labor a penny more... so bring in the students!

When will the richest company actually trickle down all of that cash.

[OldTulsan]

02:41 PM on 09/11/2012

When pigs fly.

[jerryvinter]

01:38 PM on 09/11/2012

I am willing to bet that this is the way the Republicans want students to pay for their education. Pell-mell grants.

[unimatrix0]

01:36 PM on 09/11/2012

Free labor is free labor, what difference does it make if it is an assembly line or a desk job? US companies have nice cozy deals with many high schools and colleges for free internships too. They call it educations, but it is tax dollars and/or private money for tuition that ends up being spent for the privledge to work for free so corporate america no longer needs to train its work force. They just claim our school systems are horrible, offer to partner up, and we pay them to train our students. Too bad there is no time left in their schedule for other things like ethics or foreign languages.

[Bloviator88]

01:23 PM on 09/11/2012

They wouldn't do that. Just look at their sterling track record for employee relations(don't think about the nets).