Chinese Workers Get Screwed By Everyone

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The actual headline of this article was something about Koreans getting 4x the amount of money per iPad than Chinese people, so I just gave you the condensed version.

According to the Korea Daily, citing sources, factory workers in China who are producing iPads collectively earn about $8 per unit among them, or about 1.6 percent of the cheapest iPad's selling price. Korean factory workers, on the other hand, share about $34 per unit among them, giving them 6.8 percent of the sales price, according to the report.
Click to expand...
 
People in different places routinely get paid different amounts for their work. We even have this disparity inside the USA. Some people need to learn the terms "comparative advantage" and "cost of living".
 
It's all about purchasing power. And I have no idea how those figures compute for the two counties...
 
Sounds about right. S Korea has a far different set of labor laws and government.
 
While Apple as a company gets $150 per unit, after taking out the $100 it pays its own employees directly.
 
It's kind of hard to change Chinese society as a whole. The people there work under those conditions because if they don't, there's 10 people standing behind them that would take their place. Until the employees get some kind of leverage, things are unlikely to change.
 
and the next headline will read "Koreans had earned 6.8% of sales before Apple fired them all and relocated all manufacturing to China where they only earn 1.6%"
 
This is royally starting to just fucking piss me off about Apple

Every time they bring up the working conditions in Foxconn, the abhorrent pay, no sick days etc, every single mother fucking time people bring it up, all Apple does is put on a fucking halo and go "Oh, but we do respect the people who work for Apple, and the companies that work for Apple, but we can't control what the other companies do that work for Apple do"

BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!

If the company that is working for you is complete gutter trash like Foxconn, that treats its workers like fucking dirt, a way of not supporting them is -NOT FUCKING USING THEM!!!-

Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better! That -DOES- pay its workers better, that -DOES- give their employee's sick days etc.

But Apple will -NEVER- fucking do that, because Foxconn is the cheapest assembler in the fucking world, and its 100% within Apple's fucking power to use another assembler out there, but they won't because they would have to PAY MORE to get each iPAD made etc.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY fucking sick of all this fucking double talk from Apple, the shit they say they act like the general population is the dumbest people on earth. Its completely within their power to -MAKE- improvements at Foxconn happen, but they -WON'T- because Apple would have to pay more too do it, and they want Foxconn to pay its workers more, but Apple doesn't want it to come out of their fucking pockets.

God dammit, just, RAWR sick of fucking double talk out of Apple. I want a fucking website to actually fucking -CALL THEM OUT- on this hypocrisy instead of fucking dancing around the fucking issue for once, its getting fucking sickening.
 
ShamisOMally said:
This is royally starting to just fucking piss me off about Apple

Every time they bring up the working conditions in Foxconn, the abhorrent pay, no sick days etc, every single mother fucking time people bring it up, all Apple does is put on a fucking halo and go "Oh, but we do respect the people who work for Apple, and the companies that work for Apple, but we can't control what the other companies do that work for Apple do"

BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!

If the company that is working for you is complete gutter trash like Foxconn, that treats its workers like fucking dirt, a way of not supporting them is -NOT FUCKING USING THEM!!!-

Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better! That -DOES- pay its workers better, that -DOES- give their employee's sick days etc.

But Apple will -NEVER- fucking do that, because Foxconn is the cheapest assembler in the fucking world, and its 100% within Apple's fucking power to use another assembler out there, but they won't because they would have to PAY MORE to get each iPAD made etc.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY fucking sick of all this fucking double talk from Apple, the shit they say they act like the general population is the dumbest people on earth. Its completely within their power to -MAKE- improvements at Foxconn happen, but they -WON'T- because Apple would have to pay more too do it, and they want Foxconn to pay its workers more, but Apple doesn't want it to come out of their fucking pockets.

God dammit, just, RAWR sick of fucking double talk out of Apple. I want a fucking website to actually fucking -CALL THEM OUT- on this hypocrisy instead of fucking dancing around the fucking issue for once, its getting fucking sickening.
Click to expand...

Why do you care? Chinese workers at Foxconn are making more money than they ever have in their lives.
 
ShamisOMally said:
This is royally starting to just fucking piss me off about Apple

Every time they bring up the working conditions in Foxconn, the abhorrent pay, no sick days etc, every single mother fucking time people bring it up, all Apple does is put on a fucking halo and go "Oh, but we do respect the people who work for Apple, and the companies that work for Apple, but we can't control what the other companies do that work for Apple do"

BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!

If the company that is working for you is complete gutter trash like Foxconn, that treats its workers like fucking dirt, a way of not supporting them is -NOT FUCKING USING THEM!!!-

Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better! That -DOES- pay its workers better, that -DOES- give their employee's sick days etc.

But Apple will -NEVER- fucking do that, because Foxconn is the cheapest assembler in the fucking world, and its 100% within Apple's fucking power to use another assembler out there, but they won't because they would have to PAY MORE to get each iPAD made etc.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY fucking sick of all this fucking double talk from Apple, the shit they say they act like the general population is the dumbest people on earth. Its completely within their power to -MAKE- improvements at Foxconn happen, but they -WON'T- because Apple would have to pay more too do it, and they want Foxconn to pay its workers more, but Apple doesn't want it to come out of their fucking pockets.

God dammit, just, RAWR sick of fucking double talk out of Apple. I want a fucking website to actually fucking -CALL THEM OUT- on this hypocrisy instead of fucking dancing around the fucking issue for once, its getting fucking sickening.
Click to expand...

got news for you Foxconn treats its employes better then any one else in china scary huh?
 
ShamisOMally said:
This is royally starting to just fucking piss me off about Apple

Every time they bring up the working conditions in Foxconn, the abhorrent pay, no sick days etc, every single mother fucking time people bring it up, all Apple does is put on a fucking halo and go "Oh, but we do respect the people who work for Apple, and the companies that work for Apple, but we can't control what the other companies do that work for Apple do"

BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!

If the company that is working for you is complete gutter trash like Foxconn, that treats its workers like fucking dirt, a way of not supporting them is -NOT FUCKING USING THEM!!!-
But Apple will -NEVER- fucking do that, because Foxconn is the cheapest assembler in the fucking world, and its 100% within Apple's fucking power to use another assembler out there, but they won't because they would have to PAY MORE to get each iPAD made etc.
Seriously, SERIOUSLY fucking sick of all this fucking double talk from Apple, the shit they say they act like the general population is the dumbest people on earth. Its completely within their power to -MAKE- improvements at Foxconn happen, but they -WON'T- because Apple would have to pay more too do it, and they want Foxconn to pay its workers more, but Apple doesn't want it to come out of their fucking pockets.
God dammit, just, RAWR sick of fucking double talk out of Apple. I want a fucking website to actually fucking -CALL THEM OUT- on this hypocrisy instead of fucking dancing around the fucking issue for once, its getting fucking sickening.Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better! That -DOES- pay its workers better, that -DOES- give their employee's sick days etc.
Click to expand...

Their are only two types of people that can stop this. 1. The shareholders, who won't because the shares just topped $500.00. 2. The consumers, they won't, because they don't give a shit what it takes to make their toys and where their toys are made. Oh maybe a 3. The media, if they publicized the plight of the people who create the products, the profit margins and continually made apple fans feel like shit month after month, pretty soon people would take the apple logo off their toys because people would look down at them instead of up because of the marketing hype that favors apple.
 
Apple would then buy their ipads from another company that likely would treat its workers the same way if not worse. or they could bring the ipad manufacturing here and it would cost $900. Likely the computer you are using to hate on foxconn has components manufactured by them. SInce they employ over 900,000 people do you really want that many additional people to be without jobs?

Foxconn manufactures products for companies including:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Gateway
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Sony Ericsson
Toshiba
Vizio
 
Darunion said:
Apple would then buy their ipads from another company that likely would treat its workers the same way if not worse. or they could bring the ipad manufacturing here and it would cost $900. Likely the computer you are using to hate on foxconn has components manufactured by them. SInce they employ over 900, 000 people do you really want that many additi onal people to be without jobs?

Foxconn manufactures products for companies including:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Gateway
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Sony Ericsson
Toshiba
Vizio
Click to expand...

This ^^
 
No edit button,hit enter.

As much as I hate Apple, they're just playing the global economy. If you're going to lynch them you have to do the same for just about every other major electronics manufacturer.
 
Well that pay gap between Chinese and Korean assemblers is lessened by the obvious fact that the cost of living in South Korea is also higher than China.

I think Apple gets a lot of flak about using Foxconn vs. other companies because of the obscene amounts of profits they are making and the influence they have. People are pissed that they are raking in way more money than everyone else at the cost of worker's suffering.

Why can't they reduce that income just a little to make the lives of Foxconn's workers far more better? Isn't that what their hipster customers would want?

Dah, that bastard Steve Jobs never donated in his life until Bill Gates, so I don't see Apple ever being generous.
 
ShamisOMally said:
Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better!
Click to expand...

Name one.

I'll make it easy for you; there isn't one. The fact is that, largely due to Apple's openness about its audits about Foxconn working conditions, Foxconn's workers are treated better than any other workers in the industry.
 
Darunion said:
Foxconn manufactures products for companies including:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Gateway
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Sony Ericsson
Toshiba
Vizio
Click to expand...

Which of these companies claim to be magical entities that can do no wrong, make claim to way more patents than they actually created, and have overpriced products with massive margins on each unit sold?

The only other company I see fitting that criteria is Sony, and well, I'm pretty most people don't respect them either. Apple is slime, and somehow has fooled the world into thinking they are not. I just want them to be treated as equally a piece of shit as the rest of the companies out there.
 
Instead of focusing on what the workers are paid and if it's a high wage in that local economy in China, how about addressing the outsized profits of Apple (and other manufacturing job exporters) and if they could pay a fair wage to have the products made here and pay a fair wage by not making such huge profits. Even if the price of the product goes up a bit, Apple is injecting a lot of capital into the economy through the workers it pays. That money is going to move through the economy, maybe even paying some people enough to afford to buy their product. The only obstruction I see to that is Apple and it's shareholders.

IOW it's all about immediate profit, fuck it if it hurts our economy as long as the right people profit. Why look to the future when you can profit right now?

That's capitalism baby. Keep exporting good paying jobs, pay people less so fewer of them can afford your products and then rake in the profits!
 
Methadras said:
Why do you care? Chinese workers at Foxconn are making more money than they ever have in their lives.
Click to expand...

Thank goodness someone gets it.

Yes the conditions suck relative to US. But many of those workers came from countryside where the only water was from the industrial-waste polluted river 1/2 mile away, and the only toilet is a hole you dig in the ground with a shovel.
 
ShamisOMally said:
This is royally starting to just fucking piss me off about Apple

Every time they bring up the working conditions in Foxconn, the abhorrent pay, no sick days etc, every single mother fucking time people bring it up, all Apple does is put on a fucking halo and go "Oh, but we do respect the people who work for Apple, and the companies that work for Apple, but we can't control what the other companies do that work for Apple do"

BULLSHIT!!! THIS IS UTTER AND COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!

If the company that is working for you is complete gutter trash like Foxconn, that treats its workers like fucking dirt, a way of not supporting them is -NOT FUCKING USING THEM!!!-

Goto to -ANOTHER- company that -DOES- treat its workers better! That -DOES- pay its workers better, that -DOES- give their employee's sick days etc.

But Apple will -NEVER- fucking do that, because Foxconn is the cheapest assembler in the fucking world, and its 100% within Apple's fucking power to use another assembler out there, but they won't because they would have to PAY MORE to get each iPAD made etc.

Seriously, SERIOUSLY fucking sick of all this fucking double talk from Apple, the shit they say they act like the general population is the dumbest people on earth. Its completely within their power to -MAKE- improvements at Foxconn happen, but they -WON'T- because Apple would have to pay more too do it, and they want Foxconn to pay its workers more, but Apple doesn't want it to come out of their fucking pockets.

God dammit, just, RAWR sick of fucking double talk out of Apple. I want a fucking website to actually fucking -CALL THEM OUT- on this hypocrisy instead of fucking dancing around the fucking issue for once, its getting fucking sickening.
Click to expand...
Here's a wakeup call for you...

Take a look inside that computer you are currently typing on. I guaranteed you you will find several parts manufactured by Foxconn. Everyone uses them. They are one of the biggest manufacturers in the ENTIRE WORLD. The manufacture even the power plugs that you use to plug in your hard drive or power your motherboard. The even manufacturer the CPU sockets on some motherboards. There is almost zero way you are going to find an electronic product without some piece of it being manufactured at Foxconn.

Apple is not at fault here. The only people at fault are the Chinese government with its shittastic labor laws and the chinese culture that produced its monstrous population that can't sustain itself as it is leading to a nearly infinite supply of cheap labor. This is the way of the world. It won't change anytime soon. The second China gets decent labor laws will be the day that manufacturing picks up and leaves China broke. Its a lose lose for everyone involved.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Here's a wakeup call for you...

Take a look inside that computer you are currently typing on. I guaranteed you you will find several parts manufactured by Foxconn. Everyone uses them. They are one of the biggest manufacturers in the ENTIRE WORLD. The manufacture even the power plugs that you use to plug in your hard drive or power your motherboard. The even manufacturer the CPU sockets on some motherboards. There is almost zero way you are going to find an electronic product without some piece of it being manufactured at Foxconn.

Apple is not at fault here. The only people at fault are the Chinese government with its shittastic labor laws and the chinese culture that produced its monstrous population that can't sustain itself as it is leading to a nearly infinite supply of cheap labor. This is the way of the world. It won't change anytime soon. The second China gets decent labor laws will be the day that manufacturing picks up and leaves China broke. Its a lose lose for everyone involved.
Click to expand...

Heck. The servers that drive [H] are probably thx to either FoxConn, or a company that abuses its employees similarly.
 
i always like when people criticize companies and what they do with their 'obscene profits'. its always easy for the poor folk to tell the rich how to spend their ample money (only reference in comparison to huge companies). How much do YOU donate to china and the workers there out of the profits you make over the course of the year. I dont think any company can do no wrong, they all have their skeletons. "Great wealth stems from a great crime". most fast food companies here in the US treat their employees like crap and pay them minimum wage, but we dont attack the corporations there and demand they pay them more money because we dont want to see a $5 small fry as the cheapest on the board. Its the same as companies and foxconn, its not apple,microsoft,sony etc problem to tell foxconn how to run their business just as its not ours to tell BK how to run theirs.
 
Seventyfive said:
People in different places routinely get paid different amounts for their work. We even have this disparity inside the USA. Some people need to learn the terms "comparative advantage" and "cost of living".
Click to expand...

Yup, hell as a teacher I got paid nearly twice as much for the same work at a college in San Francisco as I did across the bay, a 30 minute drive away, still connected by mass transit, still part of the SF Bay Area. Granted cost of living arguments fall apart here, since a majority of people who work here don't actually live here, but still goes to show a huge difference in salary across the pond.
 
foxconn is also much more reliable. my company doesnt deal with them but we deal with some of the 'other chinese companies' and we have lots of issues with counterfeit parts. ive seen some ic chips with soldered on legs to where they were broken off before and packaged as new. also have seen some re-etched the numbers on top with a blade to cover the original number. Things like these explode when the unit is assembled. So I can understand big companies not wanting to experiment with other suppliers when FC is rather tried and true.
 
Silverghost said:
You can't just go to a poor country and pay them $15 USD/hr
Click to expand...

If you do, there will be more problems. I anticipate super long waiting lists, people getting threats to get off the waiting list, and them plus existing workers beaten up, murdered. Of course, they will almost bribe the recruiters so they could jump the line.

Does that make sense?

DrDoug said:
... if they could pay a fair wage to have the products made here and pay a fair wage by not making such huge profits. Even if the price of the product goes up a bit, Apple is injecting a lot of capital into the economy through the workers it pays.
Click to expand...

What's the point of doing that? The US does not have a comparative advantage in assembly, as amply demonstrated, and you would screw everyone on the planet by reducing global GDP.

And before lambasting GDP as some meaningless number, keep in mind that average standard of living = per capita GDP, or GDP/people.
 
For all of you who claim Apple/Foxconn are abusing the workers, I have a question: If it's so bad, why are so many people applying for jobs at Foxconn? Obviously the workers don't feel too badly abused, or they'd go elsewhere for work. In other words, working at Foxconn is better than any of their alternatives. Just because it's not as cushy as what we've grown accustomed to in the US doesn't mean it's a bad job for them over there.
 
Mohonri said:
For all of you who claim Apple/Foxconn are abusing the workers, I have a question: If it's so bad, why are so many people applying for jobs at Foxconn? Obviously the workers don't feel too badly abused, or they'd go elsewhere for work. In other words, working at Foxconn is better than any of their alternatives. Just because it's not as cushy as what we've grown accustomed to in the US doesn't mean it's a bad job for them over there.
Click to expand...

I mean it isn't like factories have blown up due to shoddy or absent safety equipment...
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Here's a wakeup call for you...

Take a look inside that computer you are currently typing on. I guaranteed you you will find several parts manufactured by Foxconn. Everyone uses them. They are one of the biggest manufacturers in the ENTIRE WORLD. The manufacture even the power plugs that you use to plug in your hard drive or power your motherboard. The even manufacturer the CPU sockets on some motherboards. There is almost zero way you are going to find an electronic product without some piece of it being manufactured at Foxconn.

Apple is not at fault here. The only people at fault are the Chinese government with its shittastic labor laws and the chinese culture that produced its monstrous population that can't sustain itself as it is leading to a nearly infinite supply of cheap labor. This is the way of the world. It won't change anytime soon. The second China gets decent labor laws will be the day that manufacturing picks up and leaves China broke. Its a lose lose for everyone involved.
Click to expand...

Yes, but these are just molex connectors. CPU sockets and I/O headers. ASUS doesn't have much say or power over Foxconn just because they buy bits and pieces to be sent to their own factories. Dell might use Foxconn boards, but the machines are built in Mexico.

What makes everyone so mad is Apple has huge power at Foxconn and are really the only customer that can call shots, because almost all their shit is entirely made or assembled there.

Also, Compal is the ODM for many laptops on the market, and they raised wages without getting called out by the media or a contract customer.
 
My God there is a lot asshat attitude getting thrown around and wrapped up shot from the hip B.S.

Look the fact is Apple has the power to change the conditions and pay in those factories. They will if this becomes enough of an embarrassment to the company. It won't even take a dip in the sells, just a risk of the image being tarnished.

The same thing happened to Gap in the 90s. Despite the numerous protests never hurting the bottom line but putting the companies image at risk, they eventually created a sourcing policy, standards and in country inspectors that set the standard for ethical souring in the clothing retail market. Keep in this, with Gap only having between 5-10% of the business of any given factory.

Apple is in the exact same position now. It has a big enough of a share to negotiate a change with their vendors. It's just a matter of it becoming embarrassing enough and for people to stop making ridiculous excuses like the ill throughout defenses posted in this thread.
 
so what else is new?

the whole world fucks over the chinese. 99% of what we use is made with the sweat and tears of the chinese.
and given a choice of buying a cheap made in china product vs a more expensive made in usa product, 99% of people would choose the former.
 
First of all, no one knows the whole story. Not even I do, but, I have read several blogs from US teachers over in China that have friends that work at these factory's and apparently, having a job at this place is a pretty big deal. The pay is excellent and in that part of the world, especially in China. The money these people are making is A LOT OF MONEY all things considered. People are also forgetting the massive 33% raise all the workers got not long ago or something to that effect. These jobs compare in pay at least to what a US auto-worker makes from what I understand. Maybe not for vacation time, benefits or the work week but, again, the pay is very good for these people. People are fighting for these jobs over there and they are fighting to sign up for as many hours as they can get.

The whole "sweat shop" crap you is is BS.

Most of you are sheep. The media barks at you and your mind get herded any which direction they want you to go. The next thing you know your on some forums talking about how terrible Apple is. I'm not even a fan of Apple. I dislike them, but fair is fair. Honestly, question and research what you hear and see on TV. You are going to be surprised 9 out of 10 times.
 
dr.kevin said:
so what else is new?

the whole world fucks over the chinese. 99% of what we use is made with the sweat and tears of the chinese.
and given a choice of buying a cheap made in china product vs a more expensive made in usa product, 99% of people would choose the former.
Click to expand...
Also, its a catch 22, as more factories go over seas, more people are taking on jobs that pay less so can only afford Chinese made goods. I noticed you used the 99% number, were you referring to the 1% that own 80% of all the wealth and the 99% left buying the Chinese goods.Its the 1% who have outsourced and caused the problems not the workers. Its the selfish 1% who for some reason feel this entitlement to having their profits climb every quarter. If a company could find a balance between a reasonable rate of return and paying the workers what their worth, the factories would still be here. Years ago for some reason society was infected by this idea that your a nobody unless you become a millionaire, todays goal is a billionaire. Its funny but people said Steve Jobs was an ass whole when he started out in life, when he got his first million he was an ass whole, when he got his first billion he was an ass whole. What does that say, money doesn't make the man. So my point is if your goal in life is to make money by the barrel full your going to have to go overseas.
 
Darunion said:
Apple would then buy their ipads from another company that likely would treat its workers the same way if not worse. or they could bring the ipad manufacturing here and it would cost $900. Likely the computer you are using to hate on foxconn has components manufactured by them. SInce they employ over 900,000 people do you really want that many additional people to be without jobs?

Foxconn manufactures products for companies including:

Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
Apple Inc.
Cisco
Dell
Gateway
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Microsoft
Motorola
Nintendo
Nokia
Samsung
Sony
Sony Ericsson
Toshiba
Vizio
Click to expand...

A) Apple has a huge profit margin per device due to their overpriced tags, and B) While others use Foxconn, Apple is the one with the clout to change practices easily/single-handedly.
 
lilbabycat said:
Which of these companies claim to be magical entities that can do no wrong, make claim to way more patents than they actually created, and have overpriced products with massive margins on each unit sold?

The only other company I see fitting that criteria is Sony, and well, I'm pretty most people don't respect them either. Apple is slime, and somehow has fooled the world into thinking they are not. I just want them to be treated as equally a piece of shit as the rest of the companies out there.
Click to expand...

This, well said.
 
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