HardOCP News
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Foxconn Gives Workers Pay Raise
- Thread starter HardOCP News
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wra18th
[H]F Junkie
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No wonder they're committing suicide. They can't afford to live!
Dear God I hope you're joking and you don't seriously believe that the cost of living in China is as high as in the US.
PaperclipGod
Limp Gawd
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This sucks. Now all my idevices will be more expensive.
Bleeding hearts
Bleeding hearts
Xrave
Supreme [H]ardness
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Foxconn caving to another country's complaints!
wra18th
[H]F Junkie
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I know it isn't but still, remember why they were killing themselves in the first place; They're families would better off financially after they collected the death benefits.
Seraphical
Limp Gawd
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Coincidentally, the new iPad 3 is slated to come out, starting at $800 and up.
NKDietrich
Supreme [H]ardness
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If a 20% raise is the difference between you killing yourself, you have other problems.
I know it isn't but still, remember why they were killing themselves in the first place; They're families would better off financially after they collected the death benefits.
Which also had a lot to do with how much they paid out when workers died. A lot of people even in developed countries have high insurance policies that make them worth more dead than alive. Even though it doesn't look like a lot of money to us, it is a good wage for the country.
LastQuestion
Limp Gawd
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Silly Chinese. They should know better than to do turd polishing themselves. They need to outsource to us, the professionals.
This is like the 4th pay raise Foxconn employees have been given, since entitled Americans have been whining about it. Hipster iBots will be able to feel better about themselves, by paying twice as much for those iPhones/iPads, while the murder rate goes up as Chinese fight to get these high-paying Foxconn jobs.
The grand irony is that Americans complain about their jobs being outsourced to China and when they are, they whine about their competitors not getting paid enough!
The grand irony is that Americans complain about their jobs being outsourced to China and when they are, they whine about their competitors not getting paid enough!
LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
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Keep on giving them raises.
Are you serious?
American jobs get outsourced because they pay slave wages to workers abroad.
The Chinese haven't learned from the west yet, they meant to say UPTO 20%, probably if you worked their 5yrs or more with the hope you kill yourself or quit before then so they can start the junior employee at the starting wage.
txfeinbergs
Limp Gawd
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So you bitch at Apple because Foxconn treats their employees like shit, then you bitch again some more when Foxconn increases their salary? It wasn't the "Hipster iBots" that were the ones whining about it. It was the Android users that liked to use this as one of their lame arguing points - "Oh, Apple is the root of all evil because they enable Foxconn to treat their workers so bad - boo hoo", and of course the media that love to manufacture outrage to get hits. The grand irony is that it seems the only one doing excessive whining around here is you.
Red Squirrel
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lol that would not even cover my mortgage. Then again most of them are kids, so it's similar to someone here who still lives with their parents and works at mcdonald's or something, and also goes to school.
This sucks. Now all my idevices will be more expensive.
Bleeding hearts
idevices? You must also mean desktop PC's, laptops, many motherboards, tablets, phones, video cards, etc.
PaperclipGod
Limp Gawd
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I believe most factory workers at these places live on site in crappy shared dorms. The suicides are probably more a result of the living and working conditions rather than the pay. Imagine never really going home from work to recharge. Their families probably don't live on site either, which doesn't help. Raises are a good start though.
timtheenchantor
Gawd
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Worst troll I've seen.
So the start of the article claims Apple didn't shift production to China merely due to cost, but then goes on to say everything in China is huge in scale and flexible.
Yeah, duh, because labor costs nothing in China.
The New York Times is so stupid.
Good, I'm glad Foxconn's workers will be getting a raise. But someone above said that the suicides are mainly happening because of the working and living conditions, and I agree. Sharing a dorm with 7 other people, working 12 hour shifts, and not seeing your family for long periods of time would be, in my opinion, a life not worth living. A wage increase (even a significant one at that) isn't going to give these people opportunity or prosperity. The bottom line is that human capital is still being exploited, and much more has to be done to right this injustice.
Many do go home during Spring Festival (think Christmas and New Years rolled into one). Many do not return. The living conditions are in fact pretty terrible by our standards but they are not vastly different than some 3rd tier Universities here. However, the Uni students also have more freedom and are not working 10-16 hour days. I do not think there is a single thing anyone can point to and say 'THAT'S THE REASON!" for everyone who killed themselves.
I can sympathize with the 10 to 16 hour work days, it seems like every contract I get these days is 10 hour shifts 7 days a week or 12 hour shifts 6 days a week and if you want to work 40 hours well too damn bad. But at least my take home from a 60 hour week is just shy of $2000. $300 and some change a month man that dosn't even pay for food here (yes I know cost of living is cheaper in China.) I'm sure Foxcon is better than many factories in China in terms of conditions and pay, but I'm sure the conditions still arn't up to our standards. I bet the people working there are just glad they arn't loosing fingers in a Nike factory for less money.
BoogerBomb
Supreme [H]ardness
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Gotta love that the one and only Chinese factory anyone in America gives a shit about is Foxconn.
You're generalizing a bit.
It does seem like the room and board is often covered, so the expenses for a lot of those workers are very low. Of course they have little free time to spend their money.
This is much better than working on a railroad or coal mine in the US, only getting paid in company currency, and barely getting enough to cover expenses ( or ending up indebted to the company ).
I haven't read too much about what potential there is for advancement at Foxconn or any of those places, but there certainly seems to be a huge number of Chinese workers willing to take these entry level jobs and send some money back home to their families.
This is much better than working on a railroad or coal mine in the US, only getting paid in company currency, and barely getting enough to cover expenses ( or ending up indebted to the company ).
I haven't read too much about what potential there is for advancement at Foxconn or any of those places, but there certainly seems to be a huge number of Chinese workers willing to take these entry level jobs and send some money back home to their families.
You guys need to know that China is seeing massive inflation, where foodstuff and living expenses in general are rising to Western standards. Fun fact: Chinese relatively pay more for electricity, natural gas and fuel than the average German.
It has been calculated that American knowledge workers should outstrip 4-7 workers in productivity before (I cannot recall where I read this). It goes without saying that US should now focus itself on competitiveness against other leading industrial nations as highly efficient manufacturing move back to the developed world.
It has been calculated that American knowledge workers should outstrip 4-7 workers in productivity before (I cannot recall where I read this). It goes without saying that US should now focus itself on competitiveness against other leading industrial nations as highly efficient manufacturing move back to the developed world.
There is one other thing that I need to add. The Communist party in China has expressed that it wanted to develop the interior, and would rather support indigenous (PRC/ Party affiliate) firms being the major drivers for their strategic industries. Companies such as the Taiwanese funded Hon Hai (Foxconn) are moving to areas such as retail distribution chain as we speak, since the Communist Party brass held all the keys when it comes to profitability in China.
So let me get this straight. These workers were already getting paid above minimum wage, which was the highest in China, are now getting paid even more because there are entitled U.S. americans that didn't want to feel guilty about how a foreign worker that built their luxury item was treated?
Sheesh.
Sheesh.
I know it isn't but still, remember why they were killing themselves in the first place; They're families would better off financially after they collected the death benefits.
Where's the numbers to support this claim?
Chinese workers are offing themselves due to a combination of living conditions, their infatuation with the concept of hari kari, and the money involved with their "death insurance". What they were being paid, was a minimal factor. After reading the 6+ articles and accompanying threads about this situation, this is the data trend I have noticed.
This came out in Jan5.2012
"At the time of the iPhone launch in 2007, Apple's profit margins were at 15.4 percent, while Foxconn's was at 2.7. In the most recent quarter, Apple reported 30.8 percent margins -- double what it was 4 years ago -- with Foxconn at a mere 1.5 percent."
"Foxconn posts $943 million net profit for first half of 2011, 20 million iPad 2s coming for Q3?" is another quoteTo go further Foxconn has lots of other divisions under its umbrella thats not mentioned under the Foxconn banner such as the grocery side, to feed their employees, housing for their employees, Transportation etc etc. The above quote is only part of the electronics bussiness. One can get fooled if you don't dig deeper. So getting back to apple......
I don´t think that was implied by him.
Anyway the kind of "living", you would have to endure in China, with this kind of salary is very far from anything anyone here could tolerate as a living situation. Cost of living is a lot lower in China granted. Especially polluted food is rather cheap. But hey, go live there for a few months, like the locals, live on their budget, see what it is like
If you are fortunate, this is what you live in. Its noisy, stinky, gritty and abrasive. In my opinion not fit for human living. If you are poor you don´t get to have "wonderful" facilities such as these.
LeninGHOLA
Vladimir Hayt
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I don´t think that was implied by him.
Anyway the kind of "living", you would have to endure in China, with this kind of salary is very far from anything anyone here could tolerate as a living situation. Cost of living is a lot lower in China granted. Especially polluted food is rather cheap. But hey, go live there for a few months, like the locals, live on their budget, see what it is like
If you are fortunate, this is what you live in. Its noisy, stinky, gritty and abrasive. In my opinion not fit for human living. If you are poor you don´t get to have "wonderful" facilities such as these.
Looks better than parts of New York in the 60s and 70s.
Were these slums?
This (the photo posted before) is a nice place for people with a relatively good income. I have to dig out my own pictures to show you how the poor people live.
I have pictures of the on campus apartments of University professors, that look exactly like these.
What can´t be conveyed in photos is the NOISE and grime. These places are hives of activity. Would break most people here in a few days